Season of change

Me and Joan during my second trip to California.

While summer doesn't technically start until June 21, Memorial Day feels like the beginning of summer. The season brings change for us this year...a whole lot of change. The obvious one is the baby, but there are also changes coming to Gerald & Joan. After next week, Gerald & Joan will become my full-time business again. I'm both excited and nervous about this huge life change.

Working part-time in the nonprofit world over the past year has been great for my confidence (thank you, Common Table Health Alliance!), and the plan is to (re)introduce nonprofit and small business marketing and brand consulting to my services and offerings. I also hope to grow my vintage-inspirated stationery lines and continue offering some preservation services. The key is to figure out my work flow and schedule for the next three months...and then be prepared to throw it all out the window and start from scratch again after the baby comes. This creature of habit is about to get a bunch of lessons in dealing with change, but I recognize that learning to adapt to change is exactly what I need at this point in my life.

As I prepare for the next chapter, I am humbled that I have the opportunity to be building this business from my home-based studio. I am honored that I have family and friends who have supported Gerald & Joan from the beginning. I am blessed to have the most supportive husband in the world. If it wasn't for the seed of Gerald & Joan that was planted in our hearts and minds during our last California vacation in October 2012, I'm not sure we would be where we are today. It set the wheels in motion for a baby and a move to Germantown. It has allowed me to reconnect to my ancestral and career roots. It has given me the greatest gift -- to be fulfilled in my career while also spending precious time with my husband, our pets and our son. 

June marks the official countdown until we meet Baby Hardin, but it also a time of growth for Gerald & Joan.

Stay tuned for lots of changes...they are coming very soon.

Baby Boy

Yesterday marked four months until our due date. Baby boy is kicking hard enough that his daddy can feel him, and we're talking more and more about what life as three (plus two fur babies) will look like. I know one thing -- this little guy is already very much his father's son. In addition to some stubborn tendencies, he seems to love music, and he's very active in the mornings. I suspect he's going to look quite a bit like him as well. Wasn't Jonathan the cutest little boy?  

Jonathan's second birthday. 

That sweet face really hasn't changed, and he still looks dashing in a suit and tie. 

Christmas 1984.

Opening presents with his mom and grandmother. 

Baby Hardin is...

Baby Hardin's second photo.

A week ago, our prayers were answered when the ultrasound technician told us our baby was doing great. We watched in amazement as she studied each of his/her organs and body parts. The moment that stuck out to me the most was seeing our baby laying comfortably on his/her side -- that little outline, the beating heart, the perfect spine and sweet little head -- and realizing that it all belongs to this tiny person growing inside me. I have images to go along with the dream baby in my mind. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn the feelings I've been feeling lately aren't gas but tiny baby kicks and punches. 

Baby proved to be stubborn (like both of his/her parents) and refused to roll over so the ultrasound technician could get a good measurement of the aortic arch. At the end of the appointment, when she was looking at his/her legs and feet, she asked if we were ready to know...and we both already knew because it was very clearly staring at us on the screen. Yes, Baby Hardin is a BOY.

After we heard that news (I guessed wrong, Jonathan guessed right and we are both overjoyed) and the news that everything looked great, I must have relaxed, because our son started moving around and posing for us. The ultrasound technician said our pictures couldn't have been any better, and she was even able to get a photo of his aortic arch.

He looks just like Jonathan here -- his chest, the angle of his head and his profile.

I will never forget April 9, 2015. It was one of the most blissful days of my life. I also spent a great deal of it answering sharing the news in person (with my sister and Jonathan's grandparents), via FaceTime (my mom, my dad and Jonathan's mom), text messages and Facebook messages because everyone was SO excited and happy to share in our baby joy. I have never received so many likes before...Baby Hardin is very popular!

Please continue to pray for our little one and our growing family. I count my blessings each and every day and recognize how blessed we are to be on this journey. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Family Traits

Now that we're less than two weeks away from our second ultrasound, I'm really beginning to think about our baby and imagine life with him or her.

Obviously our main prayer is for a healthy baby. The health of this baby has been our number one concern since January 4, but the feeling grows stronger each day that its tiny presence becomes a little bigger. I fully recognize that carrying this life in my body is a wonderful gift, and I feel blessed and honored that Jonathan, the baby and I are on this journey together.

People have asked if I have a gut feeling about our baby's gender. I do, but I don't have a strong preference either way. It would be fun to give my parents their second grandson or their first granddaughter. It would be thrilling to add another Hardin boy to the family or welcome the first Hardin daughter of the next generation. I would love to watch our son with his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, or know that our daughter is the next in a line of strong-willed women. 

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know how happy I am that we will learn our baby's gender on Jonathan's grandmother's birthday (April 9) and that our baby's due date is three days before my grandmother's birthday (September 10). I have spent the last two years documenting our family's history and stories, and now I'm ready to see which family traits and characteristics appear in our baby. Blue eyes and fair skin seem like the two most obvious ones, but maybe we'll have a rebel baby with brown eyes like both of its grandmothers.

Until then, I've put together a family album that goes back to our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. God willing, our child will grow up knowing exactly where he or she came from and who he or she looks like. What a wonderful thought and what an exciting journey.

Thanks for sharing our joy.

Jonathan and his grandmother Sadie.

Me and my grandparents Bill and Lucy.

Jonathan and his mother Denise.

Me and my grandma Joan and my mother Julie.

My dad Fred.

Jonathan's mother Denise.

My mother Julie and grandmother Joan.

Jonathan's father Greg and his grandfather Gerald. 

My grandmother Joan.

Jonathan's grandmother Sadie.

Jonathan's great-grandparents Dayton and Elzie with his grandfather Gerald.

My grandmother Lucy.

My great-grandmother Jennie Moore (back left), her brother Andy (back right), her mother Martha, stepfather Jacob and half-siblings Jake and Mayme Van Bibber. 

Jonathan's great-grandfather Dayton.

My great-grandmother Elsie (right) and her sister Myrtle.

Jonathan's great-grandfather Clovis Yates (back, second from left) and his great-great grandparents William and Julia.

My great-grandfather Raoul with his sister Marie and parents Ernesto and Adele.

Jonathan's great-grandmother Eliza Michael (top right) and her siblings. 

My great-grandmother Tina (front, bottom center) with her siblings and parents.