So, do you think you are racist?? Do you think you have any conscious or subconscious racial preferences or attitudes? I know what you are saying… “But Erin, I have adopted a child from (fill in the blank) and I am reading your transracial adoption blog… of course I am not racist.”

Today, CNN has the “racial bias quiz” available on their website. The “Implicit Association Test”, from Harvard University tests our conscious and subconscious thoughts regarding race.

Here is a description…

It is well known that people don't always 'speak their minds', and it is suspected that people don't always 'know... more

Those of you that know me, even if just through this blog, know that I am not big into celebrities (at all). I have tried for the most part to even ignore the “celebrity adoptions” on my blog, although I did give in and write about Angelina here and here, and Madonna (just once!) here.... more

Continued...

I wanted to share these experiences because often you hear transracial families (including myself!) complaining about the downside of being what I call a “highly visible family”. If you join any email list about transracial adoption, you will quickly run into parents complaining and lamenting about the nosey, insensitive, prying, thoughtless, bizarre and down right rude questions/comments that all transracial adoptive families seem doomed to get every once in a while when out in public.

I have written about how to “deal” with the attention, the worst comments we have ever gotten and strategies for responding to awkward or rude comments or questions.

While... more

I had an experience while Maggie was in the hospital last week that was one of those reminders of how being a transracial adoptive family is unique.

I was up there one night, right after a shift change for the nurses. The “new” nurse that was on, is a woman that I know well from our community. She came in and sat down and we talked some about my family, life, orphanages, etc. This woman has volunteered a lot in Romania, and so we had a lot to talk about.

At the end of the conversation, she looked like she was struggling to decide whether or not to tell me something. Then she said, “Your family really touches people. Tonight, when we were changing shifts, Maggie’s last nurse... more

June asked, “Here's my question - now that you have adopted children at many different ages, what are your thoughts on the differences in adjustment and/or attachment, based on the age of the child when he/she comes home?”

This is a great question. First let me say that we have adopted two infants (one newborn, one 3 months old), two toddlers (one 23 months old, one 35 months old) and three older children (two six year olds and one nine year old). We have adopted healthy kids and special needs kids. We have adopted single kids and one sibling group of two.

We have been very blessed in that none of our kids have had very challenging adjustments. Like I have said, our two older... more

There has been a lot of “debate” about how “right’ or “wrong” it is for Americans to adopt African orphans in the media lately…brought on no doubt by the Material Girl herself.

I wanted to give my thoughts on this, as an American adoptive mom, who is actually in Africa.

I have said numerous times on my blog that I do not believe that international adoption is the answer to the problems of poverty and famine and illness and all of the other tragedies of society that are plaguing so many parts of the world.

I believe the a child’s culture and country of birth are a very important piece of who they are, and that a nation’s children are one of their greatest resources,... more

Here is another article fairly similar to the one I posted yesterday… it lacks the passion and strong wordings of Pool’s article. It expresses a lot of similar concerns (in a more constructive way in my opinion) and touches on several different aspects/concerns.

And while these articles focus on African children and adoption, you could very easily substitute Chinese children, or South American children or children from any other transracial international adoption and the issues would be the same.

The dilemma of adopting an African child The Associated Press

Published: October 11, 2006 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/11/africa/AF_GEN_Adopting_from_Africa.php

JOHANNESBURG,... more

Continued from previous post...

Powerful stuff, huh? Here are my thoughts…

For one, I do not believe that this was a well-thought out or well-planned article. I believe it was a knee-jerk reaction by an adult adoptee from Africa, to all the outrageous coverage of Madonna and her trip to Malawi and her possible adoption. I have not read Hannah Pool’s book, but I am going to go out on a limb and guess that it has a very different tone to it than this article.

I think probably the biggest thing that we can learn from this article, is... more

Ok, here is one of the previously promised recent articles on transracial adoption and my feelings and ramblings.

This article was written by Hannah Pool, a woman who was adopted as a young child by white parents from an Eritrean orphanage, however her story could easily be the same if she was adopted from China, Ethiopian Guatemala, etc.

She has a book titled "My Father's Daughter" which I have not read but plan to. This article was written very recently in response to the stories about Madonna in Malawi.

Give it... more

I just can't force myself to seriously write about the whole "Madonna going to Malawi and building an orphanage and adopting a baby boy and having all the rules waived" thing, which may or may not have happened, depending on which articles you read.

I am sick of reading about it all over adoption land today...

Maybe once I know what really is or isn't happening and what has and hasn't happened, I will write about it.

For now I am just going to say that IF they waived the adoption rules for her, I think that stinks. It sends the message that the rules can be changed for a price, which is a dangerous thing when you want to preserve the integrity of international adoptions.

And... more