Tuesday, May 6, 2008

A night with . . . Adults?

Every year my mom and I get tickets to a women's lecture series. We use this as a reason to go out to dinner at a nice restaraunt and catch up.

Yesterday was a fairly challenging day for me and Bunny, highlighted by two separate 45 minute periods where she refused to get dressed (once in the morning and once after using the potty). So I was ready for our night out.

We went to this nice restaraunt in Milwaukee's Third Ward. The Third Ward used to be just old warehouses but the have re-done it so now it is filled with shops, bars and restaraunts. I found a few new shops that I wanted to visit on my next day off. The meal was wonderful, punctuated by a creme brule trio. That's right three different kinds of creme brule - vanilla, chocolate and pistacio. I was in heaven.

Last night's lecture was by Lisa Ling. She talked about her experiences as an international journalist and the different stories that she has covered. She showed a few clips too.

It was during the clips that she showed a clip of her story "The Lost Daughters of China." The clip was of all the families going to the Civil Affairs building to meet their daughters for the first time - Gotcha Day. It perfectly caught the chaos and emotion of the day. And it sent me right over the edge. I started bawling openly in the middle of the theater as I remembered the day that we first met Bunny in China. My mom was crying too but she tried to comfort me. I think the lady sitting next to me thought I was crazy but I really didn't care.

I couldn't wait to run home and give Bunny a huge hug, but she would (or should) be asleep when I got home at 9:30. But she wasn't and I was never so happy. I went into her room and got to hug her and read her another story. It was almost as if she was waiting for me. She drifted off to sleep soon after.

It was the perfect night.

No comments: