Where is your tour group from?

This was the question I was asked at the security checkpoint at the Orlando Airport. I sent my kids through one at a time with their boarding passes and after number 6 went through, the guard stopped me from proceeding and asked me where my tour group was from. He rolled his eyes when I said they were my kids, like he either didnt believe it, or he disapproved. Not sure what the eyeroll was about. My kids thought it was funny although I'm sure my 17 year old would have preferred to melt into the woodwork.

We are used to attracting stares, unwanted attention and comments. We are so used to it we barely notice it anymore, however on this trip we brought a friend of the family. Erika has grown up as an honorary Collins. She and Brit are great friends and we like to take Erika on vacation with us whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Erika is also adopted. She was adopted from the US as an infant and looks very much like her parents. When people find out she's adopted she usually gets comments like "wow, we never knew you were adopted". Like it's something that people automatically should know. Erika had a unique and uncomfortable perspective this past week as she observed the treatment we get whenever we foray out into the real world. Like I said, my kids are used to it and can pretty much ignore it. Erika couldnt and during lunch at Epcot she wondered why it didnt bother us. It was obvious how uncomfortable she was with the unwanted attention. We literally sat down to lunch and looked around and more people than not were staring at us. It opened up a pretty neat dialogue on issues far beyond the stares, but more into identity, privacy, being obviously adopted and not obviously adopted and how that makes us feel.

It reopened my eyes and made me look more closely at how we were received. I would have thought that after the length of time children from foreign countries have been coming to families in the US, people wouldnt think twice about multiracial families, but I guess thats too pollyanna-ish. I am in awe of my children who have learned to ignore some pretty overt behavior by strangers, lingering stares and whispers.