2 Bottles of Chardonnay and a 14-Top.
- Jen Kraakevik
- Sep 1, 2015
- 3 min read
I had just finished a longer-than-expected conversation with the 14-top on my last double of the weekend.
It was mid-afternoon, the time where each person on the floor had to check out after a disasterous shift at work. A busser had left in the middle of it so we had to literally carry our own weight (of dishes) back and forth from the area furthest away from the kitchen. While everyone else working double shifts that day were taking their lunch and doing side-work, I was seated a table of fourteen and was reaping the benefits of the adults ordering expensive wine. The bill was racking up.
On top of that, they were extremely interesting. I immediately felt a connection to them. They seemed like the churchgoing type and with the one guy taking charge and ordering for everyone, it seemed like he was the organizer. I thought that they were coming back from a missions-trip taking an expensive outing after working hard to help out in Chicago. Regardless of their background, I did my best at serving them in a timely manner. I even brought out extra maraschino cherries for the 8 kids!
Somehow after pouring the adults another glass of wine, they engaged me in conversation. Next thing I knew, I started telling my story. Apparently it was exactly what they were just talking about, with teaching becoming too much for one of the women at the table. She had left the career due to the stress of the experience. Completely related to me. The connections on top of that were pretty crazy sitting in a nicer restaurant in downtown Chicago:
They were from Wheaton.
One of their kids was going to Wheaton North.
They knew the cross streets of where I grew up.
And surprisingly, I opened up to them. I learned quickly that all of these kids were actually in the same family. The "organizer" and his wife Sasha. Man was I wrong! They had adopted kids from Ethiopia and it seemed they sure had stories to tell. Another connection.
I'm going to Addis-Abeba, Ethiopia in December. Two of their kids were adopted from there.
As they gathered to leave, I boldy went up to the woman with the soft blue eyes.
"I know you're about ready to go, but I was have been thinking about having a big family when I'm ready, or maybe just having kids around that aren't mine like an orphanage or something." I stumbled and babbled about how maybe I wouldn't want to do it by myself, finally arriving at my point.
"How do you afford it?"
She looked me dead in the eyes and said, "Never let anything like money, or being with someone, or anything stop you from doing what you want to do. There's always a way to make it happen."
She wrote her email on the piece of paper I handed to her and the last thing she said to me before they left was, "My name's Sasha."
She wrote her email address on a piece of scratch paper as a promise to be in touch soon, walking away. Her blond curls whipped out of her face as she smiled and ruffled the hair of her adopted little girl and grabbed her husband's hand. I knew I'd see her again soon.
Comments