300th post!!!!

This is my 300th post!!

I just finished my 300 items. It ended up reading more as a life story though.
I plan on doing them over 3 days 100 at a time so it doesn't seem to overwhelming!

Enjoy!


1. I was born on January 6th 1971
2. I was born at Butterworth hospital
3. I was born as Sandra Lynn McDowell
4. I spent the first 5 days in the hospital with my birthmother.
5. I was sent to a Foster home in Grand Rapids when I was 5 days old.
6. My parents picked went to pick me up when I was 7 weeks old
7. They were so sad because the day they were to bring me home there was an ice storm
8. They were told to come back the next day because the foster mom didn’t dare let me go in that
9. My adoption was final in February of 1972.
10. It was a very good day for me!! J
11. This is going to take me a long time to finish
12. I grew up in Byron center, Michigan
13. I only moved once when I was 6 months old.
14. We lived in a small house and my parents built a house next door up on a pretty hill.
15. I lived in that house for 18 ½ years.
16. When I was in Kindergarten I met my friend Beth on the bus. We sat in the back and ate
17. Twinkies together.
18. We have now been friends for 31 years.
19. Amazing that there is someone out there that knows me that well!!
20. I was a blonde until I turned 6. I know someone of you will go “I thought so!”LOL
21. I made my first trip to Florida when I was 5 years old.
22. We went to Disney and I was just in awe.
23. We ran into my grandparents at the park. I had no idea they were going to be there!
24. A little known tidbit about my grand parents.
25. They were offered land in Florida near Orland.
26. They didn’t buy it.
27. Years later this land became Disney world
28. I remember the winter blizzards so well.
29. We would have to take our snowmobile to get groceries
30. It seemed like so much fun back then.
31. Not so much fun to me now.
32. I went to Brown elementary in Byron Center. This was Kindergarten
33. I went to Ryder elementary 1st-4th grade
34. I went to Brown Elementary again for 5th grade.
35. Middle school was Byron center Middle school.
36. I went to Byron center High school
37. Graduated in 1989
38. I turned 16 years old in 1987.
39. I met Nathan in May of 1987. He was a senior at Unity Christian
40 we met at a friend’s graduation party
41. We were just friends at first
42. When we were just friends he sat at my house outside until 2:30 one morning.
43. His parents called the police because they thought he was dead in a ditch somewhere.
44. He was grounded the next day.
45. I don’t think his parents thought much of me! J
46. Later his parents liked me a lot! J
47. Nate had this old firebird that you could hear coming from a mile away. It was great.
48. My dad had a fit because his tired were bald
49. We didn’t care.
50. It was so loud that you couldn’t hear each other talk
50. No wonder we got a long so well.
51. We knew each other 3 months as friends before we officially were dating.
52. We used to do thing all the time that were spontaneous.
53. One time we were headed down to Shipshewana
54. We had a car broadside us
55. We both ended up having to go to the hospital in 3 rivers
56. Nathan had to have stitches in his head and X-rays.
57. Lets just say it hurt really bad.
58. I had to have X-rays to on my neck but they were all good.
59. My mom drove all the way down to pick us up.
60. We were both okay but Nate had a concussion because he didn’t wear his seat belt.
61. He now always wears his seat belt
62. His car was totaled.
63. One time Nate called me up when I was 16 and asked me what I was doing for the day.
64. We ended up in Chicago for a long fun day.
65. One time we ended up at Cedar Point.
66. Nathan used to work for John’s friendly used cars in Allendale
67. I used to go with him to pick up cars from Detroit
68. His boss used to give him the rest of the day off and we would spend the day in Detroit.
69 Nate became a plumber in 1988
70. We were engaged in June of 1989. Just a few days after I graduated.
71. I was 18 years old
72. Nathan was 20.
73. My mom was not happy because we fought all the time.
74. We dated 3 ½ years before we got married.
75. We were married on October 26th, 1990
76. At the time I worked at Pine Rest Christian health services.
77. I worked there for 10 years in housekeeping.
78. On our honeymoon we spent almost 10 days in Florida.
79. It was Nathan’s first time in Florida
80. We spent most of that time in Disney world
81. We spent another week at home.
82. When we arrive home our families had decided to trash our house.
83. They thought it was quite funny.
84. If I remember right I cried.
85. That first winter Nathan was laid off for 4 months.
86. I only worked on-call and every other weekend.
87. Our first house was in Grand Rapids. It was a two family.
88. Our renters saved us that first few months of being married.
89. It was the only way we could pay bills and buy food.
90. Every Monday Nate would get paid and we would get groceries and have dinner at Denny’s
91. After living in Grand Rapids we moved to Jenison
92. After moving to Jenison I ended up getting chicken pox from my brother. It was 1995
93. Thank Goodness they were not bad
94. In 1995 we also found out we could not have children.
95. We started looking in adoption.
96. We first called Bethany’s domestic program
97. They told us it could be up to 12 years before we were picked for a baby.
98. That depressed us
99. We then called Bethany’s International program.
100. I had read an article that Russia would be opening its door to families that wanted to adopt

to be continued tomorrow.........