Secret Asian Man and Yours Truly Go on Their Last Date

Several years ago, I was browsing the aisles at Gristede's grocery store in New York City when I first heard Johnny Rivers' song, "Secret Agent Man" playing softly through the speakers. My first reaction was to recoil in disbelief that someone would actually write a song whose chorus revolved around the words, "Secret Asian Man." Only after hearing the song piped through a few more retail loudspeakers did it occur to me that my ears were at fault, not the lyricists.

Tonight while out on a date at Ristorante San Marco, a local Italian restaurant, Craig and I were talking about what Pickup Day might be like. From what I've heard from other families who have returned from Taiwan, many of the babies tend to be uneasy around Caucasians, particularly Caucasian men. We decided that Craig should don a skin-tight Asian man mask and rip it off once William grew accustomed to him (think of the Scooby Doo reveal scene). Secret Asian Man indeed.

Following dinner, we hit up CVS for trial-sized toiletries to bring onto the airplane, Benadryl to help us cheat on sleep, and 60 watt lightbulbs simply because we needed them.

This may very well be our last date night for a long time. Until we're assured that William can generally sleep through the night without waking, we probably won't leave him with a babysitter. If it's true that all adoptions are borne from loss (ref. Sherrie Eldridge, author of Twenty Things Adopted Children Wish their Adoptive Parents Knew), we don't want to reinforce this notion should he wake up prematurely one night and discover our teenaged babysitter peering anxiously over the rail of his crib. Right now, our top priority is to encourage his bonding with us and to assure him in whatever way possible that, as his new family, we are here to stay.