[brandydawn]

How much culture do you recommend an internationally adoptioned child be introduced?

We are adopting from Guatemala and live in the Tampa area which is rich with Hispanic culture. We have several friends who are Puerto Rican & Colombian and are exposed to the music, the food and definately the language.

We planned on taking Spanish lessons so we can converse with our daughter and hopefully with her learning so young she will become fluent.

We also enjoy the food on a regular basis, I was even going to buy a cookbook to learn how to cook it myself.

I don't want her to feel like an outsider in the family with her culture since we are not Guatemalan, but I also don't want her to feel like we didn't acknowledge it at all.

My best friend is from Colombia and she said that if she were in the situation (she is not adopted) that she would have enjoyed the language, the food and family traditions that we set together (which could incorporate some Guatemalan traditions).

What do you think? I want to ensure that she feels cherished that she was adopted, to appreciate her culture before she came to be with us and after. Are we taking the right approach?

Thanks
Brandy

[spaypets]

Brandy, I'm not an adoptee, but I did notice that you spoke of _her_ culture (as opposed to _our_ culture) As someone who has adopted from India, I consider us now, to a certain extent, an Indian-American family. India is our culture, mixed up in the Jewish, Irish and generic American culture of our families.

All of what you are doing is great, but I think it should be synthesized with the other cultural things your family does. For instance, we served Indian food at my daughter's Jewish naming. We hope to spend a year living in India, when DD is older and we'll certainly go back for visits. We decorate our house with things we've bought in India. We subscribe to an Indian newsmagazine. But all of this is as a family--and in part for my benefit and to sustain my interest, not just my dd's. Right now she (she's 3) pays no attention to my copies of India Today, but I read them cover to cover!

[Lissa]

I'm trying to become versed in Chinese culture while not forcing it down her throat. I am making her a China book. I am getting her books on China and Chinese dolls. I plan to celebrate Chinese New Year. (My husband says it's just an excuse to get more gifts...MAYBE ) But she will be American with all the rights of any other citizen (other than she can't be president.) I agree though...we are a Chinese/Irish/Norwegian/Scottish/German family now. I hope to share all these cultures with her.

[Kimberj71]

Brandy,

I think it's great that you're thinking about these things now before your little one is home.

I have to echo the other two posters. I have come to realize in the last 9 months since Londy has been home that the Guatemalan culture is part of US as a family. It is a part of who we as a family are now because two of our children are Guatemalan.

While I had an interest in learning about Guatemala since beginning our paperchase, that interest is now a passion. It's this huge desire to know more about who we are and how we can integrate some of the rich traditions and culture into our identities. For me that so far entails learning Spanish, encorporating some of the Guatemalan Catholic traditions into our own Catholic traditions, attempting to encorporate some Guatemalan recipes into our everyday lives, beginning a group of Guatemalan Adoptive families in our area, and trying to keep up on the current events happening in Guatemala.

These are such small steps along a life long path of appreciating a part of what we are. And of course we celebrate this part of us along with all the other things that identify us as a family.

Good luck with your process!

Kim