I'm gonna do it.

Yep. That's little ol' me in the middle. Blowing out someone else's birthday candles. She didn't mind. She even told me so. Haha....

This is a very good representation of my childhood. I grew up in middle America. White suburbia. With white parents. In a white community. White white white. But my parents were awesome at making sure I was able to spend my childhood with other Koreans. There were probably 3 or 4 families we spent our time with.

We all were adopted from Korea and we all were about the same age. I didn't know any different. I was lucky.

I've decided to start writing a book. Not for the public, but for my kids. As you probably know both my kids are adopted from Korea too. Lucky me again. And I have found it terribly hard to find any books that shed positive light on Korean adoption.

I myself was so fortunate to grow up with so many people of color in my house. My 3 sisters are adopted from Korea, and my parents made sure we knew the world wasn't made up of just Koreans and white folk.

Growing up we had social workers from all over the world stay with us for months at a time. I've learned about so many other cultures it's, as Claire says, "Astounding!"

A few years ago I read a book by a Korean adoptee. She clearly had a negative outlook on her adoption and her adoptive parents. And I have to say...there was quite a lot of bru ha ha going on about this book. One of the largest adoption agencies in MN was pushing this book as something fantastical. I bet they thought, "OH SHIT" when they actually read it. I did not like it. It was so negative. I was upset that her story was so sad. And once again felt lucky that mine was not the same.

So I'm going to write a book about my experiences growing up Asian in a white world. There are very few negatives. I promise. I was sooooooo lucky to have been able to learn about my culture and not have it hidden from me. I want others to know there is a positive way to raise children of another race. It's not that hard people.

Just please......don't be afraid to tell you kids what some of the derogatory terms are for their race. I'll leave you with this little anecdote:

When I was 12, all the elementary schools were merged into one Middle School. The 6th grade! I had grown up with all the same kids. So when I moved into the "big" school, it was new and exciting.

One day a 7th grader yelled at me in the hall...."Hey Chink!" I had no idea what the hell he was talking about and proceeded with my day. When I got home, my sister Cindi was in front of the tv. She was 4 years old. So I decided to bust out with my I'm-so-cool-now-that-I'm-in-Middle-school-phrase, and said, quite loudly I might add, "Get out of the way Chink!"

My dad heard me. Yelled at me. Grounded me. And THEN explained what it meant.
Oh well...live and learn.

*The book has been started...I just have to get the motivation to finish it. Ugh.