We have been blessed in finding friends who also have adopted transracially from Haiti, and their sons are great friends for my sons (please use the internet, parents of transracial adoptees, if you need help finding diversity). Also, we have found opportunities to get my son into extra curricular activities that offer more diversity in his life. We are still working through some of the bigotry issues that can be passed down to students in my son's class, but through forcing ourselves to be aware of his need for racial diversity (not to mention our desire for our whole family to be engaged in diverse relationships as well) we have found chances for creatively meeting that need.

Also, as a fifth grade teacher, I was intrigued by the following:

“Michael was in third grade when his teacher seated him between the three most disruptive students in her class. She told me she was using him as a buffer because she knew he wouldn’t be drawn into their behavior. I was finishing college at the time, and as I pondered the fact that I was pursuing higher education while my child was struggling for an elementary one, I decided that I could not continue allowing him to flounder in a sub-standard situation. The only private schools nearby were either too expensive or sectarian, so my husband and I made the monumental decision to home-school him — something we had never before envisioned”

You were fortunate to be able to home-school. My school has many similar issues as to the one you just mentioned. Unfortunately, too many parents in my district do not have any choice at all, and few options are offered. Families of more than 600 children did opt out of our district to other public schools, mostly middle-class families. While this is secondary to your main theme, I think it behooves us as a country to look at public education and why so many parents do choose alternative type schooling.

I think that's what we have to realize, that looks do matter more than we want to believe or accept. I have now come to see that the early church was not just trans-cultural but also multi-cultural; its members were called “Christians” in part because, in light of the tribalism that existed in that day, no one knew what else to call them. After all, their ethnic backgrounds didn't change just because they came to know the Savior.

Justahuman, Call it what you will. Race. Ethnicity. Whatever. My sons are biological half brothers, but brothers entirely, so I get your point. We live in a broken world, however, that still categorizes by skin color, culture, ethnicity. There's an ad right below this comment box for a Sojourners seminar called Crossing the Racial Divide. I take it, the course is being held because there is a divide to cross.

letjusticerolldown, yes it is a human story, but it is also one shaped heavily by issues of race. There is no denying that fact.

aarondtaylor, Congratulations to you and your wife on your double blessing! My prayers are with you for a healthy pregnancy AND a joyful adoption. There will be challenges no matter where you choose to live. Your intentionality and sensitivity will serve your children well. I wouldn't trade our experience of being an inter-racial family for anything in the world.

Blessings to you all~

My wife and I are adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia this year. In the meantime, my wife has conceived and she is now about 9 weeks along. We weren't expecting her to get pregnant. She has had multiple miscarriages in the past, but we are hopeful that this one will be carried full term. Either way, we are going through with the adoption regardless. So it is very possible that we will have a white baby and an Ethiopian baby. I've been thinking hard about where we should raise our child. Please pray that my wife and I will make the right decision and that God will give us the grace to be good parents.

I wonder if your story is not more a human story than one about race; if it is not more about God'sstory…Who could have imagined the life story of your family–a big chunk of it having come and gone before you even had chance to fully experience it. In the midst of the struggles, questions and challenges was the grace of a wise God who intensified your lives to prepare one of His own for himself—not in our timeframe or ways–but in God's alone.

Blessings on the journey.

I should clarify that I did not adopt Gabriel; I gave birth to him. My husband adopted him and has loved him with all his heart from Gabriel's infancy. In fact, he was Gabriel's hero.

Gabriel's birth father chose not to be a part of his life. Thus, I must disagree with those who oppose trans-racial adoption. Better for a child to languish in an orphanage or foster care or be fatherless? I think not.