And since the spring is here, Sophie should be arriving soon. We have finished our birth and baby-care classes. We are going for doctor’s appointment every week. Tomorrow is Lori’s last day at work, and then she is just home waiting for Sophie!

Much to Lori’s surprise, she got a baby shower at her work (ya, it was a surprise baby shower) and that brought in lots of useful stuff for Sophie, especially books. More than the stuff, we were just amazed by how awesome the shower was organized. There was food, games, and wonderful people with lots of love! The baby charades were lots of fun!

Lori also painted Sophie’s room, prepared the closet, and organized her dresser. She even tried out the car seat. We are also taking childbirth preparedness classes.

Ya, so we’re ready to welcome Sophie in our lives!

I can’t wait to start decorating her nursery! I can’t wait to meet her! I’m over half way there!

We are, of course, irrationally excited, ridiculously terrified, and completely confident. Somehow this mixture of emotions seems to be hitting us at very odd moments. Yesterday was mostly filled with excitement as we got to see ultrasound images of our new little one rolling, kicking, and waving its minuscule arms and legs.

My due date is may 4th, but as we all surely know, these things happen on their own time line. We hope to find out whether the little one is a boy or a girl sometime in December.

But it all turned out great in the end once we found our house in Somerset and moved one more time that summer. After a long chain of packing and moving, we were home! Of course, soon after moving to our new house, we left for Canada for a few days’ vacation, and of course, it took us several months to finally feel settled down, but nearly a year later, we do feel it has happened! We are here and we have been settled. You can see house pictures here.

Besides the house, a lot has happened to us during this year in NJ. Lori successfully completed her Karen Pryer Academy certification, and started her Clicker Training NJ business. She also got a job at the Turtle Back Zoo recently. Chirag encountered many new challenges and opportunities at his job as a faculty at Rutgers, faced a grave family setback in India, and got back into teaching ballroom dancing.

So, all in all, a year with lots of highs and lows. Tomorrow (4th of July) we will be celebrating two years of our engagement. Yes, it’s been two years since Chirag knelt down in front of Lori at St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, and popped the question!

A lot to look forward to now in the coming year. For starters, we are finally taking a vacation – visiting China later this month. And then who knows!

Chirag and I are about to celebrate our first anniversary! I cannot belive it’s been a year already! March 21 is only a week away! We had planned on a vacation to Jamaica to celebrate our anniversary in the sun, but unfortunately my body disagreed with that decision. I had an appendectomy last thursday after having a thyroid biopsy the previous friday. This month has been a bit of a medical disaster for me i’m afraid. I am healing though, and Chirag has taken amazing care of me. I am so greatful and thankful for him!!

In other news, I am crossing my fingers that I will get the job I recently interviewed for! We also got a new washer and dryer, it’s so exciting to be able to do laundry at home! I also finally painted the kitchen, even though i’ll probably have to repaint it when we get it redone.

Thinking of all of you!!
- Lori

My new resolution, I will try to update this a little more frequently.