[Games] Re: 20 year game - stole from NamesAreAwesome
I was feeling creative, so I turned mine into a bit of a narrative story.
LN: Bailey
DH: Oliver Lauren (25)
Hair: Short, straight, sandy brown
Eyes: Light blue
DW: Erin Ness (24)
Hair: Long, wavy, strawberry blonde
Eyes: Brown
Hi! I’m Erin Bailey, and this is my husband Oliver. He works as a journalist on our local newspaper here in Australia, and I’m a freelance photographer. I occasionally do work for Oliver’s paper, though. That’s how we met two years ago. Oliver was writing the story the newspaper wanted me to take photos for. We ended up collaborating to figure out what was best for the story, and we hit things off. We just married a month ago, and we’re excited to see what comes next!
1) We’ve been married for a year now. It’s been great, but we haven’t really gotten out of our own little world yet. Even for our honeymoon, we stayed in Australia. We just travelled to the coast. We decided it was time to go on a proper honeymoon, though, so we’re going to Europe. We plan to visit England, Scotland, and Wales before hopping across the “pond” to visit France, Germany, and a few other countries. We’re both beyond excited for this since neither of us travelled much as kids.
2) Oliver and I decided to adopt a pet. We love animals. He’s more of a reptile person, though, where I prefer things with fur. We were talking about adopting a dog or a cat, but we decided to go with something a little smaller. Somehow, we ended up with a gerbil. We decided to call it George. George the Gerbil, you know?
3) We decided to take another vacation. We enjoyed our first true vacation so much, we decided to travel a bit more. This time, we’re going to the United States. We’re going to try to visit all 50 states while we’re there.
4) We adopted another pet this year. We’re starting to see a bit of a trend, too. Vacation, pet, vacation, pet. Anyway, we got a horse this time! A friend of Oliver’s owns a stable near our house, so he’s helping us take care of it.
5) It’s Oliver’s 30th birthday this year, so we had a huge party for him. Oliver’s entire family came into town, and most of his friends came to celebrate, too. It was a big deal, and we had a ton of fun.
6) I started a new hobby this year. I’m making beaded jewelry now. I mostly just give it to my friends and family as gifts, but I’m trying to sell some of it, too. It’s a fun hobby, but it can get a little expensive.
7) This year was the best year for us! It was a massive shock, but Oliver and I had our first child! We had a baby boy. Daniel James has straight blonde hair and brown eyes. He’s so cute!
8) Our neighbors had a baby this year. They were really excited, but they were nervous, too. Nathan, the baby’s dad, has been laid off for a while. They were worried about how they were going to pay for everything. The whole neighborhood got together to celebrate and to provide the family with diapers, bottles, and everything else they’d need.
9) Oliver and I decided to adopt a child this year. Daniel is two years old now, and we thought it would be nice for him to have a little brother. We adopted one year old Félix Quentin from France. He has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He and Daniel get along really well.
10) Not long after welcoming Félix into our family, we found out I was pregnant again. We had a little girl this time. Gemma Mykaela has the same straight blonde hair as Daniel, but she has hazel eyes. We’re not quite sure where that came from since nobody in the family has ever had hazel eyes.
11) We got another pet this year. Oliver said the horse we got 7 years ago was mine. Midnight is getting old now, and I’m afraid to ride her anymore. Oliver got a second horse for us. Peanut Butter is little more than a foal, but she’s a sweet horse who isn’t afraid of anybody.
12) It was my parents’ 40th Anniversary this year, so we had a huge family reunion to celebrate. My four sisters were there with their husbands and kids, and my brother brought his wife and kids. Daniel, Félix, and Gemma had fun playing with all their cousins, and Oliver and I enjoyed catching up with my family.
13) We had a reunion with my family last year, so we got together with Oliver’s family for Christmas this year. His sister has a huge house, so we met out there. Oliver has nine siblings, so it was absolute chaos. It was a ton of fun, too, though. Oliver’s brother’s kids are a little older, so they helped take care of the younger cousins. They didn’t seem to mind, and who were we to object?
14) Oliver and I decided to move this year. Daniel’s in school now, but we didn’t really like the school we put him in. We found a better school, unfortunately, it was two hours away. We moved into a slightly bigger house closer to the school. We’re happier here.
15) I don’t know how, but apparently my photography caught the attention of National Geographic. They’re sending me on an all-expenses paid trip to India to take photos for a new series they’re doing. I’m amazed, shocked, and excited all at once.
16) We adopted two kids from Africa this year. Farai and Tichaona are 13 year old twin brothers from Kenya. They’ve grown up with very little, and are thrilled to have been adopted by a family like ours. They’re excited to have a family, too. They pretty much had only each other to depend on before now. Daniel, Félix, and Gemma are excited to have two older brothers as well. Farai and Tichaona both have dark skin, rough, somewhat curly black hair, and really dark brown eyes.
17) Much to our surprise, we found out I was pregnant again after adopting Farai and Tichaona. Even more surprising was the fact that we had triplets. All three are girls. Anna Marie has my wavy hair, but it’s the same sandy brown as Oliver’s. She also has Oliver’s light blue eyes. Mary Lynn has curly brown hair. Frankly, we have no idea how she got that since Oliver’s is straight and sandy brown, and mine is curly and strawberry blonde. She did get the same light blue eyes that Anna got, though. Finally, Katherine (Kate) Elizabeth got my hair. It’s the same wavy strawberry blonde. The one surprise with her, though, was that she ended up with green eyes.
18) This year was a very difficult one for us. Oliver got into a horrible head-on collision with another driver after picking up the kids from school one day. Daniel, Félix, Gemma, Farai, and Tichaona were all in the car with him. The other driver was going the wrong way, and he hit the car so hard, the front seats folded into the rear of the car, and the whole front was crushed like a cardboard box. Oliver and Farai were in the front of the car, so they got the brunt of the impact. The rest of the kids were pretty banged up, too. Gemma, thank god, ended up with a broken arm and a minor concussion, but nothing more. Félix ended up with several broken ribs, a broken arm, and a horrible gash across his face that’ll leave a permanent scar, but beyond that, he was okay. Daniel’s biggest injury was a broken neck. Thankfully, it didn’t sever his spinal cord or any other important nerves, so he can still walk. His memory is still fully intact, too. He had a few cuts and bruises, too, but compared to his neck, they were nothing. Tichaona dislocated his shoulder and shattered his right kneecap. He had to have surgery so they could put a plate in his knee, but he didn’t really care about that. He was more concerned for his brother. Farai got hit pretty badly. The impact threw him around the car, but at the same time, his seatbelt held him in place. That meant his body twisted in a few ways in shouldn’t have. He snapped his back, the pressure from the belt throwing him back in his seat caused one of his lungs to collapse, and his left leg got caught in the wreckage when the car folded in on itself. For a while, we honestly weren’t sure if he was going to make it. The doctors had him in a medically induced coma for quite some time. They knew he had severed his spinal cord, but they weren’t sure if there was going to be any brain damage, too. Poor Tichaona was worried sick. As soon as he was able to leave his own bed, he went to Farai’s room, and refused to leave again. The nurses finally squeezed an extra cot into the room to keep Tichaona from sleeping in the chair next to Farai’s bed. Oliver had several broken bones and slight memory loss from hitting his head on the dashboard before it crumpled, but he was more concerned with the kids than himself. We were lucky that everybody survived. Farai finally pulled through, but he’s paralyzed from the waist down, the leg that got caught in the wreckage was amputated just above the knee, and despite the fact that the doctors were able to get his lung working again, he’ll have some trouble breathing for the rest of his life. We found out that “Tichaona” means “we will see” and “Farai” means “rejoice.” This year, we did see. We saw how strong and caring Tichaona and our family is. We also had a lot to celebrate and plenty of reason to rejoice when everybody pulled through. Our boys are aptly named.
19) Everybody has mostly recovered from the horrors of last March, but the memory of what happened has been hanging over the house like a plague. We wanted to escape it for a while, but unfortunately, we still had massive medical bills to pay. Our family amazed us, though, and helped us in so many ways. Oliver’s oldest sister organized it. She contacted his entire family and my entire family. Everybody pulled together (behind our backs, mind you), paid the rest of our medical bills before telling us their plan, and then said they were sending us to Japan for three weeks. We’ll never be able to repay everybody, but from the looks on their faces when Oliver and I broke down after hearing the news, I know that’s all they needed.
20) Wow, twenty years have just flown by. We’re amazed at how fast everything has gone. This year, we took it easy. We didn’t go on any crazy vacations, nobody got hurt, and we decided we’re happy keeping our family at 10. All we did this year was adopt a dog. Farai is still getting used to the fact that he can’t run around and play with his siblings like he used to be able to. Oliver and I watch him struggle every day, and it just breaks our hearts. We got him a dog to hopefully lift his spirits. So far, it’s working. He can sit on the living room rug or out in the yard, and play with Charlie without having to move too much. He can also tie the leash to his wheelchair and take Charlie for a walk. He loves the dog, and the dog clearly loves him. He rarely leaves Farai’s side. Hopefully the next twenty years will be just as exciting, but only in a good way!
LN: Bailey
DH: Oliver Lauren (45)
DW: Erin Ness (44)
ADS/ADS: Farai/Tichaona (17)
DS: Daniel James (13)
ADS: Félix Quentin (12)
DD: Gemma Mykaela (10)
DD/DD/DD: Anna Marie/Mary Lynn/Katherine Elizabeth “Kate” (3)
DGerbil: George
DHorse: Midnight
DHorse: Peanut Butter
DDog: Charlie