In celebration of multi-cultural week in Daniel’s class, he has been asked to decorate a flag, dress a cut-out person and answer questions that represents his cultural heritage. Easy right?
Well we could focus on the rich Irish and Scottish heritage of his father’s family tree. Or perhaps we can explore the German, Swedish and English roots of Mommy’s ancestors. Or we can delve into the Russian legacy of his biological line.
He chose Russia. So now we must answer a couple of questions. One favorite cultural food would be…I’m thinking that vodka would not be the appropriate answer to give for a kindergarten project. We settled on pancakes because Daniel likes pancakes. Another question is to name something special about my country’s culture. Sorry, mommy keeps on coming back to vodka. We settled on music, art, books and food.
I’m thinking that we need to explore and learn much, much more about the rich legacy that my son has grafted to our family tree. We make no secret of the fact that he is adopted nor do we intend to try to hide information that his biological parents chose to share with us (not much aside from their education and medical history). We have known all along that his biological mother was a Russian immigrant and have often told him that he is the Russian leprechaun here under the Big Top. Still he has yet to really ask pointed questions about the adoption and his own personal familial legacy. I am sure those questions will come someday. Perhaps his desire to celebrate his Russian ethnicity with this class project is the first step towards his search to know more about himself, who he is and where he came from. Or perhaps it is because he likes pancakes so much. Nevertheless it is a reminder to me that we need to learn more about his legacy because there is much more to it than the vodka mommy likes in her pomegranate martinis.
