Week 6 - Parents Told and More Stories

Well, tomorrow makes week 6. We just got home from a quick weekend trip to our family farm to bury Cocoa, see my parents, and then spend some time with Bo's brother and his wife. We made a full weekend of it!

Some of you are probably saying, "bury Cocoa?" Well... we left for a week-long vacation right after he died, so we couldn't take him to bury him. I know some of you might have just put him in the back yard, but that wasn't really going to work for my guy. You see, we have a septic system, even though we live within the metro city of Atlanta! The town planners in their wisdom gave permits for septic within subdivisions as late as 1998. Geesh!

So, our neighborhood is on the list for getting sewers put in. THAT means that unless you want to dig up your precious pet you'd better NOT put him in your backyard. I have NO say on where the lines will run for the new system. That accompanied with our plans to fully landscape our yard after the sewer is in means that there is no certainty on where to put him for good.

The vet was keeping him for us (in the freezer) until we could go up to bury him on our farm. We have a 150 acre family farm in Tennessee, and there is a small pet cemetery there. We found a spot for him and laid him to rest at last. He has had a long road getting home.

After we finished laying Cocoa to rest we went to visit my parents and some of their friends who were out camping at a lake nearby. My Dad and two of his Airforce buddies from Vietnam, along with their wives, met up at the park with their campers and stayed the weekend. We showed up to visit about Noon.

As planned, we took our "baby gifts" with us to the campground. Everyone was gathered around when we got there, so we waited until I got Mom and Dad alone for a minute.

My Dad had already set out the stone that he had carved for Cocoa. It was a bit of a shock to see it just sitting there, but it was so nice. He took the time to sandblast around the name and he added the date. He even squeezed in the "a" and I wouldn't have thought it had ever been missing if I hadn't known. It was very sweet. I thanked my Dad and gave him a hug. Seeing the stone made me want to start crying again, so I tried not to look at it too much. I'm hoping my Dad understood and didn't think I didn't want it. I plan to send him a thank you card so I can better express my appreciation.

Eventually someone mentioned lunch and everyone left to go get the fixins they had from their campers. Bo gave me a wink and I snuck over to my car to get the gifts. I called my Mom out of the camper and Dad away from setting up the tables and told them "We have a little something for you guys too." They started opening and I said, "You should need these about March." It took a second, but it finally registered and my Mom started crying and saying "Really? Really? In March?" She was so shocked and quite happy. Dad didn't really say anything, but he had a great smile on his face. We had hugs all around - very sweet.

Mom asked me, "Can we tell everyone?" and I had to do a little dance on that one. We didn't mind them telling their friends, but we aren't ready to tell the whole family yet. We want to wait a little longer on that. So, Mom finished bringing out the lunch, and then she brought out the gifts, having repacked them, and showed everyone what they got. She was crying so hard she could barely tell everyone what she was up to! We did hugs all around again and a few tears of joy.

Fate is interesting, isn't it? I didn't know it, but these same people were with my parents in March when I called to say that we were having the emergency surgery to remove the ectopic pregnancy. So, everyone had known we had had trouble getting pregnant and was especially happy for us.

After a long afternoon we left the park and had dinner with Bo's brother and his wife. We had a great time. They are great to hang out with, and it is very nice to see Bo and his brother get some time together. We didn't tell them our news - we are waiting until after next week's ultrasound. That's when we plan to tell Bo's whole family. We really can't wait it should be great fun.

Well, guess that's all on the news front. Now I just have to hold out until the next milestone. Everyday seems to be a little easier than the last. I'm feeling pretty good, pretty happy with the way things are going and barely stressing at all. Life is pretty sweet at the moment. Hope all is well with all of you!