Together, Finally

July 3rd, 2010

Happy Summer!! So sorry for the absence...we've had a wonderful summer together as a family and I just couldn't pull myself away from them to type on a computer! I promise I'll be better from now on!

We've been at the beach for two weeks now, and I've had some wonderful time to reflect as I do one of my favorite things in the world...walk on the beach. Here are some of the thoughts that have been bumping around my head.

Since that rocky start last April, our lives, as a transracial family, have grown to feel exactly right. (Yes, I've started using the word transracial. And proudly at that!) Though no one will mistake the boy sitting next to me for my offspring, he certainly feels like my son. A brown child has become familial, so brown children are now familiar. No, we don't look like the families you see on Swiffer commercials or read about in Southern Living. But, we are a family. We are our own family. And we are a beautiful one.

In the first stages of being a family created by transracial adoption, we were aware of how different from our son we looked. As time has progressed and the emotional cement of family has hardened, we feel unified (even though the world does not always see us as belonging together). Looking nothing like my child causes questions and looks, but it holds no charge as a threat. We are family. Having said that, it is also true that we take great delight in discovering the ways we resemble one another. When people say that my son and I have the same smile, my smile gets even bigger.

Every day is a journey. And every day takes patience and a tough skin. I don't know what the future holds. I know there will be tough times ahead, but I also know there will be love, laughter, and happiness. I have been blessed with the most extraordinary family I could've ever dreamed of. No, we didn't come together in the most conventional of ways. But we came together. We were meant to be together. And I couldn't be happier about it!

I hope you continue to follow us along our journey. I'm not sure which way our path will lead...but I promise to bring you along!