Reminiscing - 7 years

This past weekend, Col and I were able to go back to our alma mater, Roberts Wesleyan College, for a Live Love concert with The City Harmonic, Remedy Drive, and Rush of Fools (thanks to my dad for giving us his tickets).  There have been a lot of changes on campus since we graduated five years ago (eek!), and it was nice to be back.  It's Homecoming week and since we won't be attending our five year reunion this weekend, I wanted to take a quick walk around campus.  We checked out the new clock tower, renovations on a couple buildings, and the recent reno of the dining hall (thanks to the suggestion from a familiar staff member who we got to see!).  We were able to walk inside the dining hall, which has turned into a space that is open for more hours than before as a hang out and is more available for food.  It looks amazing!  So very different, but definitely a needed update.

The whole time I was reminded again of how awesome my college years were.  I loved RWC and always have fond memories of my time there.  We are still close with our group of friends, and some days I wish we could all be back there again, hanging out in our dorm, enjoying living life together.  I am a very strong advocate for living on campus in college and the experience that it gives.  Never in your life again do you have that chance to be independent yet not tied down to all of life's responsibilities (loan payments come after graduation ;)). 

But anyway, while briefly looking at one of the signs with the week's activities on it, I couldn't help but reminisce about a certain Homecoming week seven years ago.  It was the beginning of our junior year and Col and I had been friends for two years.  We had seen each other a few times over the summer, including a blast of a road trip that our group of friends took to visit our friend out-of-state, and had also been talking a lot.  When my parents moved that summer, he was the one I talked to on our first night in the new town.  Once we got back to school, we began spending a lot of evenings together walking around campus and getting to know each other even more.  We both had liked each other for a while, but I was hesitant due to an emotional experience with the end of my first and only other relationship a couple years prior.  Col jokes that I was so slow with my "I'm not ready yet...," but he stuck it out.  During Homecoming week I remember our group of friends was sitting in our triple doing homework when Col stole my planner and wrote on it (which my OCD-self hated, and he knew it).  He circled the date of Tuesday, September 25th when the bonfire was the evening activity and wrote, "I think you should go to this."  I wasn't sure if I was going to go, but at his prompting I did.  Afterwards, Col and I took a walk down to the pond, sat in the grass and watched a storm roll in.  On our way back to the dorms, I remember the feeling of knowing that he wanted to "make it official" but he wasn't saying anything.  I said, "Aren't you going to ask me?" or something along those lines, and after a, "Are you going to say yes?," he did.

I've been thinking about this since Friday, and I wanted to find time to write this blog post for today, because it is the 25th.  We don't celebrate our dating anniversary, but here's to seven years since that Homecoming week when we finally made it official.  Our friends and families knew it was coming, and I'm so glad it did.  We've never looked back (nor have we had to), and I am so thankful for God's orchestration in getting us both to RWC.  Col almost ended up at St. John Fisher, and I was set on Grove City, but through different circumstances we found ourselves there, and I am forever convinced that I wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere else.

oh to just have a physical appointment

Our adoption update requires us to get our physicals done again.  Not long after finding out that we would have to re-do the physical forms, I called my PCP to set up an appointment, knowing that I should do so before getting the forms from the agency.  They were booked and the earliest they could offer me was July 1st.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be too late because the social worker won't set up the home study visit until all of our paper is in and approved.  Since our expiration date is July 20 and the report takes a week or two to complete, we would be cutting it super close.  I called back today and tried to appeal my case, but they had no cancellations nor could they put me on a list.  I was frustrated, trying to be understanding (since I work in a doctor's office, I truly understand the receptionist's plight), but also trying to be firm that I needed to have this done sooner and why.  I hung up and started to tear up but decided that this would work out and I would appeal to our agency after our other paperwork is in to see if they would set up the meeting with the understanding that I would send in my medical form ASAP after my appointment that day.  I've read other blogs about how people have had to be firm to get appointments they need for their adoptions, but their appeals always worked.  I was discouraged and wondering if I should have done more, but didn't want to be mean or rude.

An hour later, the receptionist at my doctor's office called me sounding all excited.  She had maneuvered some things around and moved someone else's appointment.  She could offer me an early June appointment!  Not only that, but I'm already off work that day.  I graciously accepted it not caring what time it was, and probably said thank you about 10 times.  After giving me such a resolute no earlier, I am so grateful that she decided to see what she could do.  So now I'm that annoying patient, the kind who drove me nuts when I worked at the front desk, but I feel that God definitely worked in the situation!  Hooray!