Will we be part Chinese?

This evening Amanda (our 10 year old) asked an interesting question: "When Jonathan comes to live with us, will we be part Chinese?" We laughed at first, and explained that Jonathan would have needed a mom or dad who was not Chinese in order to be considered "part" anything.

But then we stopped. We will be Jonathan's mom and dad. In fact, in some ways we already are. We care about this boy we have never met. We are praying for him. We are preparing a place for him in our home. Aren't we his mom and dad? And won't he be a part of out family? Amanda's question was a lot deeper than we first gave it credit for!

So, Amanda asked a question that manifests the difference between biology and psychology; nature and nurture; the physical self and the spiritual self. Jonathan will be, biologically speaking, all Chinese, just as we are all Caucasian.

But at the end of the day, his gene pool is the least important thing to us. In the ways that really matter (psychologically, spiritually) he will be our son and we will be his parents and Amanda, Tyler, Jordan, and Ben will be his siblings.

We will all be joined together as one family. And since one of us will, in fact, be ethnically Chinese, we will all share that affiliation in some way.

Jonathan is a part of us. We will be a part of him. I guess you really could say, because of Jonathan, we will be part Chinese!