"The Best One"

Jeanne Marie Laskas has written a great essay in the "Significant Others" section of the Washington Post Magazine. Yes, I know it's the Sunday magazine. Yes, I know today is Saturday. Let's just say I have all the right friends.

The article is called "The Baby Game" (free WaPo registration required) and it's about Robin and David, friends of the author and her husband, and their being led to adopt a child from China. Mrs. Laskas and her husband, Alex, had adopted two girls from China and their friends had questions about how the children bond with their new parents. A reasonable concern, which Laskas addresses with a touch of humor.

My favorite quote from the article:

Then my husband, Alex, piped in with the embarrassing story of what he blurted out on the bus one day in China shortly after we got Anna. We were with eight other couples, all of whom had likewise just received their babies. "So," Alex yelled. "Does everyone think they got the best one?" It was so crass and so true, and we all fell into uncomfortable laughter. There we were, adoring our babies -- even feeling a bit sorry for others in that they were not blessed with the privilege of parenting this princess, this empress, this most amazing creature to ever grace the planet -- and there, as it turned out, everyone else was likewise entranced with their own little burp machine. "You'll see," Alex said to Robin and David. "You'll see."

Indeed.