Most of life’s big events involve planning and preparation. Weddings and marriage, buying a home, giving birth to a child, etc. all require a decent amount of preparation, and adoption is no different.

If you are adopting transracially, there is an even greater importance of preparing for your adoption. Adoption.com has a great article on their website titled "Prepare for a Transracial Adoption".

This article is great if you are just starting out on your adoption journey, and is also a great “refresher” if your child or children are already home. The article provides things to consider and important issues surrounding transracial adoption.

The article recommends that all parents considering or planning on adopting transracially…

-Examine their beliefs and attitudes about race and ethnicity. Personally I think that race and ethnicity are things that many people (especially white people) don’t give a whole lot of thought to until given a reason. Transracial adoption is an important reason. The article gives two reasons why this is important… One, to check yourself to be sure this type of adoption will be right for you; and two, to prepare to be considered "different."

-Think about your lifestyle. It is important to look around and take note on how “integrated” your life is or is not, and consider your feelings and willingness to make it more so, if necessary for the benefit of your child.

-Consider adopting siblings. I thought it was great that the article makes this suggestion. When we first adopted our baby Marcus, we had three biological sons and two Asian daughters. I looked at their photos on the wall one night and I told Josh that I just did not want Marcus to grow up being the only “dark face” on “the wall”. I knew he was a minority in the world, but I didn’t want him to feel that way in our family. We laugh about that now, because once Belane is home, we’ll have the same number of whites and blacks in our family! Anyway, the article gives great information on why adopting siblings could be a great idea for a transracial family.

I encourage adoptive parents to read the above article (credit for the information is given to the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse). This article is one of a series on Transracial Adoption provided by Adoption.com, and I will be discussing the other articles in the near future.