The Moon and Stars

It would be impossible to describe the turmoil our family has experienced since we moved to Houston. Three jobs in the first two years, failing at the first two and stepping down into the third. The fear that we were going to be bankrupt, or unemployed, (or both!) has just become a part of the reality of being here, and has been from shortly after we arrived.

So in the midst of that kind of anxiety, it's strange what things have become milestones in our lives. Take Braden's nursery.

We were thrilled when we found out Sheila was pregnant with Braden - while I was working at Witt/Kieffer - but things were so bad at work we knew I would be gone from there soon. Where I would wind up we did not know. So we put together his nursery with the overwhelming sense in the back of our minds that soon we would have to paint that room a neutral color to put the house on the market.

When I lost my job at the Tenet hospital, we thought that day had finally come. Still, we had been able to enjoy it for six months or so, which was longer than we had expected. To be hired on at Triumph, and remain able to stay in the house, was reassuring but it never felt totally secure. Still doesn't.

So it was strangely comforting to paint his nursery this last weekend. Not because we had to get the house ready to sell in a hurry, but because he's not a baby anymore, and he was ready for a big-boy room. So the stars and the moon have been replaced with a very grown up khaki, and he has a dark blue bunk bed, dark blue furniture -just like "brurs" (brothers) - a train table and a cool new blue chair for lounging around and being grown up.

We would have never imagined being here for five years back during the weeks we painted the nursery, but here we are nonetheless. And we are truly grateful to have been able to enjoy his nursery for the entirety of his being a "baby".

Still, it's a good thing to have it painted a neutral color, in case things don't work out at the hospital and we have to move in a hurry...