WOAH Lady, Back Off!

I took Danielle to dance class last night and ended up having a conversation with a annoying woman about adoption.

 Now let me set the scene up for you.

 When I drop Danielle off, there is a very small waiting room for the parents to stand or sit if you are lucky, and wait for the kids. There are about 3 chairs, a (2 butt) bench, and a desk in this room. Last night there was anywhere from 5 to 7 adults and 4 to 6 kids in this tiny little room all at once.

Now I usually am a pretty private person when it comes to talking about personal things with strangers. We have lived in this town for a good 7 years but all of our friends live closer to the city.

 We just can't help that we are country bumpkins and love us some space!

Anyways, tonight I decided to open up and talk to a woman (not the annoying one) who I thought I could possibly be friends with. She was telling me about being pregnant and how they wanted a bigger vehicle before the baby came. I was saying that I wished we had bought a bigger vehicle too because we were adopting. She was nothing but nice about it and eventually asked me where we were adopting from.

So starts my story:

This is where Mrs. I Feel The Need To Be In Your Conversation speaks up.

(I'm not trying to be mean about this lady but there are a few women in the dance waiting room who only talk to you if they feel they have some input on the situation. She has never even bothered to ask me my name.)

Okay, here is what she says to me:

"ETHIOPIA?" "Why did you pick ETHIOPIA?"

Now me, not wanting to get into a personal conversation with a perfect stranger on why we decided to adopt says:

"There are 5 Million orphans in Ethiopia alone."

 Maybe if I educated her on Ethiopian orphans she would go back to watching her daughter.

Well that didn't work. She just stood there staring. So I try a different approach and say:

" The Ethiopia program through our agency is really great."

 "The children do really well after placement"

"They are well loved before they get placed into their forever homes"

Oh.... well now... she is even more interested in talking! Which would be good if she were interested in listening to what I had to say, but she is not.

 Forget talking to the nice woman with whom I thought I could be friends with. This lady totally shut her out of the conversation about 10 minutes ago with her non-stop talking.

Some how the topic got on taking 2 trips to Ethiopia. So this woman wants to start talking about $$$$. Great, right!?

So I tell her a little about the tax credit that is available for people who adopt.

This is NO joke. This lady proceed to tell me:

"OH....SO IT'S LIKE HAVING A 50% OFF COUPON FOR YOUR KID." "WELL IF IT IS 2 FOR 1 OVER THERE, BRING ME BACK ONE TOO WOULD YA!"

Well my mind just shut off to this woman now and I try to just sit and wait for Danielle without talking any more.

The lady is now telling her friend that she gave her husband an ultimatum a few years back....."Either they got pregnant and had another baby or they would have to adopt one that was not their own."

(I think I threw up a little in my mouth when she said that one)

Let me tell you, I was never so happy to get out of that little room more than last night.

I know that I will experience this a lot in the years to come, but just last night I wanted to have a nice converation about my son with a potential friend.