My Single Mom Life

Their anniversary was yesterday, May 6th, but Mark didn't remind me until this afternoon, so we called George and Amy to wish them a happy 4th anniversary.
I can't believe it's been 4 years already, wow, I remember the wedding like it was just yesterday.

For those of you who may be new to my blog, George is Mark's "Big", as in Big Brother.
Mark and George have been together since he was 8 years old, so 9 years now, and it's a perfect match still.
When we signed up to get him a Big, Mark was very specific, he wanted either a cop or a lawyer, but if one of those wasn't available, he wanted someone who had something to do with law, a judge, a bailiff, a courtroom worker, a prison officer, whatever, as long as they did something with the law.
What's really cool about their match is the day after we signed Mark up, George signed up to be a Big.
We didn't know him, so we had nothing to do with him signing up, it just worked out perfectly that he did.
When the Big caseworker who signed up George and ran the background checks on him told him that just the day before, an 8 year old boy had specifically asked for a cop, George said that becoming a Big was something he had been thinking about for a long time, but on the morning that he chose to go down and sign up, he said he had this overwhelming feeling to go do it that day, to not postpone it again, so he went.
George was a detective in Washington DC for 25 years.
He's seen a lot, done a lot, and been a huge and truly positive influence in Mark's life.
Mark and George have been best of friends since the very first day they met right here in our living room.
Mark was so excited to have him in his life, he took him around the house and showed him every room, all his favorite toys, and introduced him to the cats.
George is highly allergic to cats, but he pet them all anyway, and whenever he comes over, I lock all of the cats in my room and I vac the rugs twice before he gets here, and I take all of the furniture covers off the leather couches so there is no cat hair anywhere so that he can breathe a little easier while he's in here.
George has also helped Mark figure out all of the steps he needs to take to become a cop himself, so that's been very helpful to all of us.
I didn't even know where to begin to help Mark figure out what to do to fulfill his dream.

Anyway, it's their anniversary, and they were planning on taking another trip, they like going on cruises, but George had spine fusion almost 5 months ago, and he's still not feeling quite up to doing too much physical activity.
I talked to him a little bit on the phone this afternoon before I handed the phone to Mark, and that's what we talked about.
He said he doesn't know how I do it, he was only fused in 2 vertebrae, and here I am fused the entire lentgh of my spine and having another one next month to try and correct my head placement.
He asked me how I am in the morning because he is so stiff when he first gets out of bed, he said it takes him about an hour before he can really do anything.
I said to him, "Yeah, I know, that first hour is so stiff and painful, I get up, walk all hunched over to the bathroom, go pee, get a drink, and sit down in my chair to take all my meds, and then wait an hour before I can do anything else physical."
He said that's exactly what he does too, and that he's having some trouble going for walks, his left leg starts to tingle like pins and needles, after about 15 minutes or so.
That will eventually go away, I told him, but it could take up to a year for it to completely stop with the numbness and needles feeling.
I've been sliced over twice now, so I still get pins and needles and the numbness a lot, and I'm sure I'll get it even more after the next surgery.
I told him that the older the patient, the longer it takes to heal up, too, that young patients, like under the age of 35, heal up almost completely 100% in about 8 months, whereas us old folks, can take a full year or longer depending on how big the fusion is.

So anyway, instead of taking a cruise, they are just going to do a small romantic weekend somewhere here in Florida, next weekend.
He has an art project he needs to finish for a client, (he's an artist) and Amy has to complete something she's working on too.
I hope that whatever it is that they do, that they have a good time, they deserve it.
They are such wonderful people and I am so glad that George is in Mark's life.
He's really made a difference, and the Big program is a great thing, it really makes a difference in kids lives, so if you've ever wanted to do some sort of volunteering dealing with kids, wanted to help and make a positive difference for a kid, check out the BBS, you could do something really amazing for a kid by just being their friend and mentor.