A Million Worlds.

This blog post is long over due, but that’s what happens when you’ve got three children and a million and ten things on your to do list. Unfortunately, lax things make the end of your list day after day after day.

So, here we go.

Approximately 965 days ago, I had just finished working out and I was getting ready to leave the gym as my phone rang. The 217/592-XXXX number that made my heart race more than a sprinted 5K would.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Is this Anna?”

“Yes it is. What’s up?”

“We have a little girl who is in protective custody. She’s 3 years old. She’s at the hospital getting her well check completed. Would you be interested in placement?”

“Yes! When will she be at our house? What size is she in? What is her name? Do we need to pick her up?”

“I’m sorry, we don’t have sizing information for you or her name. We have to let you know that she is African American. Are you still okay with taking placement?”

“Yes!”

This conversation has played over and over in my head over the last 965 day countless times. Did they really just ask if I was okay taking in a black child? Do people really deny placement if a child is black?

Now, I will note that as a licensed foster parent, you are able to specify ages and gender. For example, our license is for ages 0-3, but we do not specify for gender. So, I guess, it would only make sense to be able to specify race, but I’m not sure why one would do this??? I have a strong belief that, whether religious or not, people foster to help children to feel safe, loved, important, and wanted. So, why would race matter if this is truly your goal?

We picked her up at approximately 6:45 pm. We went to Old Navy to get pajamas & a few outfits and then we went to McDonald’s for dinner. We finally went home, read Dragons Love Tacos, and put our little girl to bed. Our life, as we knew it, had completely changed.

Over the months, babe quickly realized, I liked books. They were (are) everywhere in our home — organized by colors, of course. She also quickly realized that very few, if any, books contained “girls like me”.

Face. Palm. I felt terrible. How could I not realize this?!

The thing is, you don’t realize a lot of things until you’re put into a new situation that you had never been put into before. Hey white families with white children: how many books featuring different races do you have? Hey straight families with straight children, I bet “muffins with moms” and “doughnuts with dads” doesn’t offend you nearly as much as it does my spouse and I. Now, I totally get that there are people out there that have inclusive books in their homes and that there are progressive heterosexual people who are out there spreading awareness about LGBTQ+ issues, but that’s not my point. My point is, there are things you don’t think about, deal with, made uncomfortable by, unless you are put into situations that do so.

So, here we are. BN.com. Amazon.com. Google search:

Books with black main characters.

Fill me with knowledge. Fill me with hope that there are books for my daughter.

Ready, set, GO!

Oh, Princess Truly. One of our absolute favorites. She’s a scientist, a musician, a teacher. She believes she’s able to be anything with her magical puff hair. Obviously Babe loves that she has hair like PT.

I do my absolute best to find books that are non-fiction for babe to connect with. Right now, Babe is all about ballet so anything Misty Copeland is her jam. We read about slavery, the Underground Railroad, segregation, etc. They are tough topics, but it is part of her history. I can’t hide the past so all I can do is provide her with information. There are books out there for children on tough topics, read them.

These are two basic books. Nothing fancy, no major topics. Just black children as main characters. Funny story, if you’re ever wondering what babe looks like, she’s a spitting image of that little girl on The Library Book.

Nella, Nella, Nella. A black Princess who is also breaking gender stereotypes by being a Knight — our kinda book. We are constantly talking to Babe about how boys can wear dresses and paint their nails and play with baby dolls if they want and girls can play with tools and wear jeans and play with cars and trucks if they want. She is finally to the point of letting toys be toys without assigning gender. Add the fact that she is black on top of it? Way to go Nickelodeon!

This books makes my heart happy. We received this book from a woman I went to high school with who has never met my daughters, yet, knew this book would be perfect.

Another example of “something you don’t think about until you’re put into this situation.”

Black hair is not the same as white hair. Period.

Pink Gel. Weaves. Gel. Hair lotion. Baby Don’t Be Bald. Don’t wash her hair more than once a month or it will go dry. Hair bonnets and silk pillow cases. 4C hair type. Protective hair styles.

Guys, we’ve had Babe for almost 1000 days and we are still learning all of the time.

This book is amazing.

Babe is brilliant and she’s going to move mountains. She’s not the first, though, and she needs to know who came before her that paved the path for her. There is an entire history that she needs to know about, her history. This book provides photos of over 50 influential black women with descriptions of their lives and how they succeeded. Brilliant.

This isn’t the end.

Google: “Black children’s books”

• https://www.theconsciouskid.org/black-books-matter-childrens-books-celebrating-black-boys
• https://www.huffpost.com/entry/21-childrens-books-every-black-kid-should-read_n_565f176be4b072e9d1c43b0a
• https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books-Childrens-African-American-Story/zgbs/books/3095
• https://aalbc.com/books/children.php

There are so many books out there for Black Children, as there should be. As a white adoptive mom, it is my job to find these books and provide them for my daughter. There are a million worlds for her to discover through reading, why shouldn’t she be able to connect with the main character while doing so?