Wednesday, May 21, 2008

You didn't buy me did you?

The first time that I told Liam the story of his adoption, he was only a few hours old. He was swaddled up like a salami (the way only nurses can seem to do) and I was walking the hallways of the hospital with him. He has heard it many, many times since and has been able to parrot it back since he was 3. The problem with parroting it back to us, is we are never really sure just how much he understands vs. having just memorized the words.

This weekend we were watching a cartoon version of Speed Racer. It's all about teenagers who go to a racing school. It has the standard teenage "stuff" in it.... music, fast cars and girls ogling boys. At one point 2 girls are fighting over Speed (the main hunky character) and they start this great dialogue which consists of "Back off, he's MINE", "No he's MINE" and so on. Liam was very intrigued by their sense of ownership. He piped up "You can't own someone can you? They aren't being very nice!!". Then he kept watching the movie. For about 10 minutes.

That's when he asked: "You didn't buy me did you? I was only adopted right?" You could almost see the wheels turning. He was very concerned that he had been purchased but was okay with the idea of being adopted. We were very happy to be able to tell him that he was not purchased, and yes he was adopted - legally and ethically with no money exchanged.

As he nears 6 years old, I think he is really starting to understand what adoption means.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

think that it was about the same age that Spencer asked the same question...our story mirrors your story...it is nice to know that these 'little adoptees' think things out the same ways...in the future seeing and talking to other adoptees these things will help them to find their normal.