Today, after taking Caleb to the doctor, I am still chuckling and shaking my head 8 hours later at the conversation that took place with the doctor's medical assistant. Because Caleb doesn't yet speak more than about 10 words of English, I arranged to have a Mandarin speaker to facilitate communication between Caleb and the doctor.

Having a multiracial family has led to some pretty interesting and funny comments over the years, but I've never been mistaken for being the one from a foreign country....until today.

Our "interpreter" arrived and I introduced myself. I use the term rather loosely since he wasn't really a professional interpreter, but rather a friend of the office manager who happened to speak Chinese. Being a friend, he disappeared somewhere in the back as Caleb and I waited to be called. About five minutes went by and then a woman came back out with the interpreter, asked him where "XXX" was, (slaughtering my son's Chinese name) and then said, "Oh...OK....Is this...umm.... his... family?", as she looked at us.

By this time I am looking around as I only see the two of us together and am wondering if perhaps she is seeing angels or ghosts or some other apparitions that are not visible to me. I was also wondering by this point if I appeared deaf as she only spoke to the interpreter. When he confirmed that yes, I was the "family", she seemed a bit puzzled, but closed the door again.

Not even 15 seconds went by and she opened it again and called my son's name, butchering it once more. Since it wasn't even close, he didn't even look up from the video he was watching. I called his name and when he turned, told him to "C'mon." She looked startled and very slowly and deliberately asked me, "You speak English?" It was hilarious, because first of all, one "C'mon" does not an English speaker make, as my son can attest. He says "C'mon" all the time, but that is one of his approximately 10 English words. Second, I thought it would be clear who was the one needing the interpreter since Caleb is very obviously Chinese and I am not.

When I chuckled and said, "Of course I speak English. I've lived here all my life!", she seemed even more taken aback that I spoke two complete sentences. When she composed herself, she said, "Then why do we need a Chinese speaking interpreter?" I pointed to Caleb and said, "because he doesn't speak English."

The rest of our conversation consisted of:

"He doesn't? Why not?"

"Because I just adopted him."

"You did? From where?" (Hmmmm....Chinese speaking interpreter. Gee, lady, what's your first guess?)

"China."

"Oh really? And where are you from?" (I guess "I've lived here my whole life hasn't yet computed.)

"Here."

"Then how did you get him?"

I think it's time for their office to have an inservice on international adoption!