Welcome

Hi and welcome to my blog about transracial adoption.  This is a place where we can talk and learn about issues regarding adoption and more specifically about issues around adopting a child or children of a different race than your own.  It is well established that just "loving a child" is not enough to help them develop a strong and heathly racial identity.  As parents we must assist our children to develop a postive self esteem and self worth.  It is of utmost importance to incorporate all the races that are represented in the family.  Because my daughter is Chinese and I am Caucasian we are now a family that goes through the world with the identity of China and Ireland/Scotland.  It is my job as her mother to help her develop an understanding and positive self regard of the Chinese culture as well as myself embracing and living that culture as well.  We do it together.  It is not that I send her out alone in the world for her to understand the Chinese culture.  It is for both of us.  How we do this changes as our children go through the different stages in life.  How I talk to my daughter at the age of 2 is different than when she is 7, 14, and 17 and onto adulthood.  The goal is for the family to become "transracialized" which means that the issue of race and of culture is ours together--we are both, in my family, Chinese and Caucasian.  I speak up about racism and model for my daughter that racism on any level will not be tolerated in our home.

I welcome comments, discussion, suggestions, and topics that you would like to learn about.  I currently work at Adoption Connection and am an adoption case worker by trade.  I started and now co-facilitate a Transracial Adoption group and have a small private practice which helps parents help their children develop a positive racial identity as they grow up.

As the saying goes--"It takes a village to raise a child" and this is even more true when adopting across racial lines.