Reality

You can read all the books and prepare all you want but the day it actually happens can take you off guard.  They tell you people will look at you funny, that they will question your motives, that they will wonder why everyone in your family doesn't look like a cookie cutter image of you.  Our sweet little mixed family has stumped checkers at Walmart - you can see the mind reeling trying to figure out two five year olds, both calling me "Mommy", one with beautiful chocolate skin and one with flaming red curls!  Sweet little old ladies smile and tell me how beautiful my family is.

Others look questioningly, wondering why you would ever....adopt....become a biracial family....bring older kids into your home...you name it!  As I discussed Martin Luther King Jr. Day with my students last week I became very aware of how far our country has come.  The progress in equality and love for all people.  Society has come a long way - but the reality is there are still people who don't get it.  There are people who can't see past status...or circumstance...or skin...or birthplace...you name it!

The reality is that my family is different - we don't all look the same - we weren't all born in the same country or by the same people - we don't all have the same childhoods or memories!  The reality is that I am thankful for my amazing family - I have learned more from being a mother to FIVE very different blessings than I could have every imagined!  The reality is there are people that think stupid things - and will sometimes say them - direct them - at my family!  The reality is that the only opinion that matters is the One that created each and every one of us - in HIS IMAGE - that is what we have in common!!!!

So God created mankind in his own image,

    in the image of God he created them;

    male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27