[transracialadoptblog]

THere is no one right answer to this question, and every parent has to do what is right for them. I think what is important is that you are thinking about it. What is dangerous is when parents ignore the different cultures that their children were born into. We do have a table cloth, a wall hanging and a small carved giraffe from Ethiopia, two dolls and a hand made tea pot from Korea, and two small tea sets and some small hand carved animals from Vietnam all displayed in family areas of our home. We also have some African American decorations bought down south while we were adopting our son.
But they were all things that matched our home's decor and things we liked and were right for us. We also have lots of other cultural items from our children's birth countries/cultures in their bedrooms, and our home has many multicultural books, dolls, movies etc.
We try a variety of foods out at a dining room table and we often have things like Kim-chee, injera, pho and good old southern comfort food along with our family favorites of spaghetti and tacos.
The largest decoration in our dining room is a huge, wall-sized world map, which becomes the center of all sorts of different conversations at the dinner table.
There are photos of all of our children hanging on the main wall in our living room.
Our family is a hodge-podge and so our is home. It is all of us, mixed together. That is what a transracial home should look like. It just needs to reflect everyone that lives there.
This is a great question and I think I will use it on my blog soon.
Come on over and read!
Best,
Erin
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/

[Kat-L]

Originally Posted by leaabc123

When we purchased our home, we looked for an area that had a mix of people (both racially and economically).

We try to look for social activities that have a mix of children as well.

In our home, we try and have books, children's movies, toys that are across the board socially.

Ditto.

I picked a house in a very culturally diverse neighbor. Also, when looking at schools, I wanted Maire-Kate to be in class that was diverse.

Also, I think it's important to have friends who are adopted. Especially as she has gotten older, it has been important for her to have friends who are like her-not just in skin color but in other ways, too. She has white friends adopted by white parents; Hispanic friends adopted by white parents; as well as black friends adopted by black parents. I'm glad she has someone she can talk to about adoption who might be going through the same thing-especially as she grows older.

We're in an area where adoption is very common-so it's been easy for her to find friends who share this experience of growing up in an adoptive and culturally diverse family. I would recommend anyone who adopts to find other adopted children in your area and set up some play dates.

[poullafouca]

My husband is AA, I am CC, when we first lived together he told me how much he appreciated paintings, art, etc that had black people in. He said so much of his life was lived in an almost totally white world, that he loved to see imagery that reflected his skin tone in his home. Our baby is mixed. Poulla

[bluedaisy]

I am white (kinda red after being outside today!), as is my husband, and our son is Ethiopian.

We have some artwork in our house with people of color, purchased during some travels abroad before we decided to adopt transracially. We also have a growing collection of non-fiction and fiction books about Africa or by African authors. I already have many adult books by people of color. Our music collection does include black artists, Americans mostly, and we are starting to collect some Ethiopian music.

Specific to Ethiopia, we have a carved wooden elephant and great Ethiopian basket, as well as some gorgeous scarves that I'm trying to figure out how to use in the house. I don't think this stuff says "transracial," though to a keen eye they might reflect African crafts.

I will also be adding to our collection of children's books set in Africa and/or with people of color, especially African Americans.