Adoption talk in aisle 12

Guys are idiots about adoption sometimes.  But not the dude in aisle 12.

I met a stranger at S*feway last night.  We almost immediately got talking about adoption even though I didn't have Dude with me.  Honestly, I expect that the conversation might go that way when I'm a white guy walking around with my african son.  But I don't expect it when I'm just a guy buying a few quick groceries at closing time - alone.  That's when it's a little strange (but good).

Oddly enough, it's getting more common for me to meet strangers who are thinking about, in process or have adopted.  And it seems to happen to me without my kids around.  Like on an airplane or a beach.  Yep.  It's officially weird.  I never meet strangers who get talking about surfing or basketball or house building.  I never even run into strangers who share the same profession as me where we just happen to strike up a conversation about it.  It just happens with adoption.  I've had some interesting talks with random guys about the country Dude was born in... (maybe that's another post in the future).  But those only happen when I wear clothes that have the country's name on it.

So I checked my forehead & my clothing last night.  There's nothing written on it about adoption.  So I'm gonna chalk up these weird encounters to God arranging conversations...

Anyway, it turns out that this guy is a dad with 4 kids & he was adopted as a child.  He really wants to adopt, but his wife hasn't been interested or supportive of the idea.  So I listened & got to encourage him a little in aisle 12.  And he seemed to get excited.  It was a cool moment.  And it was encouraging to me in a number of ways - one of which was that we had just had friends over for Bible study and were talking about God searching people out & going to them where they were at.  Maybe S*feway was a spot that God was searching someone out last night?  Hopefully that's the first talk of many with this guy - because adopting kids is amazing & incredibly important, but there's also a vertical adoption with God that I've experienced that is life-changing and I want to invite people to consider that as well.

On the drive home I realized something: this is the first time I've met a dude whose wife is dragging their heels about adoption.  In my experience, it's always been the other way around.

So just a warning: my next post will probably be a rant about guys & adoption....  Because guys are idiots about adoption sometimes.  But not the dude in aisle 12.

I.B.