This photo was taken by dear Salam. The image captures the vibe of our household.I am now typing on my newly graduated daughters mac and my crusty computer is unplugged due to flooding.
Today was a Burton Elementary first grade class field trip to the wonderful Cranbrook museum .
The grounds of the Cranbrook campus are incomparable. The Saarinen designs throughout the grounds and museum make me break out in a rash.
We wandered through the museum as a class and then went to learn about a very important lesson in the first grade spectrum,"Nature and Nurture"
The lovely woman conducting the class had all of the energy and stage presence of the lead in "Mary Poppins".
This lady was so good at what she did.
The lesson was about nature and how DNA is passed from one set of parents and extended family to another.
She asked all of the children that had a chaperon present to go to their parents. Mimi and I were about eight kids into the line.
The teacher then proceeded to talk about the similarities between each parent and their child standing with them.She extolled the miracles of nature and how the maps we carry inside of us from our parents and their parents determine who we will become .
She got to Mimi and I and asked if she was my biological child? I answered no, knowing Mimi hates being singled out in anyway.I slowly began to explain that she was adopted and we had been a family for six years.
The teacher had to switch up her game pretty quickly, and change to the nurture part of the equation.
I immediately flashed to moments when Mimi talks about that she has Terry's ears and maybe JieJie's nose.
Mimi knows her story, how she came into this world, about our lack of information on her biological parents. But there is this other side of her reality where she is connected with us physically and looks for our outward similarities.
Right or wrong, I felt a profound loneliness for her. I was wondering what was happening inside of that little person.
I have always worked so hard at making her feel as if she didn't just appear on the earth, that she is deeply connected.
My only reaction at the time was squeezing her as hard as I could.
Let's just say, it was a typical Mary, crabby ,dramatic, Norma Desmond afternoon,followed by a night of terrors and crying.
I think maybe the Nature Nurture program at Cranbrook might need some tweaking.
End of song.
No comments:
Post a Comment