Black kids, white parents

This Sunday afternoon, we’re packing the family into the van and heading over to the home of a perfect stranger. Well, maybe not entirely a stranger– two of my sisters have met her, and I have heard from several other people that she is a very nice person.

I am incredibly eager to meet this gal, because she is only the second Ethiopian adult I have the privilege to know in our area. The first one has since moved away. There are other Ethiopians in our area, I’m told — well, three or four dozen at minimum, and probably more. But I must not be living in the right part of this valley, because I haven’t run into them. And so I am delighted that this woman would like to meet our family. I hope that she may also become a part of our lives. I so much want our children to have adult Ethiopians in their life.

There’s a good article over on Rainbowkids.com: The Identity My Parents Couldn’t Give To Me. In it an adult adoptee talks about what she missed by being adopted into a white family. It has provoked many comments, many of which are negative towards the adoptee. I find it sad that so many people feel threatened and upset while reading about her experience in life. And yet I do understand the unease her thoughts create in the mind of a well-intentioned adoptive parent.

It is hard to face the thought that our children may grow up and have negative emotions about their adoption status, and about the things they missed be living in a white family. And yet reading an article like this makes me even more determined to face the possible issues head-on, talk with our children tons, and get serious about making connections in the African American community in our area. For the sake of our children.

More on this topic
Changing the look of American families
What adult adoptees want us to know
Black children, white parents

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.