Seven Years and No Itch

Today is our seven year anniversary! We met in a hotel parking lot in Mesa, AZ. Doesn't that sound like it's right out of a Danielle Steele made-for-TV movie? Randy was in town from GA at the Boeing plant doing some training for the helicopter he flew in the Army. I was with friends heading to Tempe for Octoberfest and we had to pick "someone" up so he could ride with us. Imagine my delight when we drove into the parking lot and I saw him standing there waiting for us. He was cute and definitely worth the extra half hour that picking him up added to our drive that night! Within a few minutes of arriving at Octoberfest, Randy and I had "buddied" up and spent the rest of the evening together, just the two of us, laughing, telling stories, and already finishing each other's sentences. We exchanged numbers (I still have the Dillard's receipt I gave to him with my number on it in our scrapbook) and we went out the next night. I told my mother after the second night that we went out that I would marry Randy. The rest they say, is history. Who would have ever thought we'd travel around the world a few times together, move as much as the Army moved us, and would now be looking to travel to Russia within a few months to bring home our child. Wow, what a great seven years!! Our day has been pretty low-key, we will go out to a nice dinner tonight at a local Italian restaurant. We didn't exchange gifts with each other, instead we sent the US Govt a big, fat check for our I600A! That's better than any ol' blender anyway, right?!

On to baby news; we finished all the documents that were needed for our home study. The home study agency said we would have our report no later than Dec 1st. We found out that CHI, our first agency, sent our entire home study packet that we had with them to our new agency. This was a relief because all our references and criminal background checks were in that packet and now we don't have to redo all of them. On Friday I was able to get Randy a Dec 3rd appointment for his dossier physical; a major accomplishment with our local clinic to get an appointment so soon.

We went to a garage sale yesterday that a co-worker of mine had. She told me about it last week and said that she would be selling all of her son's stuff from when he was younger. She had a pack-n-play that she told me about ahead of time and I sent Melissa, Amy, and Adrienne an email on Friday asking them for advice on whether or not we should buy it. They all agreed that it would be a good investment and when we got to the garage sale we saw it was in great condition. My co-worker had TONS of clothes for sale and it took me a long time to go through everything but I did. We bought lots of clothes for our son. Ralph Lauren sweaters, Polo rugby shirts, Nautica dress shirts, Polo cargo pants, Polo jeans, Nike shoes, OshKosh baby shirts; everything was marked .25 cents!!! The stuff doesn't even look like it has been worn. I ended up buying over 20 shirts, 7 pairs of jeans, 5 pairs of shoes, pajamas, and mittens. We decided that whatever doesn't fit him we will donate to the orphanage. We also bought extra shoes and gloves to take to the orphanage. I couldn't pass it up for 25 cents! We also bought a 100 piece Mega Block set for ages 1 and over. I also bought several board books all for .25 cents apiece. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Mouse Paint, Goodnight Moon, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Barn Dance and 5 books on shapes and colors. We did really well at the garage sale. As I type this, we currently have baby clothes in our washing machine right now being cleaned so they will be ready for our child. I can't believe it; this is so exciting for two people that have tried and waited soooo long to have a child!

I guess on our seven year anniversary we aren't doing any "itching" because we are too busy nesting and getting ready for our child, and my heart feels so good inside right now. This is the kind of happiness that a fancy anniversary gift could never buy, this is the kind of happiness that comes all because two people met and fell in love...