GotchaBaby

My adventures in the artsy-phartsy bar district in town have been varied over the years. Most involve large amounts of alcohol, listening to bands, seeing comedians, walking around the canal, and sharing food with friends. My roommate and I used to dance the night away at Eden–you know, 11pm-2am on weeknights. We used to drink $1.50 U-Call its til 12am. We used to be SO cool. Here’s a THEN and NOW look at how we spend our time there–

February 1995:

We go out to celebrate my friend’s 21st birthday. We find a man (he was so old–like 26)who finds us amusing. So amusing he runs a tab for us on his American Express card. When we are sufficiently schnockered we head out to call our under 21 friend for a ride (no cellphones then)–we find a payphone, but seriously, cannot dial. So we find a man (we called him Red–because he had red hair) who graciously dials the # for us. He waits with us outside the BroadRipple Steakhouse until our ride appears. He doesn’t even leave when the birthday girl pukes in the bushes.

February 2006:

We are gearing up for the Babe’s 6month birthday. We’re going to one of our favorite burrito places that night. We have her outfit all picked out–we can’t wait! We’ll have to move quickly though–she goes to sleep at 7:30pm. The good thing is that that is still mid-afternoon Broad Ripple time.

DINK= Double Income, No Kids. Very popular term in the 80’s….as in , “The DINKS next door just got a new BMW” or picture the couple who lives next door to the Griswalds in Christmas Vacation. Ok, we weren’t THAT Glam–but we used to travel around a bit and belong to a gym. And go to Starbucks.

SAHM= Stay At Home Mom. I think this is more of an internet thing, since you can’t really pronounce it phonetically.

While I’m at it–definitely adoption specific terms, what’s used on adoption.com:

PBM: potential birth mom
BM: Birth Mother
AMOM: Adoptive Mom

and probably the newest and FAVORITE added to my collection lately: WTF. This I say outloud now, figuring it’s better than having the Babe hear the real word. Anyway, it’s What The F%#K?????

I say WTF alot.

Ha! The new space-age polymer bibs were no match for my drool machine! But that’s ok–they are a little thicker, so it takes a little longer, I guess. We are all about the Camilia drops right now, and that little gummer toothbrush–she actually uses it herslf. And a little Tylenol for good measure. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have another pair of teeth appearing in the near future.

ADOPTION THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY:
Yesterday at church I was with the Babe, and I realized that in our little section, there were two other families who’ve adopted. Including the Babe, there were 6 children in our section alone who were adopted within the past 10 years.

After Mass, one of these moms came up to me to ask for help with an “Adoption Awareness” bulletin board for our local library this fall and to offer an apology. The bulletin board I knew about, but an apology?

Turns out she’d seen L at the library, and asked about the bulletin board there–and then, in hindsight, wondered if he was comfortable discussing the Babe’s adoption in front of others/strangers.

This led into an interesting discussion of how we will have to handle situations in the future. I think I’ve posted about this before–right now it’s all “Yippe!! We adopted! Let’s tell the world!”, but in a few years, when the Babe is more aware, it won’t really be our story to tell.

She empathized–her boys are from China, so it’s pretty obvious they are adopted. And right now, she’s all about explaining the “waiting children” (preschoolers and older) in China–the girls and the boys with minor (and sometimes not so minor)physical challenges who are literally in orphanages waiting to be adopted. She likes to explain the medical treatments her boys have had for the purposes of education–she wants to build awareness, and so forth. But she also knows that as the boys get older, it will not be her story tell–it will be theirs.

So I told her that no, L wasn’t offended or uncomfortable–that we do like to talk about and educate the world about adoption any chance we get. But that as the Babe gets older, we may want to that more privately, and that she’ll be learning how to tell her story or how to politely decline the opportunity.

And I’m glad that in our little community, she’ll have plenty of peers in similiar situations to work through what she’ll need to work through!