My Response

I've enjoyed reading the comments on the post below. I've given this some thought and wrote and rewrote what I wanted to say.

Adoption is a very personal choice. Someone mentioned talking with their family prior to adoption. We talked with our parents prior to making the decision to be open to race, but only our parents. If they had real concerns we would have listened to them, but since they had none I can't tell you what we would have done had we faced that. But as others mentioned it's our choice (Dave and I's) what we do. And if someone has a problem with it then that is their problem not ours. It's our job now to protect our children and raise them to be confident in who they are.

I guess to truly respond I have to be willing to admit that my family did struggle. But it's really hard to know where the struggle came from. My mom was always quick to point out that Isabel was adopted. It wasn't in a proud way it was as if she didn't want to have to explain anything. That is the type of person my mom is. I think she's had to explain our family and our choices (first to become a Christian, become a pastor's wife, missionary, etc.) throughout the years and she just wants to set it straight before questions come.
She did struggle with adoption I believe, I think Dave's mom did as well before we adopted. They want to look out for us because we are their kids. They don't want us hurt and all they hear are the horror stories. But I bet now when they hear someone talking about adoption they are quick to speak up and talk about us and our experience. They felt the same when we told them we were going to foster, hesitant out of concern but supportive. All weekend long Dave's mom told us over and over again how proud they are of us. We don't need to hear that, we're just doing what we're supposed to do, but it was nice to hear.

My mom wasn't thrilled with the idea of us fostering when I first told her but that was 3 years ago and she has amazed me at her acceptance of our foster girls. Brings tears to my eyes as I type. She took the time to make each of them a Christmas nightgown and M wants to wear it every night. She has accepted them as family. I'm guessing that the 3 1/2 years of being a grandma through adoption has helped her heart grow and change and she doesn't even know it.

Every family has problems with accepting things some times. If adopting a child is something you want to do your family will come around because they are your family. If you adopt a child of another race they will quickly realize that a child is a child no matter the color of their skin.

I think this picture from the weekend shows you how well Dave's mom has accepted our children. When we first brought up the topic of adopting a child of another race to his parents she was very quick to tell us that God had been dealing with her about racism in her heart that she didn't even know was there.