(One year ago this month, Pa and I made the trek to China to adopt our sweet Sister Susie. I am going to take the first seventeen TWENTY-ONE days of February 2008 to revisit that trip. Hop in for the ride!)
We're still in China, cuz it's not over 'til the wee baby cries.
But more on that in a minute.
Pa and I headed out for some eats, and soon ended up in a classy restaurant rarely frequented by the Pale-Faced Folk. But amidst the stares and having Nearly The Entire Kitchen Staff come out to gawk at us, we still managed to order our food.
Meanwhile, Pa fed the babe her bottle:
Then once our food came, Pa dug right in to his edamame (soybeans). Well, "dug right in" being a total exaggeration, since he had chopsticks at his disposal, and chopsticks only:
We're still in China, cuz it's not over 'til the wee baby cries.
But more on that in a minute.
Pa and I headed out for some eats, and soon ended up in a classy restaurant rarely frequented by the Pale-Faced Folk. But amidst the stares and having Nearly The Entire Kitchen Staff come out to gawk at us, we still managed to order our food.
Meanwhile, Pa fed the babe her bottle:
Then once our food came, Pa dug right in to his edamame (soybeans). Well, "dug right in" being a total exaggeration, since he had chopsticks at his disposal, and chopsticks only:
Let's just say: The Wait Staff was still loitering around, snickering at our feeble foreigner attempts at "eating."
I was chuckling myself, being glad that *I* wasn't the ninny who ordered the slippery little beans in the first place.
Eventually the Wait Staff tired of The First Ring Of This Circus, so they rounded up and handed Pa a big spoon:
I guess that's what you call "Chinese humor."
But that spoon, it did get those beans down the hatch in a much more "American" kind of way.
(In that picture, it appears that Susie was snarking right along with her Asian Friends and Fans.)
(Dorky Doofy Parents.)
But all our mealtime fun soon turned to "misery" as the Suz decided she was going to become a crying little fuss busket.
No matter! The Very Attentive Waitress soon came to our table, and through Caveman Sign Language, insisted that she was going to hold our baby so that we could eat our meal in peace.
Now that's what I call "service!"
I just assumed that she was going to bounce little Suz for a minute or two, then hand her back to us--the odd-looking round-eyed parents.
I thought wrong.
This gal - a total stranger - TOOK OUR SUZ OUT OF SIGHT - and didn't come back for at least 20 minutes.
Did I eat that meal in peace??
NOT AT ALL.
We assume our waitress took Her Prize back to the kitchen, as there was a lot of Chinese Cooing And Clucking heard from a distance.
(Surely we are the most numb skull parents that ever walked the face of the earth.)
I spent most of that meal thinking up ways I would convince our social worker/agency/family/friends that we are Qualified And Intelligent Parents, even though we let our child be kidnapped from our very own hands.
But alas, the babysitting timer went off right before the Mama Freak Out Alarm was about to blow.
And we took our (no longer) crying baby and went home.
[And if you thought that meal was an adventure? The best is yet to come.]
