The USMC always has plans so we moved to Mandeville March 2003. Scott took a position in New Orleans. Our move was a nightmare. My car wouldn't start at our 1st gas stop in N.C. The fuel pump decided to die! I had the dogs, cats, kids, fish and frogs in my car and Scott was towing his "baby" behind his truck. We had to leave my car and keep going after Scott re-configured our load which was a lot that wouldn't let the movers touch! Remember photo albums? Not the same security as digital. Those were albums from my whole life so they were in tubs that weighed hundreds of pounds. Lets don't forget the doll collection and other things no one wants movers to touch. We crammed into Scott's big truck. After a while we decided to off load his Impala (this was a 96 that he had drag raced in and it had a new engine:). We were in rush hour traffic in very hot weather in Charlotte and Scott called me to tell me to turn off the air for fear that it would hurt his new engine. That did NOT go over well! The sun was bearing down and I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We were only about 3 hours from GA where we would be stopping for the night and then poor Eric lost it! Unconsolable! We had to stop at a Motel and of course we couldn't leave all the stuff in the truck so Scott had to off load it all into a hotel room while me and the kids and pets stayed in another room. I am surprised we stayed married after that move! We laugh about this now but it was NOT SPECIAL! After a few days, we made our way to LA. The culture was totally different than any place we ever lived. Very interesting and VERY HOT! Neverthless, we made a home there and enjoyed all of the unique things LA has to offer. We had begun our adoption process for Kelli Ann back in VA. I traveled to China in May 2004. Kelli Ann was born in Guangdong Province, PRC. She was 15 months old on Gotcha Day May 9th which happened to be Mother's Day! What a great day that was! Kelli Ann was such a sweet little baby. She was a little stunned by it all. I promptly got out the cheerios and juice and she stopped crying. We got to stay in the White Swan the entire trip. It was a pleasant trip and not too stressful since there was no in-country travel. We toured around and saw the sights and got to know each other. We came home a week later. Lindsay and Eric were happy their mama was home and happy to see their new sister. Kelli Ann settled in very well. All was going well until...
Scott was deployed to Iraq August 2004 thru March 2005. Not fun! I learned a lot about myself during those 7 months ( I am not complaining because 7 months is nothing compared to so many service member's tours). During that time, Ivan was coming and we had to evacuate to MS. After he came home, we had many evacuations up to Katrina. We were lucky. Our house wasn't destroyed and I decided it was time to move since we had begun our 4th adoption. I couldn't take it anymore! ha ha Katrina was so shocking. If you didn't live there, you couldn't understand the magnitude of the devastation and ripple effects even by seeing it on TV. It was the saddest, scariest thing I have ever been thru. We did have to deal with 9-11 and the Sniper back in VA but this was the worst! I decided that we were being followed by disasters after dealing with all of that. Luckily, we sold our home and moved to GA in January 2006. It was good to be home!
The moment Kelli Ann was put in my arms.
The morning Scott was picked up to leave for Iraq.
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