Liam's first school project! The Ancestors project. Normally, we adoptive parents cringe at these assignments. For a lot of kids this can be very confusing and emotional. I remember Brittany coming home crying in 3rd grade because they were doing a project and she needed to know her birth weight. The teacher told her if she didn't know, just guess. This really hurt her. Liam's teacher was very sensitive to the situation and made a point to contact me well in advance of the project due date to let me know that Liam could do whatever he wanted. It did add to our China vs. America struggle, but in the end he was pretty excited to find out all about our ancestors. It actually helped facilitate discussions showing that he was not the only one to leave his homeland for America. He asked lots of questions and gained a new understanding and appreciation that many people actually WANT to be in America. He did a great job, even if it is a bit heavy on the China side. I had to hide the rest of the China stickers and things we have or he would have covered every white part of the poster.
When it came to the wording, he was very specific. I was wondering what he'd want to say about his birthfamily. He has used words like "first" family, "birth" family, and lately "real" family. I was hoping he wouldnt want to say real family, and was pleasantly pleased when he wanted to call them his birth family.
I was also pleased that he referred to us as his forever family, since he has used other words for us, sometimes his "new" family, sometimes "his family until he goes to China to find his real family", but today, it was his forever family. Made my momma heart smile
He would have loaded his picture up with stickers, lanterns and dragons from China. I tried to share my "less is more" strategy. He begrudgingly complied.
He's very excited by his finished product.
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