I am up late tonight, watching the olympics yet again. Wondering why since I could actually DVR it and watch it without commercials tomorrow. I was watching the womens swimming and the announcers were doing their normal who's who in what lane, etc. and they said "So and so from the US in lane such and such, A-DOPTED (with that much emphasis) by her parents, you can see them there in the crowd......" I tapped on my almost asleep husband on the couch with me and said "Is that what they're going to do to our girls forever? When Isabella is in the Olympics :), are they going to say --- 'there are her parents, who ADOPTED her....." Ok, I might even give it to the announcer if they felt like they needed to say that about Amelia -- here she will be getting ready for her race - oh yeah, she'll be a runner in the Olympics someday -- and they scan to the crowd and here are 2 crazy white people jumping around, so MAYBE they would be excused to say something so someone doesn't think they've picked the wrong crazy parents, but still only MAYBE and only because we will be the crazy excited parents, with red white and blue painted on our face and t-shirts with her picture on it. :) And I surely don't mind promoting adoption, but that's all he said, like he should have gone to the next girl and said "And there's so and so in lane such and such, her mother who gave birth to her is there in the stands." Ya'll know me, I'm rather proud that my girls are adopted and I don't shy away from telling my girls stories, I just wonder when my kids can just be my kids, when I can just be their mama.
Enough said, I'll just give the guy the benefit of the doubt and think he's promoting adoption in a round a bout way by saying "Look, you too could adopt an olympic athlete." :)
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7 comments:
I see what you mean... I can't speak for everyone, but I think this is one of those " means well" issues that never truly die-- from an "outsiders" perspective, I hear it exactly like you described it in the end... a testament to something beautiful... I would think too, if I heard that announcement, of children watching the Olympics who may thrive on collecting "like me" stories... I know even something as simple as being a PK was an important link to share with someone...I am a grown woman, and I still do that--make note of and feel closer to those who have those blessed(cursed) letters attached to their name...yeah, even Alice Cooper :)
My first reaction is to see that person, the adoptee, as a role model for others who are adopted or may be waiting to be adopted...I don't think anyone who hasn't adopted would think to be considerate of the situation because they have nothing to go on.
I don't know that you were looking for feedback... I know this is your personal feelings about something too... but I can tell you DeAnna- you are a fabulous momma to your girls and they aren't going to look at you as the "parents that adopted us"-- at the end of the day, they are going to see you just the way you described... "Our Momma and Daddy"
I can't wait to see you dressed like that, btw :)
Lol, I just got a visual of you and Kenny in the stands with your red, white and blue face paint on. I totally missed that on the Olympics. You wonder who in the world gives them their "info on athlete" cards. Man, pretty soon, they'll be getting so desperate for info, they'll say, "And in lane 4, we have John Doe whose ears stick out funny under his swim cap....-crickets chirping-....did we mention that John got a new shirt at Walmart yesterday?"
OH MY GOODNESS I caught that too and thought the same thing!! When Gavin is in the Olympics or accepting the nobel peace prize ot being installed as president ot winning the Super BOwl(I just know my baby is gonna do something BIG!) are they gonna say, "Gavin who was adopted by his parents" I was going to blog about it as well, but didnt. Because of course it will not be a secret to him that he was adopted,(I was at least happy she said WAS adopted and not IS adopted) I don't feel everything should be prefaced with that. It makes me a bit fearful like as he grows older will it be?! I don't know. OH yeah and at least he referred to them as her parents and not ADOPTIVE parents. I reasoned that it could have been so much worse, the camera could have panned on their proud faces and the annoucer could have said something horrible like "Oh those happy people are not even her REAL parents, she's adopted" Then I probably would have just fainted on the spot!
I've been lurking for awhile and had to comment.
"Look, you too could adopt an olympic athlete." LOL! That is so funny.
I know what you mean though. It's terrible how people label the kids and point them out just because they're history is a little different then the rest.
Kelly made a good point though, that other adopted or waiting to be adopted children can look up to her. That's a wonderful thought.
It's interesting our thoughts isn't it? I was watching the US women's gymnastics and when they introduced Nastia Liukin I thought.."Nastia" is a Russian nickname. Is she adopted from Russia? And when the announcer later said Nastia was born in Moscow and came here at 2.5 years and then showed her dad standing on the sidelines. I immediately said..oh wow..hubby she is adopted from Russia and that must be her adoptive father. Then the announcer later went on to say her dad won a gold medal while on the gymnastics team for the former Soviet Union 20 years ago. And it was interesting how I immediately assumed she was adopted.
I know I'm late on this one but I had to say I sooo get what you are saying! I didn't catch that particular comment but I have heard it a million times and I too think...can't our kids just be our kids without always having to announce how they became a part of our families? Geez...like you said no one feels the need to announce the "birth" child of someone! LOL!!
hi, i chanced upon your blog today. your header really caught my attention. the next thing i saw is your photo with your two girls and the first thing i thought was "wow! here's another angel sent to earth to look after 2 of God's children."
if ever my kids will ask me what is adoption, here is how i will explain it to them:
"the adoptive parents of adopted kids were really meant to be their parents in the first place. but somehow, somewhere in heaven, before the adopted kids were born, somebody up there made a mistake and gave them to the wrong parents. but as always, God made sure that the kids were returned to their original parents. the ones that God really wanted to take care of them."
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