waiting for victor

i'm beginning this post knowing that at any moment, i will have to sign off. i am in a house in chisinau, moldova, trying to adopt a son. we are waiting on a driver/translator who will take us to an orphanage to do something. mostly, we wait and do what the agency tells us to do. it isn't often that we know what that is before we get anywhere.

the best part of being here is that we've spent a lot of time with dennis. we've gotten to teach him monopoly, which when you think of it, is a great way to introduce america. you get to buy things, run out of money and borrow money from the bank. we also introduced him to mexican food, which exists even in eastern europe. he loves fajitas. here, the people bring them out on sizzling pans, just like in america, only they dump some kind of alcohol on them and light them on fire. his eyes got enormous. we can't wait to take him to a japanese steak house. can you imagine what will happen when they spin the egg on the hibachi and then light the whole thing up?

and while it's novel to hang out with your (hopefully) soon-to-be-son, it's kind of disconcerting, too. you notice your language and your facial expressions, and you have to speak really good English, because you are an example. that's probably the most overwhelming thing that i've felt - that someone is watching me like a hawk, just to figure out how to be an american. and i want him to be a good american.

i notice the things that we'll have to work on, like cell phone etiquette, and patience. and i think of the things he'll teach me, like patience and honesty and dependence.

we've taken him into town alone, just the three of us, for two nights now. the funny thing is, he has to take care of us, because he speaks the language. he has to get our taxis and order our food and get our bowling shoes and get our coats from the coat check. how strange it will feel in about a month when we have to do all that for him.

i can't wait to be a mom. i can't wait to be the wife of a dad. and i can't wait until tomorrow, when hopefully we will learn that dennis will legally be our son.

i'm on pins and needles.