Imaginary Friends...

I was going to ask my male neighbor to answer the door and "confess" that he was, indeed, "Kate" from Chasing Rainbows.  Or hire a young teenager who lives in this house in his parent's basement and smokes pot and makes up stories about this "Gavin" and his brother "Brian" for this blog.

  But instead, I chose to answer the door as myself.  And I greeted two strangers who have been reading since I wrote daily on my CaringBridge site.  Two strangers...that became "imaginary" online friends...who asked if they could come meet us.

They came to our home today as strangers.

And Tim and Beth left our home as lifelong friends.

It's still hard for me to believe that they drove over four hours (each way!) and got a hotel room just to spend an afternoon with us.  We were so flattered.  But after spending all day with them, I have to say it was our honor to have them here.

Beth and I bonded over her pregnancy...and our shared miscarriages (her one - my "I lost count").  She's due with their first child, Alivia Grace, in early September.  Tim and Ed bonded over their shared love of Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Gate - all things geeky.  If you remember the post I wrote when I made Gavin and Brian's Emergency Kits... Tim was the paramedic that helped me with some of the contents!  And he famously came to my defense when an Anonymous poster slammed me for "going overboard" and threatened that my kids would have no life or independence for those pesky kits.  (Still keeps me up at night.  Not.)

Gavin and Brian gifted baby Alivia with their favorite thing - the Twilight Turtle!

And they made Brian's day with a blue stuffed Angry Bird...and Gavin's with a gift card to buy apps for his iPad!  So generous.  TOO generous!

But the thing that got me choked up?  They brought us a beautiful bamboo plant.  Someone had given them this "lucky plant" when they were trying to get pregnant - and they ended up pregnant with their daughter!  The plant was a lovely, symbolic gesture and we were so touched.

We really had a fun day.  Thank you, Beth and Tim, for making the trip to meet us!  Hopefully we didn't disappoint in person!  

Today was actually a great distraction for me.  I've had some anxiety this weekend!  Yesterday I had a lot of dizziness and cramping.  This could be a good sign that our little embryo is hard at work burrowing into my uterine lining and making him or herself at home.  Or it could mean the myriad of things I've made up in my head that add up to bad stuff.  

I'm surprised at my terrible anxiety.  For all the confidence I had - the "I'm okay either way!" statements - I get these waves of fear.  Waves of "OMG - this is it.  If it doesn't work - how will I really deal?"  I'm so bummed that I'm so bummed!!  This wasn't in the plan.  I'm hoping that I can get in to see my Acupuncturist, Dr. Kang, early this week.  Not only can she help bring blood flow to the right areas...but I'm sure she can help me with this anxiety.

This Wednesday I'll be bringing Gavin to see the ENT.  It can't come soon enough.  He's been struggling during meals with sudden congestion and food that comes out of his nose.  And he's still vomiting at night after his apnea spell causes him to cough which sometimes triggers a gag which then causes him to throw up.  Vicious cycle.  But he doesn't just throw up when he's sleeping.  Tonight, after a very long day, he gagged during the final bites of his dinner.  He just couldn't recover and soon it was all on his highchair tray.  Lucky for me that it all stayed contained on the tray, right??  Well...that is, until I dropped the full tray on the way to the sink.  

Epic fail.