Parents Are Always the Last to Know What Their Kids Are Up To

It seems like parents always complain that they're the last to know what's going on in their kids lives, especially now that we're grown. Announcing our adoption plan was no exception. Today was the day that I've been preparing for, for weeks... wait, scratch that...months.

I wasn't sure when it would happen, but I was fairly certain that I would eventually slip in conversation and say something about..."when the baby comes", or, "while we're in China". We both felt like we had to wait to make everything official to family until after we started our homestudy (kind of like waiting for the first ultrasound to come out OK), whereas telling people at work seemed less permanent. Nothing is more like indelible marker than telling mom & dad, that's for sure! Luckily, I never slipped and didn't have to try to explain away why we wanted a bigger family vehicle and house.

The con for the night was dinner for my dad's birthday, which was a deserved event by itself. However, I had to figure out a way to get all 4 parents together at the same time in the same place without raising suspicion. God planned ahead over a decade ago and matched me with a guy who's parents' anniversary just HAPPENS to fall on my dad's birthday. That has to be more than a coincidence!

So, after dinner, we went back to my parents house for dessert and presents. We also planned to watch videos of their recent trip to Alaska, so there was a lot to get done. After ice cream (mom, please make licorice ice cream for Thanksgiving!) my dad opened presents... great, great, nice Sears gift card dad, let's keep the night moving. We've got news!

Next was the home video of Alaska. After about 30 minutes, I couldn't wait. I felt bad, but I made my mom stop the video so I could start my progressive gift process slowly unveiling our news.... Here's how it went:

The general idea was that each gift had a silk "fortune cookie" with a fortune message that related loosly to the gift and China. I spent quite a while coming up with messages that would relate, but not give it away.

Gift 1: Silk change pouch with rice candy and old chinese coins.

Fortunes:

1. Don't carry in your purse what you can hold in your heart
2. The makers of silk bring great change

Gift 2: Mini paper lantern lights

Fortunes:

1. Paper + Light = A Fire Hazard
2. Better to travel into the dark than to sit idle in the light

Gift 3: Chinese food container filled with rice, ginger candy, and cloissone box

Fortunes:

1. A billion grains of rice minus one equals a great celebration
2. Ginger isn't just for Gilligan fans

Gift 4: Porcelain tea cup with loose green tea

Fortunes:

1. Soon tears will flow like tea
2. Some relationships are worth all the tea in China

Gift 5: The Big Reveal

Wrapped photo albums with the following picture in the front frame

Trish had to practically spoil everything by guessing on the first gift. We played it off OK, though, and it went pretty fast. If only the map wasn't outlined in pink, it would have been perfect. I guess that's what happens when there's no market for boy colors in China Adoption products. Oh well. I get the feeling this little guy will see his fill of ladybugs and pigtails in his journey.

So, at that point we had to give everyone a crash course in International Adoption. Not easy when we've been eating, sleeping and drinking it and they haven't.

Now, as long as we can keep our parents from buying out Babies R Us before we're even DTC, we'll be in good shape. Now, we can resume the boring paperchase!