a tale of two birds

I'm not particularly interested in bird ornaments but as soon as I saw these a few years ago I had to have them. I bought two—I just couldn't buy one. You'll understand why in a minute. They have a special meaning to us. I thought today would be a good time to share why.



Mr. Z and I met when we were teenagers but didn't officially start dating until I went to back to Colombia (where he lived and we met) on a Christmas break during the junior year of my second BA. I'll give you a minute to re-read that.

We saw each other the day after my arrival. It had been 7 years since the last time we had seen each other and the sparks finally started flying. I had always considered him 'just a friend' but the time we shared together during that holiday visit changed everything. We were together almost every day.

I had to come back to school in January and we weren't sure what was going to happen with our relationship but we knew it was the real deal. Living thousands of miles away kept us on the phone a lot. The bills were outrageous! This was all pre-internet video and emails just weren't enough for us.

So what does this all have to do with a pair of cardinals? At the time, I was living in a third-floor dorm room that was next to a big tree. My bed was next to the window and I'd sit there while I was on the phone. One day, while talking to Mr. Z, I noticed a pair of cardinals land on the branch closest to my window. They were really striking and they loved singing a lot. Here's the weird part. Every time after that and over the course of about a month, whenever Mr. Z called me the birds would show up. Every single time. They'd always perch themselves on a branch close to my window. As soon as we'd hang up they'd leave. Every single time. I mentioned this to Mr. Z and he eventually got used to asking if the birds were there. My reply was typically, "They just got here." I remember that one time I stuck my phone out of the window so he could hear them singing. It was really strange but it felt like a sign—a good one. That's the way we took it.

So now we have our two little birds that remind us of this story every time we pull them out so they can hang out and visit on our Christmas tree.

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Side story - Little C spotted a snow globe that she asked me to buy her. My reflex was to say no (I hadn't planned on purchasing anything ) but as soon as I saw it we had to have it. It has cardinals sitting around a snowy pine tree.

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By the way, Crafty Synergy is a Blog of Note today! Kind of funny after all the fuss of being blocked a few weeks back. Thanks Blogger!