Saying Goodbye to an Eventful 2015

Wow, it has been a whirlwind year for us! I’m a decent writer, but certainly not a novelist by any stretch. I don’t think there’s any way for me to eloquently capture the enormity of how amazing 2015 has been. Also, it is so easy to just whiz through each day and take it all for granted. Writing this blog post helps me to take a step back and see just how blessed by God we are as a family, beyond anything Jocelyn and I deserve.

Planning to Relocate

In October of 2014 I submitted a proposal to my employer about working remotely so that Jocelyn and I could relocate to the country. We wanted our future children to have an appreciation for the outdoors, for us to not have to worry about all of the traffic and crazy drivers, for us to be breathing cleaner air and also to have some nicer scenery to look at through our windows. The request was granted, and so we made plans to sell our house and move to the mountains! We thought for sure that Christmas 2014 was going to be the last Christmas we celebrated in Delaware, and we were preparing ourselves mentally for the emotional roller coaster of cleaning the house for showings, saying goodbye to friends and family, and starting a new life in a new place. When we took the Christmas tree down in January of 2015, we also began packing a few things up in boxes and storing them in the basement, trying to get the jump on the moving process. Little did we know that God had other plans for the year.

Jocelyn’s Pregnancy

Toward the end of January, God changed our lives forever. We found out that we were going to have a baby! When I came home from work one day to have lunch with Jocelyn, she told me that she had a positive pregnancy test. Later on, ultrasound results proved that there was indeed a little bean sprout in there, and that we were about to become a family of three!

We decided not to find out the gender of the child until he was born, so we didn’t do any more ultrasounds. We were advised to check on the baby that way to make sure there were no developmental issues or possible birth defects that make some families choose to terminate the pregnancy. But we knew that whatever happened, we would love our child, and we trusted God. It was hard for me to comprehend at first that I was going to be a father, and I was pretty nervous about it all through the pregnancy. It was all so surreal! We decided to also press on with the plans to move, which led to a very busy, emotionally draining Spring.

The Clock Was Ticking

We put our house on the market in March, and our unborn baby began to grow. We knew that if we didn’t sell by Jocelyn’s third trimester that we would pull the plug on trying to move this year. I thought for sure that the house would sell before June, but I was no real estate expert. We had very little showings and a few price drops, and not many bites. We weren’t alone. Our neighborhood had other houses listed at the same time as ours and none were selling.

On top of the issues trying to sell the house we had several problems spring up, all of which we fixed. Some really noisy birds found a hole in the side of our soffit and decided to make a big nest up there. The master bath shower needed new, hard to find valve stem cartridges as well, in order to fix a leak. Our basement also took on water for the first time EVER due to a torrential rain storm. It produced so much rain water that it collected under the walkout basement slab and entered the house. The water caused no damage to the structure of the house, but did ruin a few items we had boxed up and ready to move. The water heater also died and had to be replaced. My dad told me that the house knows when you’re trying to pawn it off on someone else!

So June arrived and we had not sold the house. We had seen several houses that we liked up where we wanted to move, but we could not place an offer without having an offer of our own to consider here in Delaware. With much disappointment we decided to pull our listing and wait until 2016 to try again. However, we did pull the trigger on making a few cosmetic improvements to the house that would help it compete on the market, and we knew we would get to enjoy those updates for a few months.

Home Updates

Jocelyn and I decided that I would spend the Summer updating a few areas of our home. We hired Empire to install new laminate flooring throughout most of the downstairs and new carpet in the family room and stairwell. I also spent a long time with my neck craned backward as I drilled into the ceiling to install new recessed lighting and a central light fixture in the kitchen, making it one of the most pleasant rooms in the house! I also shined up the cabinetry, changed out the hardware, and added a Smart Tile back splash. Third on the list was an update to the master bathroom which consisted of a new paint job, new vinyl floor tiles, new cabinet hardware, and ended up requiring a new toilet. It wasn’t too long after we finished all of these home improvements that the next phase of our life journey began.

Matthew’s Arrival

On September 21, Jocelyn went into labor at about 5:00 AM. The midwives we were working with advised us that I could go to work as normal because it would be quite a while before our baby’s arrival. So I worked from home that day, and even gave a presentation of a design that I had recently completed. But at about 4:00 PM I decided that it was probably a good idea to quit for the day as Jocelyn’s contractions were becoming a little more frequent. We had been tracking them all day, and though they were a bit irregular, they seemed to be getting closer together. We headed out to see the midwives.

I don’t want to go too much into the whirlwind details of Jocelyn’s labor, but we didn’t get to do the water birth at the Birth Center in Wilmington like we wanted to. Jocelyn’s blood pressure spiked and we headed for the hospital. After what seemed like an eternity of watching my wife in labor and wishing I could make her feel better, our son finally entered the world at 1:50 AM on September 22! The attending nurse announced, “You have a girl! Oh wait…. those are boy parts!” Matthew Colson Day is a happy, giggly, healthy boy.

Gradually each of our family members either came to see the new baby and us, or we took him to see them. The biggest test of how Matthew would fare was the trip to Lock Haven, PA to visit the extended family for Thanksgiving. He did so well, better than we could have ever expected. He seems to thrive in the midst of a lot of people and noise. God has blessed us tremendously!

An Amazing Christmas

The crazy Spring and Summer gave way to a calm Fall, and we ended this year with Matthew’s first Christmas! I picked up my mom on Christmas Eve so she could spend the holiday with us. On Christmas Day we reflected on the birth of our Savior, had a tremendous breakfast and opened presents with my mom. That evening Jocelyn cooked her first whole turkey, which turned out perfect! Her parents came over to join the celebration and we had a great dinner and Christmas evening.

The next day my aunt Jean and Uncle Barry came down to visit and brought with them my cousin Brady and his wife Isa who are newlyweds. They live in Costa Rica but were in the United States for a while visiting family. We had such a great time with them over dinner and just spending time chatting and laughing. Isa was so good with our baby, Matthew, holding him and speaking to him in Spanish, which made him laugh hysterically! It was really fun to watch!

The Sunday after Christmas, December 27, was a very special day. We dedicated Matthew to the Lord at church, and my dad came down for the event and to spend time with our family. The last time I had seen him and my mom together with us was at my 30th birthday party, four years ago. The dedication at church was wonderful, as Jocelyn and I publicly declared that we would raise Matthew in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph.6:4), and allow God to use him in any way He would choose. We pray that Matthew will be saved at a young age! After the dedication and church service, my dad came back to our house with us to share lunch and a time of gift giving. It was a wonderful time!

Happy New Year!

So today is January 1, 2016. We don’t have any major plans other than to try again to get our house on the market and make the move to the country like last year. We are looking forward to whatever the Lord might have in store for the future. He’s writing our story, not us. Thanks for reading, and have a happy and blessed 2016!

Josh