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Mita and I were at our first joint counseling session (Mita’s first ever)the other day. We were playing an emotions game. We took turns drawing a card with an emotion written on it and a facial description of the emotion and then we all shared of a time when we felt that emotion. Mita did great at it. One of the emotions picked was Surprise.
When it got to Mita’s turn to share she said she was surprised when she came to the U.S. that not everyone looked like her, or where not “brown” is how she put it. In all of my preparation for the adoption of my brown kids, did I think to prepare her for all the “peach” people she was going to be around. We spent two weeks in Ethiopia and the only peach people around were adoptive parents and our agency’s site director and the volunteers. They were still in the majority and we were in the minority in the race aspect.
Then we flew to England on Ethiopian Air, again, mostly Ethiopians on the flight. Our trip from London to Washington D.C. is just a blur, but I am trying to remember how Mita and Enu were at the airport. The very first time that they were in the minority for race. All I can remember is Mita telling the security guard she was nine and Hubby and I looking at each-other surprised (we thought she was eight, and she later said she was eight). I can also remember Elle getting a full bottle of water through security (accident) and that I also ran out of dramamine.
Mita and Enu must have felt a little lost and probably confused and I just didn’t pick up on it.
I guess what I am trying to convey with this post is that it would be good to prepare your child if he or she is going to be experiencing such a sudden change in environment, especially if it regards race. If I were to go back to “fix” things I don’t think I would have talked a lot about racial differences and minority/majority, but I would mention that they were about to see a lot of peach around.
