Pictures & A Story of Ignorance

I mentioned that Mark's sister Suzanne made Eden's cake and oh my, my.....it was delicious! I asked for a chocolate cake with maybe mint flavored filling in between the cake layers. She actually used real peppermint patties in the filling!! It was simply the most delicious cake I think I have ever eaten! I am trying to figure out how to convince her I need another one! These were the flowers on the top of the cake. The three boys of course consumed them!
Singing Happy Birthday to her. She of course was loving the attention!

A few days later Mark brought some doughnuts home from work. The next morning I was doing something in Tristan's room and I thought that Eden was being really quiet. I decided to check on her and found her in the kitchen chowing down on doughnuts. She had pushed the chair over to the counter (very quietly obviously) and was shoving them into her mouth. I couldn't be upset - it was too funny.

I think it was the same day that I found Tristan outside putting chocolate syrup on his lego train. It was a horrible sticky mess but again I somehow avoided getting upset. He and Eden had chocolate syrup all over themselves by the time it was over. So they went straight into the tub.

Now.....for my story of ignorance. A lot of my close friends and family have heard this story already but it was a real eye opener for me. I was at Wal-Mart last week (sorry Koelle) and the cashier was extremely chatty. I just wanted to get out of the store because Heidi was starting to get fussy and hungry. Parts of the conversation went like this:

Her: So...is this your first baby?

Me: No...it is our 5th.

Her: Really? You don't look old enough to have 5 children. How old is the oldest?

Me: He is 8.

Her: What are the ages of your other children?

Me: 6, almost 3, 2 and 7 weeks.(Is it really any of her business?)

I went on to explain why I had two 2 year olds right now and the remainder of the conversation went something like this:

Her: You adopted from Ethiopia? Well....(in a quiet voice) is she black?

Me: Uh.......yeah. (Is she serious?)

Her: I saw on tv a few years ago that there were starving children in Africa. Are children still starving there?

Me: Uh....yeah. (In utter disbelief at this point)

Her: Is it sad?

Me: Uh.....yeah. When you see a child who is probably 5 years old with a 2 year old strapped to their back walking down the street without an adult you can safely assume that their caregiver is either dead or near death.

I was feeling so many emotions at this point. Shock, disbelief, outraged, sadness.....I just couldn't believe that there are still people who are so unaware of the condition of the majority of the world.

I ran into another adoptive mom on the way out of the store so I was able to vent and warn her to avoid her line. Who knows? She may have thought her little boy was from Ethiopia too - even though he is from Korea!