[Curvyred]

I'm wondering if there are any interracial couples who are adopting AA or biracial kids.

DH and I are an interracial couple--he's AA, I'm CA, and are planning to adopt in the next year or so. We're also planning/hoping to have a bio kid a few years after we adopt.

Anyone here in that situation?

I've been reading the transracial adoption boards and finding info that seems pretty applicable, though some of the issues are just as applicable to our future bio kids as they are to future adopted kids. We'll be a "conspicuous family" whether we adopt or not!

It seems like we occupy this strange little niche in that our adopted kids AND bio kids will have at least one parent of the same race, but will look different from the other. In our area, everyone will probably assume they are all adopted when they are out with me. :lol Got all that? :lol

Anyway--I'm always interested in hearing people's stories and experiences!

[joskimo]

Well my situation is somewhat similar but not quite. DH is NA, I'm CC and we have one bio daughter and one adopted daughter who is AA. So our family picture has many shades. In our situation no one thinks bio daughter is adopted because she looks so much like me but w/ dh's skin color. However, once we got daughter #2 a few people (strangers of course) have asked about daughter #1. I have to say that we are a conspicious family, but mostly because my girls are so darn cute.

[mamacrina]

We have no bio children, [and aren't likely to] nor any adopted children, but we are hoping to adopt an aa/cc girl in October. We are open to any race, and are fost/adopt parents on top of that, so we may have aa, cc, hispanic, indian,etc., or a combination of those races.

In fact, none of our foster kids have been aa, but when I'm out with dh, they just assumed we produced an all cc or hispanic child.

[Curvyred]

Originally Posted by mamacrina

In fact, none of our foster kids have been aa, but when I'm out with dh, they just assumed we produced an all cc or hispanic child.

You must have super-genes!

[hotspice58]

One thing to keep in mind is that AA's come in 30-40 shades of color. That's been "proven". When an AA and CC have kids, they look from black with white features (e.g., Halle Berry) to white skin with black features and white skin with white features. I'm black, Indian, CC mixed and my family members and I consider ourselves black/Indian. If one of you is CC, the only comments will come from very ignorant people.

[Lexie]

Hi-
We are in a similar situation. I am AA/Asian and my dh is CC. We have one bio son that is 4 years old and one baby boy we just adopted who is 5 months old. The baby's heritage is AA/Mexican/CC, so he blends right in. I keep forgetting I did not make him myself ( especially since I am bfeeding).

Of course I think my kids look like me. Most people don't think they look like me because the kids are fair and I am brown, but in my mind they are AA kids and so am I so they look like me. I am ont sure what the kids look like but AA is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. The kids don't look CC either and when they are out with my dh sometimes people ask if they are adopted, but most of the time they assume that they are mixed race ( common where we live). I guess we are a bit different as a family, but since I grew up in a mixed race household, I don't see it that much.

As it turns out most of our friends are mixed families. Our kid's friends are Indian/English, Danish/filipina, Jamaican/German, Jamaican/Swiss, Italian/Chinese, African/English, AA, French/Algerian, African and Malaysian. So its hard to stand out in this crowd!!!

[mallory4]

I am CC, dh is AA. We have three bios and are adopting our foster/adopt little boy, who is now 2. His is biracial, so he has a superficial resemblance to our other kids, and people say he looks like them, I don't think people who see us would recognize he is adopted just from looking. We were expecting an AA child to be placed with us, just because there are more of them, but biracial is what we got.

And, as the other posters pointed out, AA folks come in all kinds of colors: Dh is one of four kids, he is the only "red" one. Our bio kids range from Hollywood tan to just plain white. Luckily, the whitest one looks most like dh in terms of facial features, so there is no one asking me about the mailman

[Imani68]

Yup...my dh is CC and I'm AA. Our son is AA, Algerian, and French. We are matched w/ birth parents expecting a biracial girl.

[maricela]

My husband and I are both Mexican. He has dark skin & I have very light skin. Our son is Hispanic and our daughter is AA/Hispanic. We are always told that they look exactly like their father!!

It's strange...our daughter has big eyes like me & a dimple on her right cheek...just like me... People tell me that she has my features but everything else is like her father!

When you compare pictures of our son when he was 5 y/o to pictures of when my husband was 5...you'd think you were looking at the same child! It's amazing how God works!!

[Curvyred]

One thing to keep in mind is that AA's come in 30-40 shades of color.

Oh yeah, I'm totally curious to see what DH's and my bio kid(s) will look like. I'm VERY pale -- practically translucent. DH is kind of "medium" brown, which means really dark for around here , but not dark anywhere where people are used to seeing AA folks. But his mom is very light skinned and half of her nine brothers and sisters are very fair-skinned with green eyes, and the others are fair-skinned with brown eyes (she has brown eyes.) MIL's grandmother was NA, and MIL's mom was often mistaken for white, as was MIL. DH's dad was fairly dark skinned.

So, we're probably going to have a huge mix of recessive genes that could come into play. (What is it, 4-6 different genes that affect skin color, with half a dozen alleles on each gene--I forget exactly.)

I tend to believe that, like Mallory has experienced, people will read a resemblance between our future kids even if there isn't one beyond a generally darker skin tone.

Imani68--congratulations on your match! How exciting!