Matt, Stacey, and Ben Uhrig

First: Easter was a blast. However, I left my camera at my dad's house. Once I get it back, I'll upload pics from the weekend....egg dying, egg hunts, more eggs hunts, etc. etc. What I can tell you however, is that we all had a really fun time!

Onto the post....Imaginative Play and Adoption Talk...

From the time Ben came home, we have talked to him about Adoption and South Korea. It is really important to us that he is confident within himself about who he is, where he is from, and how we chose to grow our family. That being said, we are lucky enough to meet kids on the playground in our town that are adopted (frequently) and have 2 great friends, Kyle and Owen, who are adopted from Haiti.

Today Ben decided not to nap (yet another post later down the road)...and instead chose to have some quiet play time in his room with his stuffed animals. I was in the room next door working and I could hear him talking..."I'm from South Korea. Where are you from?"

I walk in and see him playing with his beloved, oldest stuff animal "blah blah" the cat. So, I jump right in and pretend that I'm blah blah and I say - "I'm from china". I proceed to say (as blah blah). "I'm adopted, are you adopted?". Ben said Yes.

We then have the following exchange (again, me as Blah Blah)
Ben: Yes, I'm adopted
BB: Me. too! I have friends that are adopted too, do you have any friends who are adopted?
Ben: Yes, my friends Kyle and Owen.
BB: Oh, I know them! Where are they adopted from?
Ben: I don't know...where are they adopted from?
BB: I think they are adopted from Haiti.
Ben: Why Haiti?
BB: That's where they were born.
Ben: I was born in South Korea.
Ben: Snoopy is adopted too.
BB: Where is snoopy from?
Ben: Snoopy is from Haiti.
BB: I think its cool that so many people are adopted from different countries.
Ben: I'm from South Korea, you are from China, Snoopy is from Haiti. Kyle and Owen are from Haiti.
BB: Is ryan (another friend), adopted?
Ben: No.
BB: Is Marcos adopted?
Ben: No. I'm adopted. They are not.

The conversation went on a big longer but you get the gist. Its just so super amazing to me that at the age of 2 I can have these conversations with Ben. I have fears that when Ben is school age, he will come home with the story of a child saying something mean to him about how he is different because he was adopted - as I know kids are so blunt and to the point some times.

I want Ben to be confident about who he is and where he is from. I can only hope that opportunites, like the one that arose today, will help me facilitate openess about our family and how very special it is....

Posted in: on Monday, April 09, 2007 at at Monday, April 09, 2007