Taking It On The Road

My niece, Michelle, has a parenting class at her high school and they have been talking about adoption. Michelle happened to mention that her (favorite-sorry Lynn) Aunt had just adopted from China this year. Well, the teacher asked if I would bring Olivia in and give a presentation to her classes on the whole process we went through. At first I was a little hesitant but decided to do it and it turned out to be fun.
Everything is still very fresh in my mind so it was easy for me to put everything together. I also took along a lot of our souvenirs to set out for the kids to look at. I even took along our DVD's of Gotcha Day and of the orphanage visit for them to see.
We did this yesterday morning, Tuesday, October 23rd. There were two classes, one right after the other and Olivia was perfect. Grandma Manning went along to help which I am very thankful for. I had a lot of things to take into the school and Olivia was very comfortable sitting by her Grandma while I gave my hour long presentation, twice. She did venture away from Grandma and Michelle a couple times though to wander around looking at all the things in the room. She also liked to hide behind my legs and peek out at the students.
She was so good. She never cried or whined the entire time. Some of the students didn't seem too interested (it's hard to tell with teenagers) but most of them paid attention and a couple even asked some questions. The girls all said she was so cute and she gave them a lot of smiles. At the end of the second class they even got to hear her say "Ah-Da! She was fascinated with all the students in the hallways and we even ran into her older cousin Ryan among all the students.
Michelle seemed to think I did a pretty good job and the teacher also video taped one of the presentations so she can show it to some of her other classes. She promised to make a copy for me so I can be my own critic on how we did.
Thanks Shelly for thinking of us and asking us to do this! It was a lot of fun!