The Blended Life
Encouraging Multiracial Identity
Two things that are of utmost importance to me as a transracial adoptive parent are learning from adult adoptees and gathering tools for my child that encourage her identity. That's why when I read Sharon H. Chang's article "Why Mixed with White isn't White" over at...
Words
Words. I recall this saying, Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me. It was a lie. In the adoption world, especially in the transracial adoption world, words hurt. Intentional words meant to alienate, separate, and ‘other’ my family....
Participate
Yesterday my kindergartner came home after a discussion about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at school and had questions. I was busy making dinner, answering questions about homework requirements, checking in about tutoring sessions, and listening to voicemail – you know...
Waiting for Truth
On December 9th I began drafting a response to the situation in Ferguson, to the denigration of black bodies, to the growing and needed conversation of race and racism in America, to the inevitable link between transracial adoption and racism. The conversation was on...
The Best Reads from NAM
National Adoption Month is over. The month of November can so often be a mixed bag of emotion for adoptees and adoptive families. There seems to be an unending circle critiquing one another about being too positive, not real enough, too negative, sugar-coating, or...
World Adoption Day, National Adoption Month, & Flip the Script
November is National Adoption Month. Every year the month of November creates awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in foster care. Since its formation in the 1990s, National Adoption Month has grown into an all encompassing recognition of adoption,...
In Praise of Adjectives
Adjectives, nouns, and verbs. Second grade begins to teach the navigation of words in the English language. My seven year old had no problem with nouns and verbs, but adjectives trouble her. As seen by this recent work assignment at school in which she assigned...
The Truth in Your DNA
Her words hit me in the gut. “Mom, I don’t care if it’s my birthday and Christmas presents for the next five years. The greatest gift I could ever receive is knowing who I am.” My daughter is talking about a DNA test. Over the summer we had hoped the state...
Perfection and The Freedom Journal
Notes get sent home in her backpack. Notes from her teacher asking me to please help her speed up the process of writing; encourage her to move more quickly. I get assessment reports saying she is lagging behind the momentum of her class in her short moment story, and...
A Transracially-Adopted Child’s Bill of Rights
Last week my daughter came home from middle school full of energy and with a look on her face that I recognized. She had connected with someone at school in a significant way. But you know tweens, I didn't want to push too hard, so I began guessing in my head just who...