Meeting the Neighbors

Last night was interesting enough that I wanted to share. We met up with 3 other families adopting in our group. These three families are all adopting for the first time. One family is having their first child tomorrow. There mother is here with them. The second family has 3 boys and is adopting a little girl. And the third has 3 boys in college and they are starting over with a 2 year old! We all went to Wal-Mart together last night. It was such a surreal experience, watching everyone hunt for things they don't know if they need or not. We are all nerves and excitement.  And tomorrow we all become parents together. Such a bizarre experience to meet someone and to know in less than 24 hours you will share is on of life's most intimate moments.

We will all receive our babes at the same time, in the same room, with a massive gamut of experiences. We will spend the next two weeks together as we sign paperwork, travel around and learn to bond with our little ones. And then we all go our separate ways. There are really hardly words for this experience.

There is also a couple going with us that live in the area. They are considering adoption and wanted to see what tomorrow brings. I will be interested to get their perspective. On a brighter note...they helped us order dinner last night, which was such a gift. Eating really is one of the hardest experiences of this trip. Very few people speak English (I sure don't speak Chinese!) so trying to order looks more like a comedy sketch. So it felt good to sit with locals and not feel like such a foreigner...at least for 5 minutes.