Tailgating

A funny thing happened at our church’s tailgate party last night.

I hadn’t even planned to attend the event with the kids because I thought being surrounded by thousands of people, all celebrating the start of the Husker football season (which I could care less about), standing in long lines for food and games with my 2 kids didn’t sound like my idea of fun. Helicopters or no helicopters, I wasn’t going.

Then my husband had to ask the neighbor kids if they wanted to go. Bouncy houses, games, barrel train rides, and the aforementioned helicopters won them over immediately. I threw on different clothes and some make-up and we were out the door with the neighbor’s kids tagging along in our 2 cars because our SUV only seats 5.

We parked on the gravel, back by the pole barn and came face to face with the helicopters parked on the open grass. The kids got to climb in the Army copter but only in the back. Then it was onto the Husker copter. Yep, you read that correctly. A much smaller helicopter painted in black and red and a little white. The word “Huskers” was painted in script on both sides. They’re a little nuts over the Huskers here! The kids climbed in and even got to jump in the cockpit (is that what you call it on a copter?) and put on the headsets. And there’s me without my camera! Huge parenting faux pas!

The kids were getting hungry so we walked across the footbridge over to the main parking lot to check out the food. Lines were as long as I expected and Jay offered to wait in line for food while I took the kids to the bouncy houses. Wrangling 4 kids by myself in crowd of thousands isn’t something I want to do again. We managed to stick together and the kids bounced and jumped down the inflatable slide while handmade paper rockets from the Lincoln Children’s Museum were being launched right next to us. After a half dozen runs down the slide, the kids were ready for more. It was onto the pedal carts over by the loading dock. We waited and waited in line, my kids patiently, my neighbor’s kids running in the grass keeping busy. Jay called my cell from the food line to say he reached the entrance and asked me to bring the kids up and get fed.

As soon as we joined him, the kids’ parents and older sister joined us. How they found us in the midst of thousands of Husker fans is beyond me. They stepped in line with us, as Jay had told the fellow guests around him that he was standing in line on behalf of our family and friends. We filled our white foam plates with hot dogs, burgers, chips, beans, and cookies then made our way to the beverage tent. The dining tent was crowded and we decided to eat indoors inside the Youth Complex. We found a table immediately and enjoyed dinner with our neighbors.

Now, we’ve been neighbors with these people for a handful of years now. Our kids have played together for the last year or so. As adults, we’ve made our introductions but it never really went beyond that until tonight. They asked how we knew of the event and Jay mentioned that this is our church and he’s on church staff as the Director of Campus Operations. This threw the dad, Steve, for a loop because he was under the impression Jay worked elsewhere. So, Jay described what he did for the church before the conversation turned inevitably back to our kids.

We explained that we’ve been trying to adopt internationally. Right away, Steve and his wife Renee’s eyes lit up but they allowed us to tell our story. We talked about getting involved with Nepal, working on paperwork for 6 months, then waiting for Nepal to match us with our daughter, only to be shut out by our own US government in early August. Their posture sunk upon hearing our story but they were eager to tell us that their 2 kids, the 2 darlings everyone calls twins because they are the same age, the 2 kids my boys have been playing with for the last year, are both adopted! Fancy that! They told us their story of two separate domestic adoptions and cheered us on in our efforts to find our daughter. It’s funny how you can be neighbors with people for a couple years and not even know the very basics.

But what made my heart skip a beat was what Jay said upon Steve asking (in his John Goodman voice – he seriously sounds just like him!) what we’ll do now that we’re out of the Nepal program. First, Jay mentioned that he’s facing back surgery sometime this fall or winter but following that, we’d start our paperwork for a China special needs adoption. He said it! Those words actually came out of his mouth! The man who couldn’t talk about adoption with me because he was still so raw with emotion actually said we’d be adopting from China next year! I could have cried right then and there. To know that my husband is on the same page as me now makes me jump for joy as high as the paper rockets that were being shot off over by that bouncy slide.

Its official, my friends: we’ll be adopting from China (next year, hopefully)!