Weekend Getaway

Mark and I went to Indianapolis for a little weekend getaway to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. My supervisor at Purdue and our friend, Denise, was kind enough to let us use her condo in Indy. It was so nice to have a 'home-base' and be able to go shopping and out to eat without having to drive back to Lafayette last night. Especially given that it was very rainy and stormy on Saturday night.

Thanks to a tip from Denise, we wandered around a store called World Market. Think Pier 1 but larger and not as expensive. They've got everything from furniture to gift wrap to international foods. We had a great time exploring! I fell in love with these two little guys -- on clearance for just $5 each. How could I resist? They have found a new home in Baby Ailor's room.

We also shopped at Trader Joe's and stocked up on some of our favorite goodies, like Indian curries and chocolate covered pretzels. Then we went to dinner at Sangiovese Ristorante in Castleton, another great suggestion from Denise (by the way, thank you Denise!) We went to Italy for our honeymoon and have started a tradition of going out for a wonderful Italian meal to celebrate our anniversaries. The food was delicious! And here is our annual anniversary photo for the scrapbook. : )

Now that our dossier has been sent to Ethiopia, I think that the reality of our long wait for Baby Ailor is setting in. I got kind of emotional today when we stopped at Babies 'R Us. I thought it would be fun to wander around and look at all of the baby gear. It seemed like absolutely everyone in the store was either pregnant or had young children with them. It was kind of overwhelming -- on many levels. I know that our day will come! For lunch, we returned to Machu Picchu, the restaurant we went to on Mark's birthday last fall when Abyssinia was closed. We talked alot about the next year and the things that we'd like to focus on and projects we'd like to complete. Mark proved again what a wonderful husband he is ... cheering me up and helping me to focus on all that we have to look forward to. I'm so glad that we balance each other out in this way ... when I'm having a bad day, he lifts me up. When he's having a bad day, I am able to cheer him up. He's the best!

We drove home from Indy in the snow -- yes, snow! Ugh. But hopefully last night's rain will help our newly planted grass seed to grow. At least we didn't have the bad storms/tornadoes/hail that my parent's did in PA -- wow! I'm looking forward to a fun week ... our anniversary on Tuesday, hopefully dinner with the Harrison Hall girls one night, and a fashion show and black tie dinner on Saturday. But mostly I'm looking forward to knowing that our dossier will land in Ethiopia ... they will have our names and know that we can't wait to become parents. I am especially thinking of our new friends the Gutweins tonight. Their trip to pick-up their son in Ethiopia has been delayed. Please keep them in your thoughts.