The View from College

Right now, I should technically be writing an opinion essay for my New Testament class but I’m finding it very irksome. I am also having trouble figuring out what I’m going to say. (Perhaps due to the Easter candy mom left on my desk over break?) Normally when I can’t focus on assignments, I write a blog post for my personal, friends-and-family’s-keep-track-of-Rebecca blog, but I’ve wanted to write something for the adoption blog for a long time. So here it is.
Being away from my family while the adoption is progressing is very hard at times and I often feel disconnected. Daniel even told me over break that “It sort of doesn’t feel like you are part of the family anymore. But that’s okay, I still love you.” At six, he can hardly be expected to have tact... I know that not very much is happening, and may seem like nothing for the rest of my family at home, but I only find out things in chunks, and it is things like inside family jokes, expressions, and dinner time conversations that I miss. What for them is more of a gradual process for me sometimes feels like it moves in fits: Christmas break finds me clearing out my old room and moving in with Annie and discussing where we will fit our new sister’s bed. A phone call a few weeks later at school - and the quilts are chosen for the beds and I learn that they’ve begun referring to our new siblings by the Chinese words for little brother and little sister. The next week brings an email with pictures of Annie’s room transformed into ‘our’ room...with a third bed waiting for the third sister.
Of course, being at college makes the process even more exciting at times. Girls come in my room and get excited see my adoption fund chart has more colored circles, or they find me coloring them in and ask if they can help. In the middle of a paper, someone will knock and bring me a cell phone, then ask how many I have now...and before I know it, we’re hanging out and discussing international adoption, family, and future plans. People I didn’t even know knew me ask how the adoption is going sometimes. And where else can I run down the hall and find someone that will be just as excited as me about a new development? I even showed off the pictures of the three beds with their quilts...
A quick look at the clock and it appears I’d better write that essay or plan on cramming it between work study and class. And so, reader, you are mercifully spared an even longer post.