Day 1 - Seminar

We have completed our first day at the seminar. It was great!! When we left Briton this morning I didn't know if he would fuss. At first when we were talking he got the gist that we were going out so he got his shoes and was trying to put them on. He seemed a little agitated that we might be going and he wanted to be ready. Then I hugged him and told him he would be staying with Mrs. Geddes and Cooper and he said his first sentence, "Bye Mum." *smile* Cooper was more than happy to see us go! He really wanted to hang out with the Mrs. Geddes and her big boys!

Going For Icecream

Back With Icecream

Bedtime

Ray and I headed out and got to the seminar at 8:30. We were greeted with a nice continental breakfast buffet and helped ourselves. In the conference room there were about 40 people! We grabbed a table with a couple that we met last time and a new lady. She was the nicest black lady, named C. I later told her that she thought she came to the seminar to adopt a child! I knew better - she came so I could meet her, make a connection, and learn all about the insights of little black girls in a white world! *smile*

The conference was jam packed with information. We listened to a woman who had adopted three children and was a birth mother herself, when she was a girl; a 17 year old adoptee who was so eloquent and full of information from her point of view; and another woman who taught us a lot about attachment disorders; we then saw videos on car seat safety and another on fetal alcohal syndrome. There was more and the time passed very quickly! We were well fed with two quality snack breaks and then a wonderful hot lunch of salad and lasagne. The catering was done by a culinary school! Amazing!

While we were sitting there I thought about creating a list of all the people with email addresses. This way if we wanted to create a group on Yahoo or anything we would have the connection. We passed it around and all signed up. Then at the end of the day one of the speakers mentioned that on the last day they usually do this and she had noticed someone had already thought of it. She was pleased. Well, I just see it from a selfish point of view! This is another link for us and our kids in the way of support when we all adopt.

We met a couple that were in the group last time and discovered that they had spent about 6 weeks in Ethiopia in 2000 and loved it! They knew the restaurant that we are planning to go to tomorrow, for dinner. They said it is wonderful. They also said it is such a kid - family friendly restaurant that their son was allowed (encouraged) to run around in the restaurant, go in the kitchen etc. This is just the report that I had heard from other people who also love the restaurant. It just confirms again what we have heard about the Ethiopians being such a child friendly nation!

We will be going there tomorrow for dinner. When we came home today, we were about 45 minutes earlier than expected. Cooper, Briton, and Mrs. G were on the way out the door to get icecream and go grocery shopping! We are going to Ray's brother's for dinner and so she promised to take them quickly for icecream and then bring them back. Briton was quite determined to not miss out. At first he thought he was staying home with us. No attachment problems there! *laugh*