Change Jars

A week or so ago, when I (Rebecca) made the long pilgrimage from school to home for fall break, I had among my books and clothing a lone used cell phone and a full change jar. What turned out to be a very full change jar - it was an all time high for amounts in a change jar. This was due to an incredibly generous friend, Holly, who saved all her change over the summer, a mysterious $20 bill that showed up on my desk belonging to neither my roommate nor myself, laundry no longer consuming my few quarters, and guests at the inn I work at actually leaving me tips. The normal yield of my jar is, oh, maybe $5 at the most, so this was an exciting event. Mom just emailed me today, however, and informed me that a friend of hers has broken my change jar record. This is one record I am happy to have broken!

Before fall break, I had been feeling incredibly impatient about this whole adoption business. I wanted a little brother and sister, drat it! My impatience has slowly become less, due to a number of things. One is a freshman named Lauren. Her family has adopted two children already, and are in the middle of adopting a third. We met the day she saw me wearing my adoption t-shirt, with ‘big sister’ in Chinese characters on the front. “What’s your shirt say?” she asked. “Big sister,” I said, and one thing led to another. It’s funny how quickly it becomes obvious that others adopting understand the emotions and concerns so much better than others. Now we commiserate about paperwork problems, feeling out of the loop because we are away at college, and laugh about what the recent swarm of lady bugs might mean for our families... Other than that, life at college remains the same, adoption-wise: I save my change, pray for The Call, and hope for generous tips at work.