Settling in

My sister reminded me recently that it's only been four weeks since we've arrived in Singapore. And yet it feels like so much has happened in this short span of time. In fact, so much has happened just in the last 10 days alone.

1) Jude officially started at his new job. Although it's been hard work and he's been really busy, I think it's also something he's feeling good about.

2) We finally moved into our new apartment after living out of our suitcases for close to 4 weeks. We're still in a mild state of disbelief that we get to call this home for at least the next year and are counting our blessings that we get to enjoy it for even that long.

Our new place

In the little time since we've moved in, I think we've gotten it pretty much as livable as it can be right now. Many thanks go to our parents for bringing us essentials like kitchenware and pantry items- this move would not have been possible without them. Ikea has also been a great friend (I've been there three times in the past week alone) and so have several different DIY stores around the island. We are a little nervous about the 36 boxes of our stuff that is presumably in the middle of some ocean right now- I'm already mentally picturing where we're going to put certain things and it's making my head hurt...

3) We bought a car. We still miss our VW (shout out to the Cooneys- We're so happy that Tempest has found such a loving family!!) but this Honda has been a really zippy ride.

4) We found a daycare for Sophie that we all love. It's a lab school, which makes the educator geek in me so happy :) I'm particularly excited that we'll get to support the research and professional development that goes on in the center. And best of all, Sophie has been having a whale of a time since she started last week.

5) I submitted an article-- my first in Singapore-- to IPSCommons, an online platform for our local policy think-tank. It was published yesterday. I'm quite happy with the piece and excited to have it up somewhere for public consumption.

So there- not too shabby for 10 days, I think. There are still odds and ends that need to be tied up but for the most part-- until the rest of our stuff arrives in two weeks-- we're pretty much settled in. And with that is a profound sense of gratitude and we feel really blessed to have family close by to make this all relatively painless.