Orphanpalooza Portland

The last hardcore partiers finally toddled off into the night, Mojo is curled up in bed and I've retreated downstairs to put this into pixels for the record. Portland ALTercation "Orphanpalooza" 2007 is history. Wow.

Before I go on - this is the view out of little Nola's window in Millicent and Floyd's beautiful Victorian house. Is this great, or what? It's like she's going to be living in the treetops!

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Anyway - what a cacophany of ALT-parent energies! We had meself and Mojo (and the Peep), the Austin inamoratas from Walternatives, B-gal from Moonbeam, W&J from Buttercup, Millicent from Different Dirt and Kelli from Waiting for Sprout. Much emotion was outpoured, much drink was intaken. All things adoption were thrashed out (with dark looks cast towards the Dark Lords of the Adoption Sith, who hold us all in their thrall), much else was dragged out and beaten to death (you haven't heard impassioned until you've heard Millicent talk about getting mugged and the unreal experience of getting U.S. fire-and-murder-news in the E.U.) and a genuinely good time was had by all.

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In my experience there are few who I would trust implicitly with my money, my drink or my woman. These people...they're paisans. My muckers. My companeros. Good times...good times.

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We started over at K's with an incredible Chinese dinner Saturday evening. Her "village" showed up in force, with little adorables in tow, one of whom to my inexpressible delight decided to take up residence on my knee while endlessly dipping her green bean in the soy sauce and sipping it (her mom said that it wasn't exactly a shock - she's a soy-sipper from 'way back...) She nibbled tiny chicken bits from my fingers and was, in all respects, a darling. Don't get me wrong - the Peep is mah boyee - but this little sweetie captured my heart with her gentleness and her incredible personality. And only two!

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I only hope our mei-mei can be such a little darling!

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The next morning we foregathered at Millicent's to admire the work her people have put in on her beautiful Mississippi district Victorian home. As you know if you've followed her - or this - blog, she and husband Floyd have been working to get their home back in shape after a disastrous fire for little Nola, the girl from Fujian they're bringing home within a month. The fire was horrific - I don't think I realized just how awful until today, when I stopped to look at the back fence. As you can see from the picture, the fence post was charred by the heat - and this post was at least twenty feet from the back house wall where the fire was the most involved!!! I stopped taking pictures and reached out to touch the post: deeply charred on the house side, nearly untouched on the far side. This is what the fire was doing. All I could do was stop in wonder. My god.

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But, like a phoenix, the Victorian house is rising from its pyre. The inside is lovely, grand, but still a home, from the gorgeous Roman mosaic on the shower floor to Nola's eyrie on the top floor front. The group all loved the promise of Millie and Floyd (and Nola's) beautiful home...

In the Fire Direction Center tradition (started last week), I have protected the group's identities in the attached snapshots by giving you just the feet to work with. So here's the ALT-gang in Millie's future family room: from left to right, Mama Sprout, JzBoy, Millie, wzgirl and Poodlemama. C and H were already downstairs, gloating over the gorgeous countertops, the rich detailing of mouldings and wall colors and the sensuous texture of the fir floor underfoot.

OMFG. There's a little girl waking in Fujian province who has no idea that this loving home is waiting to enfold her.

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Later today the group coalesced again, this time at the Fire Direction Center for an afternoon BBQ and hang out. Much drink was taken, everything from quinoa salad to lamb shish-kabob was ingested and the conversation ranged far and wide. Again, here's the nether regions of the group: Mojo on the right, buttercup, Millie and walternatives right to left. A nice snapshot of the gang breaking in the new deck...

And, of course, no evening would have been complete without the Peep adding his unique brand of entertainment to the mixer. And sweetBabyJesus does this boy love him some Kelli. It'd be embarassing in a sort of Anna-Nicole-and-J-Howard-Marshall way except that the Peep is totally clueless on how to gain the affections of his beloved: the closest he came was to badger her to come downstairs to listen to BlueGal sing "The Meanest Mommy" song. We're still unsure what this meant to him. It sure didn't work for her...

But here he is anyway. We sure had fun at the ALTercation. Hope everyone comes back real soon to meet our little girl and the big grown-up Peeper. We sure had fun with y'all.