The coolest thing happened at work today. I met a new co-worker this morning. We were having a get-to-know conversation in my office while I was trying to overcome Murphy's Law of Third-Person printing (if somebody else needs it quickly, the print server will go offline at that instant).
He saw a picture of Mia on my window sill and asked about her. You know the typical stuff...how many? How old? Etc? I told him that she was almost six and that I was working on another one. No big deal. Lots of people have kids, right? Then I told him that she was thirteen. Blank look. "What do you mean?" I actually had to tell him that Mia was adopted. How cool is that!?!?
I have to say that this was the first time that I was actually aware of somebody seeing Mia as my daughter and not my adopted Chinese daughter. Certainly it's happened before, but it's the first confirmation that I've personally gotten. I realized recently that I no longer see her as Chinese, but I've accepted the fact that most of the people that we meet probably always will.
I don't get that very often, because guys just don't have that conversation as often as our wives, in my experience. Usually, when it happens to Annie, people assume that she must be married to a Chinese man. Most people "get it" when we explain the adoption portion of our story. However, one Asian lady we met in a dim sum restaurant last year seemed almost disappointed that I wasn't Chinese. While I was paying the check, a lady struck up a conversation about Mia. She progressed to asking specifically if I was Chinese, right before I walked back onto the scene. You could see on her face that she was bewildered by the fact that this beautiful Chinese girl had two white parents. Normally, it's "lucky girl...she is so lucky" but not that day. My "anglo-ness" pretty much shut down the conversation. For me, today's conversation at work was the exact opposite of that experience and I will remember it for a very long time.
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