Just one month until we head down to Guatemala to have our first visit with Sabrina. We’ll be staying down there for 5 days and we’re already starting to pile up on the items that we’ll need. We made a trip to Target to buy the bottles, bibs, clothes, toys and all the other accoutrements. I’m very excited about the trip and know that even though we’ll be cooped up in a hotel room for almost a week that being able to spend time with my daughter will be amazing.

Also, several members of my wife’s “secret club” will be visiting the same time that we are they all decided it would be fun to dress the kids up in Christmas outfits. Michelle bought this glittery Santa outfit for Sabrina. She should look adequately ridiculous in it and we can embarrass her in 15 years by showing it to her boyfriends.

Anyway, the relevance of the topic of this post is that in our document we received from the agency about what to do when in Guatemala is an item I thought amusing. Apparently, they request that visiting American adoptive couples should dress to a high standard so that we can eliminate the image of the “slovenly, lazy American” that apparently is rampant in poor, third-world countries. Apparently the only real requirements for appropriate dress is that we shouldn’t wear big jeans or shorts.

I’m sure that if I show up in a nice pair of shorts with a collared shirt with good shoes, I’ll be regarding as a filthy, white-trash, trailer park resident who can’t hold down a job or speak a coherent sentence. Never mind the HUGE amount of cash that we had to front for this whole process. I’m sure people who can afford this process – in cash, mind you – are truly the kind of Americans they don’t want to be seen outside the borders.

Amazing the power of Dockers.

Surprisingly, I’ve never been a fan of dress codes. In schools, at jobs, or in social settings. I feel I always dress appropriate for an occasion, but the one way to ensure that I won’t is to TELL me what to wear.

HONEYYYYYY, where are my flip-flops and wifebeater t-shirt??