Faux pa(pa)

Tonight was Matt's department spring dinner party for professors, students, spouses and children. Free food, yeah!

We arrived fashionably late on purpose to avoid the all-around awkward standing around before the party has officially started. Naturally, there had to be mandatory small talk with colleagues and professors and department heads, yadda, yadda, yadda... it was really hard for me (Rebekah) because the conversation was completely over my head, including inside jokes about people and circumstances and French literature, and I had nothing to contribute. I talked about all of my favorite animals. Eventually, we sat down to eat and enjoyed dining with people we chose to sit with.

Except that we accidentally chose the kids' table. On our left was a married couple expecting their first child in late summer. On our right, a woman had her 6 day old baby boy in some sort of tarzan-like sling. The little guy was so small and slept the whole time. Turns out, we have Christian friends in common with this lady and her hubby is a pastor in the next town. She's also Superwoman because she defended her thesis the afternoon that he was born. He's their second adopted child. It was wonderful talking with her and it made me want to adopt too....

But back to my description of our tablemates. There was an announcement earlier in the evening by one of the guys in front of us that yet another baby was due in the department and was 16 weeks along. Wow! So many babies. Our tablemates turned to us, but we just threw our hands in the air. The conversation went back to the newest baby announcement and there was talk about a surrogate mother and egg donor. It was an interesting conversation, but I was more interested by the adoption stories to my right.

As Matt and I drove home and chatted about the evening, I suddenly got confused about who was whom, and who was expecting.... and as we talked about the couples, it became painfully clear that the man talking about surrogate mothers and egg donors was talking about his child with the man next to him! I thought the second man was a professor, joining his students at dinner. I thought the man's wife was unable to come to the dinner party. I thought the couple was having trouble conceiving and needed a surrogate mother.

Oh, but they were having trouble conceiving.