[Cjmeck]

Oh yes... Did you have your bio kids first? My bio son was 5.5yo when we adopted our DD. So, having parented a CC kid alone for over 5 years, I can honestly say that YES, we are treated differently and are living a different experience since we adopted our AA/CC daughter. Overall, its by far a wonderful experience for both of my children and we are just a regular family. The negativity we received was by FAR greater when we lived in Ohio (we just moved to Colorado a few months ago). And always, always worse when I was out alone with one or both kids. But when we are within our military community, the great majority of people do not notice us all. I love that we really do blend in there, its just so diverse and nobody thinks anything of us. I do think part of the attention (negative or positive) has to do with the part of the country you are in as well. Also, in regards to AA people, I don't know that its necessarily pity, but rather our kids being "claimed" by their predominate race. I'm okay with that, I love that they acknowledge that "hey, you're one of us!". When we lived in Hawaii, there was often an anti-military sentiment we felt from locals. So, when we were off base, and saw another military family (its fairly obvious) we always gave the smile and nod to eachother just saying that yes, we recognize that we all belong to the same club, lol. I think its kind of the same thing with minorities.