Red & Yellow, Black & White...

     We were enjoying a "kids eat free" night, rehashing our days.  Dinner usually takes forever because of the conversations and that Ezekiel savors every morsel he eats.  I love, love, love our long dinners.  This one was particularly remarkable.

     Etienne said "I'm the only dark kid in my class."

   Shoot.  Weren't we supposed to have a few more years of parenting in a biracial family before this became an issues?  Well, you can't ignore a comment like that.  Here we go.  We jumped into "just the facts" mode, then Blake pointed out that I am the only one in the family with blue eyes.  Molly piped up with something intelligent about issues of race historically causing conflict (Blake with eye rolling here).  We asked Etienne how being the darkest one in the class made him feel but he couldn't articulate.  That's okay.  It is huge that he could verbalize these observations with us.  Although we attempt to surround ourselves with diversity every day, he will be different.  Our job is to get E to a place where he just holds on tight to what his value is in Christ, not his classmates, his skin color or anything of this world.
  I am blessed that my life and my children give me these moments.  These are conversations and lessons we wouldn't experience if God has given us a path of least resistance.  And there is always some humor.  Please note the photos below.

  PS Etienne actually has a class full of red, yellow, black and white kids.