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I received the perfect gift on my birthday Friday--notification that our Article 5 has been processed! Now, we await travel approval from China. This is the last step before...planning travel!!! Yes--it is still possible that we will be drinking green beer in China for St. Patty's Day.

To celebrate this year, we decided to head down to Boca with Bubba and Grandpa to show Madi the ballroom and courtyard where our wedding reception took place years ago. There was an AFLAC event taking place that evening and the doors were locked since they were still setting up. We found a nice woman who took us into the ballroom for a sneak peek. I think Madi was thrown off by the massive 3D duck logo plastered across the wall. You could see that she looked slightly confused and maybe a bit disappointed that the room looked less romantic than she expected!

We had planned to have dinner at an "upscale" Chinese restaurant in the same plaza. Though the food was amazingly tasty, our experience was less than authentic. No little crunchy noodles on the table, no hot tea offered to us, and when Madi politely asked for a fortune cookie at the end our our meal, we were told that they don't have fortune cookies there! Oh well, we still managed to have some laughs and enjoy a fun evening of celebrating so many milestones.

Last year, I spent my birthday bonding with Daniel and looking forward to sharing many more with him. We had been together only 4 days. Just another reminder how precious and fragile our lives are. Live them to the fullest...