Continued from part one.

A trip through the social studies section of our teacher supply store this afternoon left me with a renewed awareness of cultural differences.

Do I expect there to be a plethora of information about every single country inside of one teacher supply store? Of course not. Would it be nice if there were readily available resources that included Ethiopia (not such an “oddball country” that it doesn’t deserve at least a reference)? Sure. Was my true disappointment that the available resources (with current copyright dates) did not have truly accurate information to share with school aged children? Absolutely.

My Ethiopian-born daughter feels “different enough”. If she could occasionally run across routine materials with a true photo, she might feel more accepted, more included. To have her siblings come home from school and tell her that they learned about her country in school – and that it’s even remotely anything that she remembers – would help her to let her guard down a bit. Instead, for this girl and for this time in her life, she must defend the country of her birth most of the time. It is part of her identity. If she doesn’t work hard to be sure that it stays a primary focus, it might get lost. She will die before she lets such an important part of her become lost. It saddens me that it is this way for her, yet I understand it and will support her in every way that I can.

I let the store manager know that we would love to have some different resources available. I assured my daughter that I love her for everything that she is. And, I will probably do some more searching to find resources to add to our home and family to be sure she knows that SHE, including all of her parts, is a welcomed part of our family.

For more resources on Ethiopia specifically, try the Ethiopian adoption blog. For resources on helping children from other cultural and ethinic backgrounds, try the Transracial adoption blog.