Meet The Teacher Night

School starts back next week and tonight we are going to meet the teachers. This is always an interesting day for our family. When you have a family that does not match there is usually some explaining to do. With our family we also have to tell the teachers the basics of seizure first aid just in case the boys have a seizure at school. Luckily that has not happened but it is better to be safe and informed than sorry and scared. We always explain to the teachers that the children have been adopted and that they all have … Continue reading →

Convincing a Child He Will Burn

Even though I just wrote about skin tones and summer skin care for my son who is bi-racial with African American features we still managed to mess up on vacation. George did not think he would sunburn so whenever I gave him the sunscreen he said he was putting it on himself. I made sure everyone had all the sunscreen they needed. George thought it was funny that I was asking him to put it on because as he put it “I’m brown I will not burn”. As part of our family vacation we went tubing down the Comal River … Continue reading →

Beach Vacation

So we are heading out on family vacation in the morning. This is only our second big vacation since we adopted the kids nine years ago. Four years ago we went to Disney World with a charity called Kidd’s Kids. Kidd’s Kids takes chronic or terminally ill children and their family on an all-expense paid vacation. We were chosen to go because both of our sons have epilepsy a chronic neurological seizure disorder. This is the first summer vacation that we are venturing out on our own. When we went to Disney World it was November and I did not … Continue reading →

Racial Trends

OK let me start by saying that I by no means mean the following in any racial context. There are some trends that seem to follow racial lines. When I drive down the street I usually don’t see Caucasians with their pants so darn low that almost all of their underwear is showing. I do however see a lot of African American boys and adults even with their pants so low they can barely walk. I really do not understand the reasoning of this; don’t these people understand where that trend came from? It started in jail need I say … Continue reading →

Choosing Where We Live

When we began the adoption process we were still living in an apartment but we were looking for a house. When we considered where to buy our house we did not want an all Caucasian neighborhood nor did we want a strictly African American neighborhood. We wanted to pick a home that would be ok no matter what race or ethnicity of a child we would adopt would be comfortable in. We adopted a Caucasian son and a biracial son, who was part Caucasian part African American, as well as their sister who is Caucasian. Because of the fact that … Continue reading →

We Thought We Covered All Bases

We are not the traditional looking family and that is great with us. When we adopted our kids we could have said we want kids who have the same color hair, skin tone, and eyes so they would have matched us but instead we said we don’t care about any of that only that they were healthy and needing a family. That is truthfully what I think is all that matters. When we started the adoption process we had asked friends who are African American if they thought our child, if we adopted an African American child, would get ostracized … Continue reading →

Holiday Program

Sometimes when you have a child of a different race there are definite advantages. Here is what I mean my son had a school program and he was walking in front of me, because he is too cool to be seen with his old mom. Another student yelled “Hey George your fat”. I turned around and asked the rude child what his name was and when he asked why I told him that his teacher was going to be made aware that he called my son fat. The boy said that George was not my son because I am white … Continue reading →

The Nerve of Some People

We have had total strangers come up to us and ask us why our middle son does not look like us. Sometimes we just walk away but I will admit I did have a little fun with it sometimes. If my children were not within ear shot I would come up with different replies for these nosey people. Some of the better replies I have come up with range from “I know he does not look like us but the hospital insist we took the correct baby home” or “ I know my husband looks like he is Caucasian but … Continue reading →

I Am Not Black I Am Brown

I never realized that one of our sons that is bi-racial did not know he was black. It was around Martin Luther King Day at school he was in Kindergarten and he got in the car after school and said he was not going back to school. When I asked him why he said that he needed a new teacher! I was wondering why, after more than half the year had gone by already and he liked his teacher, why he needed a new teacher. I asked if he had a bad day and got in trouble for something and … Continue reading →

Skin Color Not Discussed In Our Family

About a year after we brought our kids into our family through adoption my niece who was 6 at the time pointed at our middle child and said “Aunt he sure keeps his tan a long time”. It never occurred to me that she did not realize that he was bi-racial but had strong African American features. If you did not know that his brother and sister were Caucasian and that they all had the same biological mother than you would look at him and see a beautiful black child. Ten years later thinking of that day when we explained … Continue reading →