My 9 year old son was asking me the difference between step-brothers and sisters, and half-brothers and sisters, so this gave us an opportunity to sit and talk about how children are created and how he relates to his (half) brother who we have also adopted.Go to the site to see the drawing.
He then sat down and drew this picture (below). At first I couldn’t work out what he’d drawn, but then he explained; along the top row were his birth mother, birth father, and the other 2 men his mother had had children with. Along the middle line were all his siblings. Finally along the bottom, was me and my partner, and the other adoptive parents that make up his siblings families.
Despite all the training, it wasn’t until I looked at this diagram, that it really brought home the complexity of my boy’s life.
Talking about adoption, birthparents, abandonment, race, and China with my kids. That's not all we talk about -- but reading this blog, you'll think it's all we do!!!!!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Family Connections
From the British Association for Adoption & Fostering, a dad's post about the complications of his adopted son's family:
I love that family picture. When asked about her family, my 10 year old always includes her first and adoptive families as well as step dads through her first family and often times she includes the first family of my younger daughter, her sister through adoption. She counts 2-3 moms, 3+ dads, and several sisters on 3 different continents. Makes for an interesting family tree but it's what works for her and that's really what matters.
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