ROAD TRIP!!!

Knee deep in adoption thoughts and fundraising, me and the girls (Nia, Elise, Emory and my mom) decided to switch gears for the week and take a trip back to my old hometown in Nebraska, to visit with my best friend's parents.  My best friend, Janet, is flying in tomorrow from D.C. and I'm so excited to get to spend a few days doing nothing but having a few great conversations, eating caramel rolls (hand-made by her mom, Ella), and laughing until we can't breathe.

So what makes this trip out of the ordinary?  Well, it's one of the first times my girls will remember going to Nebraska...they were so young when I went a few years ago and it's where I grew up, so I want to share it with them now that my parents no longer live there.  But also because my best friend's parents come from India and it's a great time to celebrate their culture and eat amazing indian food and create childhood memories that will become as important to my kids as those memories are for me.

Just yesterday, I was in Dillards picking up something and the saleswoman made a comment about my 3 girls and I mentioned that we are anxiously awaiting the arrival our 4th daughter from India as well and she asked, "oh! are these all yours then?" pointing to the three blondies quickly spreading out across the store..I, slightly irritated but understanding it probably is coming from mere curiosity, say yes, these are my biological children. She had a confused look on her face and continued with her questions, attempting to find out why we would "choose adoption when we can have our own?" and I told her about our trip to Nebraska today and explained the "family" we are going to see there is the main reason we chose adoption.

For those of you that know us well, you know my best friend or at least know OF her if you have never met her. Janet and I met in 8th grade when her family moved to my town and we were inseparable until the day we graduated h.s.  By college, our parents had become close friends and they no longer needed us as a reason to get together, and our families moved past just being friends into being more like family.  Janet and I attended two different colleges but always picked up where we left off when we'd get together. In 2000, Janet and I went to Gujarat, India together for her to study her parent's language and for us to explore India a bit and it was here that I discovered that adoption would be something that I would want to do someday. 

So when it came to naming our daughter, we decided on Lillian for our newest daughter's name...this being Janet's middle name, we thought it to be a perfect way to honor our friendship as well as being classic and elegant. It was only after sharing our chosen name with Janet's mom (my second mother) that she asked me if I knew why they named their daughter Janet Lillian. I thought at this point, I knew everything about their family, but this was one story that escaped me.  I knew that Sam (janet's dad) was a methodist minister, and his father was found in a village in India by missionaries and eventually he came to the U.S. and got a theology degree and therefore Sam was given the chance to follow in his father's footsteps.  When Sam and Ella moved to the states, they got married and decided to raise their family "americanized". They said they wanted to name their children with American names and I assumed "Lillian" was just a name they liked when Janet was born, picked at random. Bear with me...this is the interesting part of the story ;) :  Apparently my assumptions were wrong as Janet was named after her father Sam's grandmother who grew up in an orphanage in India, run by a progressive lady who converted to Christianity before starting the orphanage. This was in the late 1800's and Christianity in a predominately Hindu society was rare, so I was more than shocked to discover Janet's great-grandma was given an English/Christian name when she arrived at this orphanage, hence the name "Lillian".  Unbeknownst to us, we have named our daughter simultaneously after my best friend and also after a woman who got the same start as our Lillian did. We have no doubt this is the right name for her and are so excited to be able to have this story to share that will connect her to her family in India as well as her family in the U.S.  :)

And I realize this post was probably long enough for two separate entries... so thanks for being patient!  We are so looking forward to a little "girl time" in Nebraska!  See you in a few days after too little sleep and too much food and just the right amount of fun!