As of last Tuesday I have changed my policy. I am keeping my mouth shut, our family is no one else's business. I must have felt we owed people a reason why two older parents have adopted 2 beautiful asian children.
We are on the plane flying home. Sarah is with me and Jim and Anna are in front of us. I am sitting next to an older lady. She wasn't the smiley type so my gut told me to keep some space. We did that until the end of the flight when I felt obligated to chat. I am so proud of our daughters I often want to talk to others about them! They amaze me!
The woman said she was from Wisconsin. Sarah had no clue where that was so I felt obligated to tell her that Sarah has only been home 14 months- what a mistake that was. It opened the door for questions and comments.
The first one was where are they from? Are they sisters- which I quickly answered yes, in hopes she would stop.
After that she started talking about Haiti, it was inappropriate and not complimentary. I was getting uncomfortable thinking "oh no, what is next?"
Then she asked if they (our daughters) were some kind of euro asian mix, where the Dad is a caucasian military man and the woman is asian. She kept repeating to herself "Now what country did that happen in?"I thought I was going to fall over dead, I could not believe what she was saying. I started praying she would stop talking. I quickly answered NO and stopped the conversation.
I have officially learned my lesson- no more extra sharing, no more leniency on what others can say- we will keep to ourselves and smile! (The girls did not get it- thank goodness.)
