Not much happening...

 Very slow progress. Some siding, and that's pretty much it. East side done and around the back on the North side of the main garage volume.

And then - friends arrived!! Anyone who's read the blog from the beginning knows how much work Chad put in on the west addition! Well, after he and his family moved away in 2019, we've tried to get all of us together once a year, alternating us going up to them and them coming here. This year they were here. This photo from the weekend makes me smile because it reminds me of one from long ago!

From this weekend - a few of our kids and (the younger) two that belong to our friends...

...and thirteen years ago - all four of ours at the time and the (older two) that belong to our friends.

Rinnah is the connecting piece between the two photos - she's the youngest one in the old picture and the oldest in the new one. We're so glad we can still live life with these dear friends!

By the beginning of July

Just like with the first addition, things slow down significantly once Matt's the primary work crew, because he still has his "real" work to do, and our running joke around here is that Matt works a 40 hour...month. :P He really does get more work than that done with his architectural/drafting work, but it's rare that he actually ever gets a classic 40 hour week between diapers, vest treatments for Mira, and the various appointments that he and I are running people to every week. But despite that, we're still getting out and getting little bits done on the garage.

Here's a photo I took from the flat roof where I am helping Matt line up the top edge of the vertical siding panels. He's taking a work call at this moment, I think!

Matt taught Rinnah how to paint the lap siding to get it ready for installation so she could continue this batch while he ran to get Bobbi from work.

And here he trundled her up the hill to show her how the installation of the lap siding is coming on the east side of the garage. I still love how the garage is sunk into the ground on this side, making this side wall really short from the yard side.

And then, exactly twelve years and one day after we lost our surprise baby during Krassimir's adoption, I started bleeding at 11 weeks and 3 days into this pregnancy. While we knew my "advanced maternal age" (ha! I was already considered a "geriatric" pregnancy twelve years ago!) made miscarriage much more likely, the fact that we'd made it past ten weeks meant I thought we were really going to get to keep this happy gift. But the God who is good when he gives and good when he takes away took this little one away from us, too. I'm so far behind in posting that I'm writing this in mid-September, and there's still such sadness there, but like I told a friend who asked, God has been so very present in my life over the last few months that the sadness just can't get into the depths of me because *He* is filling me up.

It's hard to see the detail, but I added another stone to the custom mother's necklace that I had made seven years ago. It has a birthstone for each of my babies, including the one we lost in 2013 (a pearl), and I was able to sneak in another pearl on the bottom for this baby. Every one is precious, no matter how long we get to keep them.