My wife and I have adopted five maternal brothers. Their ethnicity varies because they have different fathers. We are in our fifties and Caucasian. It can be amusing when all of us go out together to a public place. We enjoy watching people looking at us and trying to figure out our family dynamics.
When I take one or more of our boys somewhere with me, I usually get a remark to the effect that I have beautiful grandchildren. I always tell the person that I am the children’s father. I then walk away, leaving them to wonder about us.
A humorous incident has happened with Walter, who is the oldest child. It was his fourth day at public school and I was supposed to send five dollars with him for a school project. As the school bus left, I remembered that I had not given him the money. I waited long enough for him to get to school in order to take the money to him. When I arrived, I looked through the door of his class and the teacher was not there. I quickly went in and gave him the money, he was quite relieved.
When Walter came home that afternoon, he seemed to be upset. When we asked what was wrong, he tearfully said that his friend had made fun of me and that it hurt his feelings. I immediately expected that his friend had made an insensitive remark.
I took him to my room, rehearsing in my mind an explanation to give him about racial prejudice. I asked him what his friend had said about me.
He started crying and told me that the friend had said that I was fat. I almost choked to keep from laughing. I told him that I am fat, that it was rude for his friend to say, and not to worry about it.
We are very proud of the racial diversity in our home. We know that sooner or later, it will cause problems that we will have to deal with. For now, we try to focus on the amusing aspects of it.
Related Blogs:
Should You Adopt Transracially?
Educating Yourself about Trans-racial Adoption