Family Day

This week was family week at Blake's preschool, so we thought we'd take advantage and do the shortened version of our adoption talk. The above book, We Belong Together, by Todd Parr, is one of my favorites. Each person in the book is a bright primary color so it's easy to initiate the topic of race. I grabbed this book, some plantains, the boys and some well intentioned expectations and headed to the YMCA.
I'm an educated woman so I knew I had just a little window of attention with the 4 year old crowd. We all rounded up into the circle, passed out the sweet plantains and I began to read. Well, I am so much more patient waiting on babies to be born than a group of preschoolers! I couldn't get through a page without a "nobody is really purple!" or "I didn't look like my mom when I came out of her tummy!" To say the least, I did appreciate the fact that the only ones really listening seemed to be my 3 sons....
After the story, I attempted to ask the crowd "How does your family help you?" Blake, knowing the routine, attempted to feed answers to his classmates "Aidan, say they kiss your boo-boos." We usually have a photo of a band-aid, another of some kids jumping rope, and a giant heart. The goal here is to point out that the things your family gives you have nothing to do with biology. I quickly realized I better just point out the obvious about Blake's brothers, tell the group its okay to look different and still be a family and get the heck out of Dodge. I left a little disheartened but the next morning a fellow preschool mom informed me that her son told her all about adoption. So mission accomplished. Whew. Good thing family week is only once a year.