Best dishes!

I have one of the best husbands on the planet! I already knew this of course because he doesn't get upset with me when I am on the computer every spare second of my day checking in vain to see if the CCAA has updated...

But this week has been frustrating (see previous post) and he has been so very supportive! And yesterday I had the simple statement, "You need to be ready to leave the house at 5:00: attire dressy casual." He knows that I LOVE surprises and that one this week would be AWESOME.

So I got in the car at 5 not knowing exactly where we were headed. Turns out that some time ago he had noticed that Paula Dean (one of my three favorite chefs from the Food Network ~ besides ABC for Lost, the ONLY channel I watch) was going to be in town for a book signing. What a great 14 month anniversary of our log in date with China! (See, there I go again ~ everything goes back to China...)

Anyway, we ate dinner at the bookstore cafe which had some of Paula's recipes on the menu for the event, got our book signed, and then walked around "window shopping" SouthPark Mall in the expensive botique stores ~ like we could afford anything ~ and then finished our evening by sharing a sundae at Haagen-Daas! It was wonderful! Just what we needed to help us not spend every moment hitting the refresh button at the CCAA site.

Of course our conversation would go back and forth from things not related to adoption back to the ever elusive referral, but it was nice to just have a date. And how cool is this... at Janie and Jack (a store with ridiculously priced ~ but adorable ~ clothing that we can't afford but just had to look) we were asked what size we were looking for. I went directly into stammer mode, "Uh, well, you see, we um, we just aren't sure yet," but instead of getting a "hey lady you are crazy look" the sales lady seemed to understand. Ian jumped in to save the day with, "Well, we aren't sure just yet, but you see, we are adopting..."

Turns out the sales lady is French, but her husband was adopted from India. Her sister has adopted a boy and a girl from South Korea. She absolutely insisted that we bring the baby back when she is finally home with us. And then the other sales woman behind the register added that they have at least one shopper a day with an adopted baby. Hmm, so I guess I'll have to go hang out there to meet some other adoptive folks? And maybe I'll find something adorable on the sales rack when I do...