Monday, March 13, 2017

Charlie Bob

This is not the shortest story, and I share some personal information (which Chuck supported my sharing), but it's got a really good ending if you have the time to read. :)

As many of you know, our journey to have a baby has been anything but easy. We experienced 3 horrible losses in the span of a year and a half that were all related to the babies having chromosomal issues. We were tested for what feels like a thousand different things to find what could be causing our losses, met with specialists in Cincinnati to talk about our options (which included either a) keep trying naturally or the extreme opposite option b) do IVF with pre-genetic screening), and have just been on an overall terrible rollercoaster of the some of the highest highs and lowest lows you can face in life. After our 3rd loss, we were undecided about whether or not we would try again and risk another loss, or do an almost sure (but insanely expensive) thing and do IVF. Around that time, we decided to start house hunting. We had been talking about it for over a year, but it finally felt like the right time. And we needed a change.

Enter: Melody. (Last name not being shared for privacy purposes.) Melody was our realtor who was recommended to us by a loan officer whose number Chuck found randomly on Zillow. The loan officer told Chuck this woman specialized in finding East End homes (which is primarily where we were looking) and that she'd be great for us. Soon after, we met Melody and she was great. She is an older woman, very experienced, very honest and straight forward and VERY Christian. We got close with Melody fast and we shared our pregnancy struggles with her as we had just experienced our 3rd loss right before we bought the house. She asked our permission to share our struggles with her Bible study and some of her other friends so they could all be praying for us and of course we said we didn't mind.

It didn't take us too long to find a house, and when we did it was a partially unfinished new build that still needed some finishing touches. For everything the house still needed, landscaping, blinds, mirrors, whatever, Melody would tell us "oh I have a guy for that. I'll give you his number." Melody seemingly had a guy for everything.

Enter: Charlie Bob. (I'd like to note here that I am not leaving off his last name to protect his privacy or identity. I actually don't know his last name and now I'm thinking he may not have one, like Madonna.) Charlie Bob was Melody's "blinds guy." While we were under contract, Melody would constantly tell us, "Go to Lowe's. Ask for Charlie Bob. Tell him you're a friend of Melody's. He will take care of you." Whenever we talked she would ask me at the end of our conversation, "have you called Charlie Bob yet?" Finally, one Saturday, Chuck and I went to Lowe's and looked for Charlie Bob. We found an employee and asked about him and his response was "Ummmm, Charlie Bob hasn't worked in here in FOREVER...." I texted Melody. She responded "Oh! Ok well here is his cell number. Just call him. He'll take care of you." She always added that part at the end.

I finally called Charlie Bob and set up a time for him to come measure our windows and tell us what kind of blinds he recommended we buy. On the day he came to the house, Chuck wasn't home yet so I met with him alone and walked him from room to room making a plan. Charlie Bob was an elderly man in very worn overalls with the sweetest, realest, country accent. He told me his life story about growing up in Western Kentucky and how he knew Melody as a teenager and how he and his wife raised their kids in a small home in Indiana and moved several years ago to St. Matthews to be closer to their kids and grandkids. We talked as we went from room to room and he wrote down measurements, starting with our first spare bedroom that we use currently as an office.

When we got to the 2nd spare bedroom, he asked me "Now what should I label this room?" I casually said "well, you can just call it the 2nd bedroom I guess. We're hoping we will have a baby someday and this will be the nursery." As soon as I said it, Charlie Bob stopped in his tracks as he was lifting his measuring tape to the window, turned around and looked me square in the face, deep into my SOUL, and said "Oh. You WILL. I'm writing Baby's Room." Then he turned around and continued measuring. And he did write Baby BR. (See pic below for evidence.)

In that moment I had major chills. He said "oh you WILL" SO confidently and so sure, almost like he knew something I didn't. Obviously our friends and family and doctors had all said this to us at some point, but something about the way this stranger said it to me felt different. I thought about it for the rest of the day, and told Chuck about it pretty much the minute he got home. He agreed it was kind of eerie and wasn't sure why he would have said that so confidently, or even at all.

Charlie Bob came back a few weeks later and installed our blinds during a work day, so my mother-in-law met him at the house for us and hung out while he put all the blinds up. He texted me the next day to see if we liked his work and after that interaction, we never saw him or talked to him again.

Ok. Ready for the part that makes the story? I found out I was pregnant a week later.

Now, I'm not claiming an immaculate conception or anything because we obviously know how we got pregnant. But for two years we tried to have a healthy baby and couldn't, and then suddenly Charlie Bob shows up at our house and BAM. Without doing anything different than what we've been doing, we are blessed with a chromosomally, as far as we know from tests we've done so far, healthy baby.

So that is the story of the magical Charlie Bob. Chuck and I are convinced that Charlie Bob is our Clarence (from It's a Wonderful Life.) We're convinced if we tried calling him again, his number would be disconnected. We're convinced that Melody has a direct line to God, that she asked him to send us help, and He did. He sent us our guardian angel, who apparently is an older man named Charlie Bob who wears overalls and does a seriously great job hanging blinds.







Thursday, March 9, 2017

Chuck Turned 30

A couple weeks ago on February 17th, Chuck turned 30.

I tried to make his entrance into a new decade special and memorable, starting the night before his birthday when after everything he did I would say something like "ohhhhh it's the last teeth-brushing of your 20s!" which may have been more annoying to him than memorable but, it was fun for me! But in all seriousness, I did try to make it as fun and memorable as I could because he deserves a memorable goodbye to one decade (which was pretty amazing for him) and a big welcome to the next decade (which will probably be even more amazing.) Also, he's just pretty great and I really like him and planning celebrations for people is my love language.

On his birthday, he had to go into work for a little bit that morning but I got him to leave by lunchtime and we met up with his sister Shannon and 2 of our nieces to start the weekend of celebrations.


With a couple of hours to kill before our dinner plans, we weren't sure what to do so we ended up at a bowling alley where I obviously let him beat me 3 games in a row since it was his birthday. :)


That evening, we met up with our family at a Hibachi grill, where we surprised Chuck with our group gift of a ping pong table that was not only already purchased, but already set up and ready to play on in our basement because our awesome dads snuck in and set it up that morning while Chuck was at work!


As you can tell, he was pretty excited.

Then it was on to the next surprise location, Great Flood Brewery where a bunch of our family and friends were waiting with beer, cake, balloons, and some I Heart Chuckie stickers- a throwback from when Chuck ran for Class President as a freshman in high school and handed out stickers with that slogan on them for his campaign. (Yes of course he won the election, and stickers were soon banned from Eastern High School because those things were on EVERYTHING in the building.)




Henry got to stay out late and party, too!




Of course the celebrations didn't stop there, because there's always a party after the after party! A bunch of friends came back to our house from Great Flood to help us break in the new ping pong table. We played from about 10:30pm until 3am so I'd say the table got broken in pretty well. We created a bracket and held the very first tournament on the table. And because our basement is still mostly empty because we need a lot of furniture in our house and furniture is expensive, all our friends got to sit on the floor when they weren't playing! (sorry, friends)


The tournament came down to the final 2....

and the birthday boy emerged victorious! (Please pay close attention to the region names and ignore the fact that we don't know really how to draw a bracket for 13 people.)




Even though his birthday was technically over, I had one more surprise for him on Saturday which was to go to Breakout Louisville with some of our friends I had convinced to celebrate Chuck's birthday for a second day in a row. Breakout Louisville was SO. MUCH. FUN. and we all wanted to go do another one as soon as we were done. We broke out of our room but with only 4 minutes to spare. It was way harder than I anticipated and also way more fun. We felt just like Nicolas Cage in National Treasure.



And that pretty much sums up his birthday weekend! I'd say it was definitely one to remember.

Oh and if you're wondering if I spent all of his birthday reminding him of things like "awwww, first french fries of your 30s!" the answer is DUH.