A New Book

(First of all, Beloved is home!  Whew!  The boys were pretty much glued to his side all day on Saturday.  One good thing about Beloved being gone is watching the boy's excitement and adoration when he returns.)

We got a great new book!  It's called "My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me" by Maya Angelo.  I saw it mentioned by cloudscome, and ordered it right away.  It's written in the first person from the perspective of an Ndebele South African girl!  How cool is that?

(For any new readers, my older son Sparkle was adopted from South Africa in 2003.  You can read our South Africa travel journals beginning with this link.) 

I (still) don't know a lot about the various people groups in South Africa.  The Xhosa are known for the famous "clicking" in their language and of course Nelson Mandela is Xhosa.  The Zulu were warriors and their clothing is pretty distinctive.  The Ndebele create colorful clothing and beadwork, and paint wonderful designs on their homes.

Sparkle's first father is Ndebele, and it's nice for us that Sparkle can easily identify Ndebele art and clothing.  As a toddler, it's just a really basic physical reference or distinction that he notices and feels proud of. 

Sometimes I'm a little jealous of adoptive families who have the ready-made support groups in place when they bring their child home from China or Korea or Ethiopia.  There are state-wide and even nation-wide groups designed to help families connect with one another and learn about the country of their child's birth.

I feel a badly for Sparkle at times because there just isn't any South African community here (or anywhere in the US of which I am aware).  And there isn't a South African adoptive family community either.  Anything we learn about South Africa at this point is from a book or music or internet source.  We have absolutely no South African adults in our lives.

Often I think that finding his place in the African American community is most important for Sparkle.  This is definitely where we focus our transracial adoptive parenting energy.  Unless he decides to live in South Africa at some point, it might not make a huge difference if he knows South African culture very well.

But then, this boy is always surprising me.  He decides what he thinks is important, and often it's not what I expect.  So I wish connections to South African people and culture were easier to find for him and for us.

All that to say...  It was exciting to find a children's book, full of pictures, specifically about a group of people from whom Sparkle can directly trace his first family.  And reading the book reminded me how little of that type of resource we have.

Thanks, cloudscome!

Comments

[Amanda]

And if I'm correct, there really aren't many adoption from South Africa happening now, are there? So, unfortunately, it probably won't get easier to find those kinds of groups. I'm glad you are still going out of your way to seek our resources, but that's a tough one...

[dorit]

Sparkle.. great name.

I hear you about finding community. I personally can vouch for loneliness from a parent's side but not from the adoption community. Have you tried googling to find a community?

Even an online one could work.

Best of luck
Dorit

[Erin O']

I talked about that book on my blog, too! I love the pictures, and I like that Angelou talks from the girl's point of view.

I bet Sparkle will help decide how much he wants to explore SA culture, and the fact that you're providing books and music and other elements will help him keep it in his mind for later in his life.

e