Snippets #3 — Adoption

My sister-in-law’s family has two adopted daughters from China.  Their oldest daughter has the same exact birthdate as my oldest son.  We joke in the family that they’re twins since we celebrate their birthdays together every other year or so.  The conversation started about birthdays.

Robbie:  After Mommy’s birthday, the next in our family is mine.

Scottie:  And Brynn’s because you’re twins.

Robbie:  Well, not real twins, just birthday twins.

Allie:  They can’t be real twins because Robbie’s a boy and Brynn’s a girl.

Mommy:  Well, that’s not true.  There can be brother and sister twins, just not identical.

Scottie:  Yeah, like Luke and Leia.

Robbie:  It would be hard to be real twins since Brynn was born in China, though.

Allie:  Was she in Aunt Kate’s belly in China?

Mommy:  No, she came from a different mommy’s belly in China, but Aunt Kate & Uncle Doug adopted her, so they’re her parents now.

Robbie:  I’m glad they adopted her so I can have a twin.

Scottie:  What happened to her parents?

Mommy:  Well, we don’t really know.  Not all families are as lucky as ours to be able to raise all their own children.

Scottie:  Why not?

Mommy:  It could be lots of reasons.  Maybe they were too young, or maybe they didn’t have enough money to pay for food for another person, or maybe they lived in a dangerous part of the country that wasn’t safe.

Robbie:  So maybe it wasn’t safe in China where they were born?

Mommy:  That could be one reason.

Allie:  Or maybe they gave up their baby because they didn’t want the monsters to get them.