Adoption Waiting Dinner

On Monday evening, Tanna and I attended a "waiting dinner" at Bethany Christian Services, our adoption agency. Basically, it is a dinner for families who are in the adoption process. Everyone is asked to bring something to the dinner--either something that represents the country from which you are adopting or a dish of your choice.

I was going to make some brownies that afternoon--but at lunchtime, I had a vision of a Korean-flag cake. I wondered if Publix had enough time to make such a cake. I called the closest store right away, and it was iffy. So I printed out an image of the Korean flag, got Kate and ran over there. The bakery staff at "my" Publix is great--they delivered, and the cake was de-lish!

Tanna made some dumplings, which were a big hit--they were all gone even before we made it to the food table. LOL! He also took some kim (pronounced keem) seaweed, which, as you may remember from a season or two ago, the Gosselin kids (on Jon & Kate + 8) called "paper." That was not as popular. Oh, we took some shrimp chips, too, but I don't know if anyone ate any. ha! It is always interesting to see what people eat at these things.

We met lots of great people at the dinner, which was for families who are adopting from the U.S. as well as internationally. We sat with two other couples who are adopting from Korea. They are much further along in the process, and it was great to meet others who are on this same journey.

After dinner, there was a program. A guy--Jason was his name--who just received his baby boy from Korea a few weeks ago spoke about what life can be like post-placement. He and his wife (who used to work at Bethany, BTW) also have a biological daughter, and I enjoyed his talk very much. We even received certificates for two credit hours to go toward our adoption training. (Tanna and I each have to complete 10 hours of training. We are hoping to finish this by the end of the year.)

While we were there, I finished up some confusing paperwork I'd been working on that afternoon. It seems like a simple form to complete, but because Tanna was born in Korea and is a U.S. citizen via naturalization ... well, it made things a little more complicated. But maybe I was the one making things complicated. I will say that I am so thankful that his citizenship papers include both his Korean name as well as his Americanized name. It was a wise person (I am guessing his mother) who put both of his names on there.

Anyway, we had a great evening, and we are so thankful to our friends Diana and Steve (Jamie's parents) who watched Kate for us so we could attend the dinner. Kate had a BLAST at Jamie's house and seriously could not wait to get over there. She practically jumped out of the car and pretty much ran off without even looking back. LOL!

We hope to get-together with some of the new friends we met, and we look forward to attending another dinner like this again soon.


Here we are with folks from the Korean table and our case worker, Laura (far right).


The spread! There was a lot of great food there--and a nice variety, too. People were laughing because apparently at the last dinner, it was mostly all cookies. ha!


Another food pic. I had joked before we went that I might not eat much. (I am a very picky eater, in case you didn't know.) Anyway, when we were walking in, the folks in front of us were carrying a bucket from KFC! Tanna was like, "Look, Honey!" LOL! I was very excited to see it, and I had to laugh when the speaker said he was, too. Apparently, he eats about like I do. ha!


The Korean-flag cake--Publix did a fabulous job! And at the last minute, too!