I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I had a dream.
I had a dream that my beloved children would not be regarded as little yellow-skinned-math prodigy-violin-playing freaks that I bought/rescued because I Could Not Have One Of My Own.
The reality:
Meg Ryan, star of such movies as Crap and Crap 2: the Craptathlon, will adopt a Chinese baby later today, according to OK! magazine. The adoption is scheduled to take place at an American consulate in China. An insider tells the publication, "The consulate will formalize the adoption and grant Meg's new daughter a visa and a social security number. They will probably be flying back to the US immediately after the process is complete."
China is like the Wal-Mart of adoptions. You touch down at the airport in Beijing and they just start throwing babies and fortune cookies at you. But good for Meg. Now all she needs to do is name the baby Lo Pan and teach it to shoot fire from its eyes.
I had a dream that the glorious happiness of motherhood that I've experienced would never be trivialized and mocked as a fashion statement.
Walter Scott’s
Personality Parade®
Published: January 29, 2006
Q. Why do stars like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie adopt foreign kids when many are waiting here?—John Cranston, Everett, Wash.A. In Hollywood, it’s fashionable to adopt infants from the Third World. “Also, many believe there’s less red tape outside the U.S. Often, it’s worse,” explains actor Henry Winkler. He works with the Children’s Action Network, which says 119,000 foster-care kids in the U.S. are eligible for adoption. (Visit childrensactionnetwork.org for details.) Jolie and Pitt are expecting their own, of course, and he has filed to adopt Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 1.
I had a dream that The Man On The Street would someday come to understand that the path I chose to motherhood is as sacred and wonderful as shooting out a blonde haired blue eyed child from my crotch.
I had a dream that if one day my children were cuter than anybody else's, scored higher on a test than anybody else's, spoke lovingly of their mother and father, were well dressed, sent me Mother's Day cards on a regular basis, and toured the world proclaiming at every pitstop that our family bonds were as tight and sacred as the family next door sharing DNA that the world would grant me the street cred I would have received if I had only returned to that fertility clinic in January, 1998.
I don't have that dream any more.
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8 comments:
In my eyes, this insensitivity is the same as that shown to people suffering from IF. Until people know what it's like or watch a loved one go through the process, they're just clueless and say stupid stuff. Maybe by making the process and emotional results more public, the Rest of the World will begin to understand.
Also, I think that no one should hold too much stake in the wisdom of a columnist who attempts to reconcile Walmart's union-hostile policy with Garth Brook's CD plugs.
What I don't understand is the disparity between (not) embracing Chinese children and (exuberantly) embracing Chinese culture. Honestly, Chinese New Year and Year of the Dog are overdone, an annual event I see as a rather frivolous concept in light of adopting children from China, but strangely touted and celebrated by Americans at large, unlike the kids. What gives? Dress the kids in green on March 17 and they'll be popular again. Fickle people.
I'm sorry I posted The Superficial link. It ran away from there and hurt too many people. I wish I hadn't done it.
Cricket, I think people embrace Chinese children, but not the concept of a multiracial family-- especially if it was formed through adoption.
Marla
Don't give up on that dream. I do believe ti will happen. For the most part, but um, not that last paragraph you wrote. No thanks to that part of the dream, the kids sound a bit creepy :)
First off, I'm very glad to get into here, as I have been missing your wonderful stories. I only got this post and half the previous one, so I don't know how your book for Oprah ends (lots more drinking in MY story). But I've had these dreams also. My kids are doing their best to refute the "good at math" myth!
I dream of the day my kids aren't tagged my "bio" and my "adopted"... my husband says that this will probably never happen and then, I think seriously of spooning his eyes out.
Every single thing that you see about Angelina Jolie (and God knows it is damn HARD to avoid her these days) prefaces her "adopted son" or "adopted daughter"... well, no shit... the boy is Cambodian and the girl is African... do we really need to be reminded every single friggin time that they are ADOPTED?! When she has her baby will articles read: Angelina and her adopted son, adopted daughter and bio child?
I really enjoy your blog, thanks for the thoughtful and clever writing.
This post made me cry. I am so sorry for the idiocy of the world.
Me to. You don't know me but cluttergirl does somewhat.
I'm a greatgrandmother raising 3 mixed race little girls and I've experienced some of it too.
So have they.
I haven't read back through your posts so I don't know all the background (I will) but my hert went out to you after reading this.
Best,
Ann
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