"The Book of Me, Written by You" - First Present or Gift

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

The prompt for the week is:    

First Present or Gift

The Brief:

• Can you remember it?
• Who bought it for you?
• Do you still have it?
• Pictures or a description 
• Other special gifts?

I've talked a bit about what I remember about some of my presents when I was small in my posting about Toys and Games growing up a few posts ago. 

This time, however, its about my first presents and gifts. One of my first presents was what we affectionately call "my baby" (see picture below). This was given to my mother and I when I was born and it had flowers coming out of it. I don't know who gave it to me as a gift. As you can see, I still have it, although it has seen better days with all the cracks and breaks. Over the years its been glued, taped and tried to use silly putty trying to keep it together. Since moving into our current home, nearly 14 years ago, its sat on the shelf in the back room with other things that mean a lot to us. This is one of the few things I have of my childhood and cherish it dearly.

My "baby" from one of the first presents I ever got

Up until the time I was making plans to move from the US to Australia in 1996-1997, I had a baby book as well. My mother handed it to me and I put it with other important papers. In late 1996, I visited Australia to see what it was like, what it would be like living here, and other related things. We were about 95% sure I would be the one moving, but I wanted to make sure I could live here. There's nothing like experiencing where you'd be living in. During that trip, I brought over my baby book which my eldest sister, Theresa, filled out mostly for me. However, I hadn't gone through it due to not having the time. My mother handed it to me right before I got on the plane for the visit. I brought it along because I figured I'd leave it here in Australia, so that way nothing would happen to it.

One of the few pictures of me growing up

Little did I know, that someone would come into my soon to be father in law's house, walk into my fiancee's room and start a fire. This fire would claim my baby book and most of my childhood photos. This devastated me because little of my childhood that I knew about was in that book and was just - gone.

1997 a write up in the local newspaper about the fire

However, I had to pull up my grown up pants and move on to what was important - my fiancee, things like shelter, food, and clothing. Then approximately 2 weeks later, we married.

My husband and I on our wedding day in 1997.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.