Waiting for furniture is like the last days of pregnancy

As I was sitting in our empty living room - empty except for the two $15.00 hard plastic outdoor chairs we purchased yesterday at Home Depot - a thought came to me. The last 10 days of living in our empty house, waiting for our furniture and household goods to be delivered, is a lot like the last few days of being pregnant.

We call the moving company to find out an estimated day that our stuff would be loaded on a moving van. That's a lot like the weekly doctor's appointment, where I hopefully asked when the baby might be born. At this point, there's no definite answer except for:  soon.

We putter around the house, taking care of some repairs:  retouching paint, installing a new outdoor faucet, changing a light bulb. That's a lot like putting up the crib and getting out the baby blankets. They aren't essential items, but they keep us busy.

We watch movies on TV that we've seen several times before. We don't feel like going out and are simply looking for something mindlessly entertaining to occupy our time. I think we watched some of those same movies waiting for labor pains to finally begin.

Friends email:  any news yet on the furniture? Neighbors act surprised that we've been here 10 days without furniture. I had those same types of questions in the last days of pregnancy:  what, you're still pregnant?

Finally, the moving company calls and tells us the delivery date. That's a lot like going into labor:  I know this baby is really going to be born!

We've gotten used to living in a house with only a mattress and now 2 chairs, using plastic silverware and paperplates, and standing up to eat our meals. We're in a holding pattern, filling our days with simple tasks and going to bed early.

Guess what? The furniture is being delivered on Wednesday!