Here's to Making Friends

We have recently made some new friends. They live just across the river from us and are adopting two children from Ethiopia. We went to their house last night for dinner. It was such an encouragement to spend time with their family. They are Christians, and have two biological daughters who were willing to sacrifice their evening by playing with our three little ones. They are farther along in their adoption than us (their dossier will arrive in Ethiopia this week). When you are expecting a biological child, you are drawn to others who are also expecting. Expecting a child through adoption is no different, but you don't meet too many people in the same situation! Not to say I don't appreciate all of my friends, but it is really relaxing to be able to talk freely about something so momentous, without feeling like I'm boring the knickers off my company. Since they are ahead of us, we get to watch their adoption unfold firsthand anticipating that we will be in their shoes just a few months from now. We are very thankful that God has brought us together during this time.

I'm also thankful that they have a high tolerance for obnoxious behavior and poor manners. Well, maybe they don't and we won't see them again. In all fairness, we do talk about and *try* to model polite behaviors at the dinner table. Elijah has ALWAYS burped like his dear Auntie (able to burp while reciting the alphabet), and we discussed his, ahem, knack habit talent before dinner recommending that he refrain or at least keep his mouth shut. Evidently he forgot, he is only four. And then there was the matter of using the community tongs as a personal eating utensil. Everett was surprised that he dared to have any rude behavior and couldn't believe that public tongs are NOT for placing food directly into your mouth. Guess we didn't cover that in Manners 101. Maybe we live in a barn and I just haven't looked around. We will try harder next time, really!