This wild political season has put transracial adoption in the news thanks to Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings. No, this isn’t a post on what I think of Amy Coney Barrett. Yes, this is a post on being a white mother to black children.
As a white mother to black children, the world often views you (or people like you) as a white savior and/or a white colonizer. Rarely are you ever seen as just a mother to your children. Since your skin color doesn’t match your kids’ melanin – even though families don’t have to match – you can’t simply be a mother to your kids. The world judges you. Strangers question why you chose to adopt. The world hypothesizes the ulterior motives of your adoption.
One of the first blog posts I ever wrote was about how I am not a white savior and how Chris and I are the lucky ones, not our girls. In the adoption triad, Chris and I are the lucky ones.
I’m privileged to write about our adoption journey, our transracial family and everything that we learn along the way. It’s not an easy world to live in. And adoption definitely isn’t for the faint of heart.
Love what matters
I was thrilled to share the back story of how Chris and I were first placed with the girls on the website, lovewhatmatters.com. All adoption stories are unique so we are not unique in that way. However, the quickness of our placement- we were placed before even submitting paperwork! – is definitely part of our unique adoption story.
You can check out the guest post here. And remember today and every day to love what matters.
If you enjoyed this blog post, subscribe to the blog! You’ll learn how we navigate race as white parents to black children, what adoption is really like, and parenting lessons learned along the way.
