My Minority Child

Earlier this morning I turned on a recording from our DVR. We had turned it on before we went to bed last night so that we could see Obama's full speech. Lily and Rdette were sitting on my lap as we started to watch, then Rdette got off to play. Lily was asking her normal 8,000 questions, then she stopped dead when the camera panned the audience. She looked right back up at me and said "Mommy that is beautiful."

I told her that she was right and that is was indeed a very beautiful thing. The more I watched a single thought entered my head. This was the day the sun came up to a different world. It will never be the same. Never the same for the world and never the same for my girls.

Then I got thinking about Lily. I found myself staring at her tears running down my face. It hit me like a ton of bricks. She is a minority. She will have a life filled of people assuming (good and bad) just from her appearance. Chris and I take great strides to make sure that she understands how special she really is. But that is us, what happens when she has to leave our protection and face discrimination. Her cards are truly stacked against her, she is Guatemalan American, female, and adopted.

Just as quickly as those thoughts entered my head I looked back at the TV and I saw Obama. Like I said yesterday, I am not here proclaiming him to be anything more then a man with all the faults that come with that. But, unlike yesterday I him in his simplest form. An African American, in no way different from my Guatemalan American daughter. People across America yesterday did just as MLK prayed one day would happen. People judged him by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.

Now as I once again look at my beautiful brown skinned daughter, I hope and pray that the events that occurred yesterday are just the beginning of what is to come. I can dream that she can do and be anything that she wants to be. Right now her worries consist of having bear in her bed each night. I know that won't always be the case, and that life is never that simple. However, if not having to worry about being discriminated against isn't one of them then the world is a better place.

When she is old enough to read this I hope that she takes great pride in being Guatemalan American, Female, and Adopted. That she understands that being all of those wonderful things make her who she is and not what she is. Then I hope she smiles.