Think back to when you were a kid in a pool in the summer. Inevitably, someone wanted to hold a contest to see how long you could hold your breath under water. You willingly join in, knowing that you can come up for air whenever you need to, but hoping you're not the first one. Now, you're down there, someone is hovering above the surface, looking warped and holding up a stopwatch to show you how long it's been since you all went under. The pressure is building in your chest and you've let out all of the air you can to occupy your questioning lungs, hoping they'll last just a little longer. When you've reached your limit, you give it a couple more seconds and finally, the explosive gasp as you push yourself back up and into the air. Ahhhhh, I am going to live!
That pressure was what we've been feeling build inside of us for two days. The release came with a simple "How's your day going?" text from T. Holy moly what a relief. She's still talking to us. (See earlier post about the comparison between early dating and not wanting to scare off a birth mother.) We were able to get a few, casual, non-reality related texts in before we all put our phones down for dinner. I felt 10 lbs lighter, until we gorged ourselves on Chinese food. See below.
We spent the day trying to busy ourselves again. We visited a local park that we'd read about before coming to California. It was going to be our peaceful, serene place in this town while we waited. Unfortunately, today was the day of a "Color Me Rad" foot race, complete with a rainbow of colored pouches all over the park and a very loud sound system motivating everyone with the likes of Billy Idol and Janet Jackson. Not too peaceful.
Still, we made our way to the Japanese Friendship Garden and found a spot to sit for a while. We watched the geese and tried to let the moments pass without thought...impossible.
Luckily, T did text. She has saved us from what we were turning into...criminals who don't even pay the measly fee to get into a Friendship Garden (wallet was in the car; a long hot, dusty walk away). We're not proud.
After our jaunt into the world of the those oblivious to our own personal waiting drama, we made our way to dinner. But, what did we see next door? A cookie shop! The guy behind the counter was from Haiti, so I rattled off the names of a few of the communities where our chapters are working and earned some kudos. Name dropping, EWB-USA style. Um, there were cookies everywhere, people. I was trying to make a friend with every intention of going there a LOT in the coming week. Shameless, I know. I have a problem.
Then, the feeding frenzy continued. When we placed our order at the Chinese food place, the waitress actually stopped us with "I think that's enough." Woah! I didn't know there was a limit. Hopefully it's not too obvious when we get back that we eat when we're anxious.
As we settle into another distracting movie, I am reflecting on the positive superstitious events of the day. First was this beauty crossing our path in the garden:
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| If you're born close to Halloween, you see these as a good luck charm, not bad. |
And, there's the ever-present, rarely fortune-telling, fortune cookie at the end of the gorging in the Chinese restaurant. Mine read: "You will soon bring joy to someone dear to you." We're considering all of you dear to us and we hope to bring Meadow into all of our lives very soon.
Here's to tomorrow! May the countdown begin...only 7 days, at the most, until something happens.
