Questions, Questions, Questions!

I had some very sweet, interesting questions asked today about Alyssa's adoption. I always welcome questions from people - I use every opportunity to share about adoption and to tell people about the needs of orphans. Most times, people are very sincere in their questioning and have a true desire to know about adoption. There are other times when people are being insensitive and provide me with very inaccuarate information they've heard or "learned" about adoption and orphans. Still, I don't mind this, I can use these opportunities to share the truth about why families adopt and the plight of children around the world. If I didn't want questions about our adoption, we would not have chosen to adopt a child of different nationality!

BUT, today, I had the most sincere questions asked of me. Alyssa and I were at the park playing and there was a group of kids there - probably between the ages of 6-10 (their parents weren't there). This is kind of how the question - answer period went between the kids and I...

First little girl asked me, "Why is she brown and you're white?"

Me: "She is from China and I'm from Canada"

All the other children come over at this point and start asking me questions at once...

Kids: "WOW, does she know all the chinese restaurants in town?!"

Me (laughing): Well, we do eat at a lot of chinese restaurants - her daddy and I love chinese food but Alyssa likes chicken nuggest and fries"

All the kids yell, "Me too!"

Kids: "Why is she with you?"

Me: "We adopted her. She didn't have a mommy and daddy to take care of her and we really wanted to be her mommy and daddy so we decided to adopt her as our child"

Kids: "How could she be born without a mommy and daddy?"

Me (thinking...oh great...the birds and the bees!!!): "Well, she was born from a lady in China but that lady wasn 't able to take care of Alyssa."

Kids: "But why not?"

Me: "Sometimes grown-ups aren't able to take care of their children - maybe the lady was too young, or maybe she didn't have money to feed her baby - there can be lots of reasons why someone can't keep their babies. She loved her baby and wanted someone to take care of her so she said she could be adopted"

Kids: "where did she live if she didn't have a mommy in china?"

Me: "She lived in an orphanage. It's a big house where lots of children live and nannies take care of them. "

Kids: "Like on Big Brother? There's a nanny on that show!" (I'm not sure if this is true because I don't watch Big Brother but how funny that she said that!)

Kids: "So now you're her mommy?"

Me: "Yup. She is my daughter and I'm her mother"

The kids all look at Alyssa, smile and go play as if nothing was talked about.