Every 6 months or so we get together with a group of local people who all adopted children from Ethiopia. These are great people and I love their seeing their children, but I have this terrible tendency to want to avoid social situations like this where I have to meet new people and socialize. It's really odd because most of the time I come away from events like this, finding some kind of magic, and today was no exception.
One of the women who has been coordinating this brought in 5 people from Ethiopia to begin the day with some cultural education. We watched a coffee making ceremony and learned the significance it has to bringing people together. They taught us how to write our children's names in Amharic. They prepared Ethiopian food and my favorite part is they taught us to dance.
At some point in the meal a 9 year old boy came and sat at our table in between me and another boy his age. I hadn't seen him at these gatherings before so I asked Julie and she told me he has only been in the states with his family for 6 months. CRAY. So I struck up a conversation with him and his friend. I asked them what grade they were in, letting them know I was only in the 5th grade myself. I asked they played any sports, letting them know my brother Miles and I just started playing basketball. We carried on chatting for a while and they continually called my bluff while my kids jumped in to confirm my true age. We were ALL smiling and laughing.
After lunch, the boys took Miles and went up on this little stage to dance while I found myself sitting at the table alone with a total stranger. I had briefly met her while putting on our name tags where I mentioned to Lily that I was writing my name in my favorite color and before I could say blue, this woman said "Packer green?" So I asked her if she came all the way from Wisconsin just for this and she told me a story that lit me up...
She is a member of a Facebook group where people share information about adopted children to learn if there are other biological siblings adopted in the US or additional information like that. She told me one day a post came up that asked if there was anyone who adopted a child with really specific information: Ethiopian full name, birthday and adopted by a single mother... it was her. She responded to the post and discovered that her daughter was the younger sister of one of the boys I was chatting with at lunch. Both families learned information about their children's stories they didn't know before. She told me that she always thought she was going to adopt again but when this happened, these strangers were now family, and that was that.
By now, the boys came back and asked me to come dance with them. I was so inspired, I did. THEY LED ME up on stage and GUIDED ME to the front and center, even asked me to face the room. I LOOKED TO THEM FOR DIRECTION and they expected me to let go and dance, I did. The room began clapping in unison for us, before long there were several other kids on stage who weren't before and we were ALL smiling and laughing. A room full of strangers coming together, led into dance by 2 young boys. Humbling.
The song ended but the energy continued. We were connected now and it was the magic of community. I was lost in the moment and reminded once again how much I love connecting with children - it's why I went into education. Eventually it was time to go and I walked around saying goodbyes to everyone I saw like I had known them for years. Today I relearned a lesson for the ump-teenth time. Know your tendencies the good and bad ones. Lean against the bad and watch the good take over. If you do this more, you might just find some kind of Beauty In The Everyday life.
Thank you N and S, you 2 boys are well on your way to changing the world one schlep like me at a time.
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