No lettuce

I was thinking about the travel meeting that Jon wrote about earlier. Not only did they advise us against drinking the water, they also recommended staying away from lettuce since it is washed and not cooked. But, they noted, also because of farming practices in China. Did you know they use human waste as fertilizer there? There's always something new to learn about agriculture. But, I digress. Monique from Gift of Love tells a horror story about some travelers exclaiming about the wonderful BLTs they had on their trip to China and thinking "L?! You ate L? What's wrong with you people?"

Since March this one woman in our travel group has been wringing her hands over whether anyone had received their "Brown Envelope." Post after post on our little Yahoo discussion group about the Brown Envelopes. We refused to get too worried about it and figured when it came it came. International mail can be funny that way. But she seemed to attach this huge significance to the receipt of the weighty Brown Envelope. More and more people posted over the next several months: "The Brown Envelope Came Today!" Ours never came.

Anyway, we went to the travel meeting and learned that we were the only couple that hadn't received their all-important-and-magical Brown Envelope. I sat there in the meeting suddenly concerned that China didn't like us for some reason. Was it something we said in a request letter? Was it my health issues? Did they hate the photographs of us we sent in our dossier?

Another couple in our travel group - Mark and Sarah who we like very much - said they never did receive theirs when they adopted their first daughter from China and it really didn't matter. But, they noted, they got theirs months ago this time. I was still a little worried.

We got home from the meeting and there, on the porch floor under the mail slot, was the Brown Envelope. It was the only piece of mail we received that day. I took a picture for Mali/Molly's scrapbook.

Maybe the office worker responsible for going through the paperwork ate a BLT and was out sick for a few weeks and ours got separated from the group.

Cheryl

P.S. Uncle Tommy, I'm glad you're posting. Everyone else should feel free to post, too!