Wanting to Tune Out

Since we have been here, usually Jaiden will attract a lot of attention. Her curly, blond hair is such an oddity. Everyone wants to come up and touch her hair or cheeks. However, this was only accompanied by people saying how cute she is. They usually say something like, "She looks like a barbie". Nothing negative said, just a bunch of positive stuff about our little girl. All that has changed with a new baby... The criticism has started to fly.

In the past week, we have been out with Kenan several times. We expected people to talk about a little white baby, but we didn't expect to hear people talk about us. Because people generally assume that we cannot understand what they are saying, they just stop and have a conversation very close to us about everything we are doing wrong with this child. It's actually quite overwhelming to encounter it everytime we go out. What are they saying? Here are the top five:
1. "I can't believe they have not bundled up that baby. He must be freezing."
2. "Why is she not feeding that baby? He's obviously hungry."
3. "Why in the world is he holding him like that? That could really hurt his fragile bones."
4. "They really shouldn't be going out of the house with a baby that small."
5. And for an encore, "That baby is making a noise, he must be hungry. She needs to feed that baby."

This past week, the contrasts in how babies are treated here compared to how they are treated in the States have just been continually thrown in our face. It would be easier to take if it wasn't accompanied by a judgment or criticism of us as parents, but we are trying to learn and grow from this experience. Some days it's easier than others. Remember to especially keep Kristi in mind with this one.