And yes, at 34 weeks pregnant.

Here is the thing about meeting your person at age 40: you do everything all at once.

I left Norway last November when I was eight weeks pregnant. We found out the wonderful news just days after Serhii’s visa to the US was approved. Our decision to relocate seemed to be cementing itself.

Six months later, Serhii arrived in Denver, stepping foot on US soil for the first time. Ten days after that, we got married among the ponderosa pines in the national forest outside Durango, Colorado. There were 19 of us all together. It was a time I would change nothing about. Five weeks later, we welcomed our sweet, little Gregory.

That was seven weeks ago today. He is lying in my lap now, my left hand supporting his sleepy head while I type this with my right. Remarkable how many things you can do with one hand. This I have learned, along with a million other things. One of the nurses in the birthing center told us that our baby will teach us everything we need to know. She was right. I have entered a world that I never could have imagined before experiencing it, and boy is my life richer because of it.

So what else are we up to? Well, building a house on my parents’ property. An idea that has evolved from a 600 square foot house on wheels to a 1,200 square foot stick-built home. The smaller version was my idea, not Serhii’s, but I felt it would provide flexibility if we ever wanted to move it. I was not sure I wanted to sign up for living where I grew up long-term, but knew being close to family with a little one is a no-brainer, though that part was Serhii’s idea before it was mine. My sister also lives on the property with her two kids and husband. But it turns out that I have heavy style, I like natural materials, and the moveable house got too heavy. Since we learned it was going to have to be stick-built and designated as an ADU to my parents’ house, unless we subdivided off the land, a process that can take over a year, we decided on the largest allowable at 1,200 square feet. Plenty big in my opinion. It will be a one-story, three-bed, two-bath Scandinavian-inspired home complete with a sauna on the patio, of course!

So far, we are six months in and are just now working towards pouring the slab foundation. This morning, Serhii and I had a conversation in which we agreed that building a house is only frustrating if you have any expectations about the process. But here we are, and lucky to be here for sure.

As for future adventures, we have a big road trip planned for late September and into October in my parents’ sprinter, traveling up through Wyoming to family in Montana, then over to Oregon and our family’s beach house, and down to the Redwoods, before returning home. I am really looking forward to showing Serhii the West, beyond western Colorado, and to taking Gregory on his first camping/sprinter trip. It might become our biggest adventure yet.

So, no, as you had probably guessed by now, I am no longer Simply Wandering. A new chapter in life has begun. I told the doctor at my 6-week postpartum appointment last week that though no one would recommend someone to have their first child in their 40s, I can confirm that one huge advantage is that I already did adult life without a child; now I get to do adult life with a child. I had my cake and get to eat it too.

As for this blog, I am not sure. Maybe I will continue posting about our adventures, or maybe I will start a new one better suited to now.

Thanks for following along!