My Warcraft Baby

As I was adding a post to Jame0223's thread about baby names, I realized that if it weren't for the company Blizzard, and their series of games in the Warcraft family ...I would not be where I am today.  =D

Probably about six years ago, when I was playing Warcraft III, I fell in love with the name Jiana.  I had wanted to make a new username for something, and thought of a character from Warcraft.  However, I ended up misspelling Jaina Proudmoore's name ...and ended up with Jiana.  =D  A couple years later, I decided it would be a perfect name for my future daughter.

In December of 2004, I started playing Blizzard's latest incarnation of Warcraft ... the World of Warcraft.  It is a massively multiplayer online role playing game ... millions of people all around the (real) world can sign on and play as an elf, dwarf, orc, tauren, etc.  You kill stuff, you do quests, you get neat items, and you meet lots of people you wouldn't normally get to meet.

But it was in August 2006 that I met the most important person I will ever meet ... my husband.  I was playing one of my lower level characters (my cute little warlock, Josei!) and had been invited to a group to go thru the Deadmines.  I flew all the way there, only to be told by the group leader that his (very high level) guildmate was going to come with them, so they were kicking the last person to join ...which was me!  However, another one of our group members, a warrior named Vallangaard, kindly offered to leave the group so I could stay.  I didn't think it was fair to him and left the group myself.  I sent Vallangaard a tell (in-game message that only that character can see) and told him what happened.  So he invited me and another of the prior groups party members into a new group.  We found two more people and ran thru the Deadmines ... all of us had a great time ... laughing, joking, getting killed by those darn goblins in the boiler room...

But I was intrigued by this person who gave up his spot for me ...someone he didn't know.  I continued to talk to him over the next few weeks if I saw him online.  He was always very polite, but seemed to kind of keep his distance (which, I found out later, was because he assumes all female characters in the game are actually just men! lol).  One day, I was having trouble with my graphics, and he offered to help me out.  He gave me his cell phone number, so I did *67 ('cause truthfully I didn't *really* know him and didn't want him to have my number!) and called him.  From there it was history.  =D

We talked and talked and talked nearly everyday on the phone.  We would play Warcraft together ... he would play songs on the bass or air drum for me on the webcam ... and did I mention we talked a lot on the phone??  lol  Then, in April 2007, I flew to Nebraska to meet him.  It was the most wonderful four days ever!!  And in June, he came to Florida and met my parents and spent a week with me.  He even got to go to the beach for the first time in his life.  =D  In July, I moved from FL to NE and have been here over a year!  

We are now expecting our first child together in January ...and if it's a girl, her name will be Jiana.  If it weren't for WoW, I never would have met my Prince Charming, and would not have the beautiful name Jiana to bestow upon our daughter.  So to all those people working for Blizzard ... THANK YOU!!  =D