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I was born in a small town...

Seems like "Doc Hollywood" was on TVLand all weekend. Even though we were busy, I managed to catch bits and pieces. I hadn't seen it in awhile and had forgotten how much I like it. It's such a lovely depiction of life in a small Southern town. Corny and stereotypical at times, but it does strike an honest and emotional chord in me.

I grew up in a small town like that. Everybody knows everybody and their business. When I was a teenager I couldn't wait to get away. So I begged my parents to let me go to college in New Orleans-1000 miles away. I was homesick for a long time even though I wouldn't have admitted it at the time. It was the best experience of my life. When I moved back home I settled in Richmond and had 4 fantastic years there. But something was missing and I realized it was my family. I hated missing family events and just everyday encounters with friends and family.

I think that is the best part of the movie. The day to day interaction of the characters. As funny as Michael J. Fox walking a pig is, it is even funnier to see people passing him by and not thinking twice about it. "Nice looking pig, Doc." Too funny.

I don't regret giving up the "big city" for country living. With the advent of the Internet, nobody is too far away. I get to keep in touch with relatives and friends from all over. I actually get frustrated with the traffic when I do visit Richmond nowadays. I'm so thankful for those days in New Orleans and I miss it all the time. But home is home and to quote John "Cougar" Mellencamp, "It's probably where they'll bury me".

OMG!

I read a lovely blog the other day. It was by a woman who paid tribute to her husband in such an eloquent way. She basically said she had waited so long to find someone to share her life with that it had positive and negative effects on her life. She explained that when she got discouraged about their adoption wait, she would remind herself how long it took to find her mate and that it didn't matter now because he was worth the wait and so would their child.

They apparently met later in life as did my husband and I. I completely understood where she was coming from. I never thought it would happen and then I met Hunter. The wait to find a spouse was excruciating, even though I acted like it wasn't. I responded to her saying that I should tell my husband every day that he was so worth the wait.

And then he came home from work.

He works for an electric co-op. We had a terrible storm Sunday afternoon with a lot of power outages. This means that he basically works from sun up to sun down trying to get people's electricity back on. During this time the co-op provides its employees and visiting crews with breakfast, lunch and dinner. They treated all to a big steak dinner Wednesday night after they got all the power back on. Hunter kindly brought me some leftovers from that dinner.

Then he gets home Friday night. He is carrying an arm load of chips in snack bags like you would pack in a kids lunch. OK. The co-op was getting rid of what was left over. Fine. He then starts hauling in left over cokes and juice bottles. He keeps unloading the car. I swear he covered the kitchen table with all this stuff. The kicker was when he started pulling out fruit. Plums, Nectarines, etc. Then he pulled out, I swear, almost 2 dozen already ripe bananas. What????

"What are we gonna do with those?" I asked.

"I thought we could make banana pudding" he said.

"We", I have learned over the years means ME. I told him "We will not be making any pudding"

Mind you this was the night after he brought home 4 dozen ears of sweet corn from his parents for us to put away. I love sweet corn, but please. We spent 2 nights sawing it off the cob and vacuum packing that corn. Now he wants me to make banana pudding. WTF??

He drives me crazy. But he is my partner and I waited so long for him. I am not the most patient person in the world and at this age I am not the most flexible either. But he puts up with me. When he does crazy things like bringing home 2 dozen ripe bananas I have to remind myself...

He does his own laundry
He knows how to load/unload the dishwasher
He never makes me cut the grass
He faithfully changes the oil in my car
He always steals me a ham biscuit from the co-op board meetings
He gives me wonderful hugs and kisses every morning even though I am too grumpy to appreciate until later.

Sure he could help change the bed every once and a while and maybe he could learn to cook a few dishes. But he is who he is and I love him. He wants to be a dad so bad and he will be the best dad ever.

Love you, H-Bear.

Sad news

Got a letter from our agency yesterday. My heart skipped a beat at first. But I realized they would call if it was the big news. As I read, I realized it was a letter from our social worker advising us that she was leaving the agency. My heart just sank. Her orientation back in January was a big part of why we chose the Children's Home Society of Virginia. We were thrilled when we found out she would be handling our case. I know that I have made comments about how hard some of the home study stuff was, but she truly helped us find our way down a tricky path. She has been the epitome of professionalism combined with compassion.

My first reaction was selfish. My mind raced with negative thoughts. "How could she do this to us?" Hunter was equally saddened. She explained that her husband had been offered a job out west which they couldn't pass up. And while my head understands why a young couple would want to take advantage of a great opportunity, my heart just feels bad for us for losing the one person at the agency who knows us best. I have every faith the agency will provide us with an excellent replacement. But I feel like it won't be the same.

2 Dozen Deviled Eggs Later...

Another big weekend is over. And we did it! We were able to complete the 5K in about 43 minutes. Not in the front of the pack, but not last either. Learned a few lessons, like don't eat a power bar and drink water just before racing. Result is upset stomach. Had to walk a lot of the last mile, but finished the race running. Very happy with results despite not feeling so good. Now we're looking for a 10K to compete in this fall.

The rest of the weekend was a blast as usual. Hunter's parents and aunt and uncle joined us for the parade and the fireworks cruise. My brother, sister-in-law and their kids came down to visit. The kids enjoyed playing in the sprinkler with their cousin at my aunt's house which happens to be on the parade route. They were super excited about the parade. My neice is 3 and didn't quite grasp the concept of people throwing candy off the floats. She stood holding her bag open as the floats went by as though they would just throw the candy straight into her bag! She didn't realize she had to run and pick it off the ground. Then she started yelling to them to throw more candy. Too funny.

On Sunday we went to Aunt Jo's and for Show and Tell we decided to announce our decision to adopt and tell everybody what progress we had made so far. As Hunter put it, "This year we'll tell and next year, hopefully, we'll show". We had many family members approach us afterwards offering congratulations and asking questions. Everyone was so positive and encouraging. Some shared their own experiences with adoption. I even found out one of my cousins had been in the middle of applying for a Korean adoption when she found out she was pregnant 17 years ago. I had no idea. Some time ago, our social worker asked us how our immediate family felt about our decision to adopt. I told her that they wished we would hurry up already. It's nice to know we have even more support from our extended family, too.

So, another holiday weekend has ended. Now it's time to enjoy the rest of the summer. We finally have cucumbers and squash and sweet corn from the garden. The Fireman's Carnival will be opening at the end of the month. Next thing we know it'll be vacation time. Can't wait.

Don't forget the sunblock

One of the things we decided to do to help pass the waiting time after being approved for adoption is to train for a 5K race taking place this Saturday. Fourth of July weekend is always a busy one for us and this year I'm starting to think we are crazy to add running this race. We have had a hard time training because we couldn't find a reasonably flat route near our house. But last week we finally found one. The race is taking place in the town I grew up in so it will be funny to run with all these strangers in a place that is so familiar to me. I'll be running past the house I grew up in and past other houses where relatives once lived, past the grocery store I used to walk to, the church where I went to Vacation Bible School and the school I attended in grades 1 through 3.

My family along with my aunts and uncles and loads of cousins has always spent the 4th together. Over the years our family celebration has gone from a simple boat ride and picnic at the beach to the current weekend-long festivities. Saturday, we go fishing on my Uncle's charter boat followed by lunch on board. When we get back to the dock, we rush off to town to catch the "big parade". It's just local businesses sponsoring small floats and fire trucks blowing their sirens. But they throw candy to the kids and just about everybody I've ever known is there. So it is fun to catch up. We get a little rest before we head back out on the boat to watch the fireworks over the creek. We drag ourselves home afterwards only to get up the next day and go to my aunt's cottage for a picnic. The highlight of this get together is "Show and Tell". Everybody from the youngest to the oldest gets a chance to share a story or a favorite object. Then we have ice cream and cake and sing Happy Birthday. That way we all get to wish each other happy birthday even if we don't get to spend our individual birthdays together.

When it's all over with I'm exhausted and thinking I won't do as much the next year. But by the time it rolls around again, there I am. I wouldn't miss a moment. Now, we're adding a 5K race first thing Saturday morning. After training for weeks, we're as ready as we'll ever be. Hope we don't look like total losers!