Why Can't We Be Friends?

I love this video!  It made me cry...it took me back to the struggle we had with CYS after Mya had been with us almost 6 months.  They tried to take her out of our home so that she could live in a more "ethnic" neighborhood.  I was devastated!  How could they think that taking her away from the family she loved and felt safe with was the best thing for her?  Our first thought was, "What can we do?  We have no rights yet as foster parents."  I felt like David fighting Goliath...how could we win and protect Mya from losing more people who loved her?  Well, I will just say that I did do something.  In fact, I did everything I possibly could to keep Mya in our home.  (Anyone who would like to know details can email me.)  The day before Mya was supposed to go to the new home, the judge court-ordered Mya to stay in our home.  David had slayed Goliath once again.

Why does this world insist on categorizing us by the way we look, speak or where we come from?  Why do we think that because someone looks differently from us that we don't belong together or that we don't feel the same?  Having said this, when our family looked at Mya, we didn't pretend that she looked the same as us.  We acknowledged that she had different colored hair, eyes and skin from us just like we acknowledged and celebrated the many other differences that make up who we are.  We didn't love her "even though" she was an African American/Mexican/Irish/German girl but because she was all those things and so much more.  She loved to sing and dance...to play...to laugh...and she gave the best hugs and kisses!

I learned so much from Mya.  It doesn't matter what neighborhood we grow up in, what color our skin is, what clothes we wear or how we speak.  It is how we feel and how we love that connects us.