Dinner with Dawne

Work didn't yield much interesting news to share with the class, so I'll just fast-forward to the fun part of my day.

When Joe and I left Cincinnati, one of our biggest regrets was leaving behind our in-home daycare provider, Mindi. She was the first and only daycare Sydni had attended up to that point, and we loved everything about it. In our eyes, Mindi had set a standard for daycare that we were nearly certain we wouldn't be able to find anywhere else. It wasn't much of a concern for a little while; I didn't get to work immediately after our relocation, but the time came for me to go ahead and make the transition back into Express, at the local office here, and thus Sydni would need somewhere to spend the day. 


dawne [on the right]
love her. :) really do!

 We weighed our options, and decided to try out the on-base in-home daycare program that was offered to enlisted families. We matched ourselves up with a gal, but after a few months, it was simply too taxing mentally to keep up with unreasonable requests [such as, the supposed mandate to at least offer my child milk even after we'd specifically requested she not for a few days]. It seemed that each time one of us arrived to get her, there was some unecessary bit of advice or rant to be offered. They fell eventually on deaf ears, for ours were honed into finding the quickest possible remedy to what had become a real headache.

There's no doubt in my mind that a God-intervened thing took place when I found Dawne through a Craigslist search for in-home daycare. This is just another testament to my faith in Craigslist; Mindi had been a result of Craigslist digging back in Cinci when I'd first started with Express, and we couldn't have been more thrilled. It only took a few short weeks for me to connect with Dawne, and after just the initial conversation, I was pretty sold on the whole thing. Once Joe and I had the chance to visit her home and meet her, we were entirely certain this was the best move. We jumped, and I am SO, SO, SO glad we did. She is amazing!

With Joe being out of town, Dawne and I figured it was time we got together and did dinner. We decided on Texas Roadhouse [hello, sweet potato] and met there with Sydni this evening to grub and have a conversation lasting longer than the 5 minute standard each time I pick Sydni up after work. I realized tonight how very blessed we are with Dawne and everything she does for us and for Syd. She loves that kid almost as much as we do, and I have no doubt in my mind that she's well cared for whenever we leave her [even for the overnighters, which we've done!].

We've since returned home and Syd's down for the count. I'm about to follow suit.....

Joe gets home tomorrow.
JOE GETS HOME TOMORROW.
HALLELUJAH.

*can't wait!!

xo | cmd