Is it just me?

So, as is our birthday tradition, we spent part of this week at Disneyland, celebrating with Maggie. I could regale everyone of cute tales of kids in paradise, but something happened that has left me curious.

While we were at Disneyland, everyday for 3 straight days, I had a very interesting adoption conversation with a total stranger. The first conversation was with a woman in her late twenties who was adopted from Korean. She blushingly asked where my girls were from. She was embarrassed to ask me, she explained, because as a child she hated when people asked her parents about her and here she was doing the same thing to other kids.

I was thrilled to meet an adult Korean adoptee, so I told her rudeness all depended on the spirit in which the questions were asked. She seemed to like that answer, and we had a fabulous, 10-minute conversation about her experience growing up biracial. She was extremely jealous when I told her that we were still in contact with families who adopted with us. She said the first time she met another Korean adoptee was when she was 18. Isn't that amazing? How isolating her experience must have been!

The next day, I was in the Haunted House with Maggie. (I have mentioned she is fearless, haven't I?) Anyway the woman standing next to me, asked me if she was Chinese. I thought, "Here we go again." Then, before I could answer, she told me she had just received her referral. She whipped out a baby picture before the elevator darkened. So, I was really glad she said something to me. How special to see her pictures.

Finally, our last morning, in Toon Town, I was watching a Mom with an Asian baby playing on a car. I was wondering if the baby was adopted, when another man, asked about my girls. I was so focused on this third family, I was totally confused by his question. Anyway, he thought my confusion was reluctance, so he told me they have their first meeting with an agency in Arizona next week and they are starting a home study for China. So, there we were, in the middle of Toon Town, talking about the finer points of putting together a dossier, playing the waiting game and traveling to China.

Couple these experiences with the fact I saw several families that looked like ours and it left me wondering...do adoptive families just go to Disneyland more than other families? Or is it that because we look a little different, so we are easy to spot and connect with? Or is it that adoption from China is so common that on any given day there are several adoptive families at Disneyland? I don't know, but it was a fascinating experience.