You live where?!
Her jaw dropped as I assured her - "Its ok. Relax. We really feel safe living in Sherman Park."
It's not uncommon (dozens of times at least - one being this week) for a shocked response from people when we reveal nonchalantly the neighborhood we chose to move to raise our diverse little tribe. It was a bit over three years ago - the spring of 2014 - we were adopting our second child, sold our house and were in the desperate pursuit of the perfect house. We wanted a 4 bed, 2 bath house with plenty of square footage, open concept in the center of a safe neighborhood where people were friendly and diverse, but where we could live on a budget.
We thought that place was somewhere in the suburbs, or at least somewhere between the city and the suburbs where there were hipsters and young moms walking with strollers everywhere. But honestly, the diversity and schools we were learning were unequipped and unwilling to learn about trauma and work with kids with their special needs. Our friends' kids were typically pushed to the next grade - scarping by and unable to catch up or function well in their schools because the school was wanting every kid to be "normal".
So you may not know this about us by just reading this blog, but I am a white mom with a Chinese husband, two black and 3 Mexican kids. With that in mind, it is probably not super shocking that being in a diverse community is important to us. We want our kids to have a variety of people to look up to and know. They already have Chinese, Guatemalan & White influence and cultural exposure from us as their parents and our families, but we wanted to provide them with a neighborhood as diverse as our family and places where they can have role models and friends of all different races, socioeconomic classes and degrees of privilege.
It's vital to us to discover how to love our kids well by encouraging them to regularly experience their barber shop, go to an amazing school that happens to be majority black kids - 95% (including ours) who have to financially qualify to attend there free of charge and also allow them to attend a camp, preschool (back in the day) and school in the heart of the city.
We had no idea that there was a neighborhood in our city that was diverse, safe, affordable and even had several foster/adoptive and racially diverse families. Sure - there are disadvantages of where we have chosen to live that we are very aware of. There are shootings in earshot, my car has been hit/broken into parked on the street, there are cars driving by super fast, a neighbor's house was broken into, someone was mugged walking home late at night in our neighborhood - these things do happen from time to time.
But what also happen is people look out for each other, people open their homes for an open dinners, there are block parties, neighbor kids playing together in the front yard & people delivering meals and groceries to each other when they are in need. There is an organic warmth that can't be produced. There is a concern for neighbors and an appreciation for the good things we have here.
It may not be considered "safe" to most people, but to us, the reality of our choice to live here is something we don't regret. We LOVE living here. The kids have more than enough space to play and live. We have teenagers who used to live over here we've poured into over the past three years showing up at our doorstep to have dinner with us or teach the kids basketball skills. We have countless friends who live near us who share life with us and we have real conversations!
We have found home for us. We've found a place that meets the needs we have as a family. People from varying walks of life who have decided to live among a diverse people. After reading so many blogs about transracial adoption and multicultural families (the best so far being this article: https://www.nataliebrennerwrites.com/blog/this-is-what-makes-transracial-adoptions-fail.
There is this beautiful mail woman who stopped by again yesterday for another glass of ice water as she continues to share her story of how she was adopted by a white family and constantly felt out of place. Basically a stranger, she has opened up to me about how to love my kids well and how to celebrate their hair, skin and expose them to the beautiful things about her culture as she wished her adoptive parents would've wanted to. Through conversations like these, our decisions for our family are confirmed time and time again. I'm not asking people to move to my neighborhood (although I'd love that!), but we chose to live here because of we thought this is what our kids needed and we have stayed because it feels right. God has called us here so we could align our lives with what we knew He had put in our hearts.
To learn more about our neighborhood, check out my neighbor Laura's blog - she's a much better writer and has a gift of capturing the essence of our neighborhood: https://blueoncenter.blogspot.com
It's not uncommon (dozens of times at least - one being this week) for a shocked response from people when we reveal nonchalantly the neighborhood we chose to move to raise our diverse little tribe. It was a bit over three years ago - the spring of 2014 - we were adopting our second child, sold our house and were in the desperate pursuit of the perfect house. We wanted a 4 bed, 2 bath house with plenty of square footage, open concept in the center of a safe neighborhood where people were friendly and diverse, but where we could live on a budget.
We thought that place was somewhere in the suburbs, or at least somewhere between the city and the suburbs where there were hipsters and young moms walking with strollers everywhere. But honestly, the diversity and schools we were learning were unequipped and unwilling to learn about trauma and work with kids with their special needs. Our friends' kids were typically pushed to the next grade - scarping by and unable to catch up or function well in their schools because the school was wanting every kid to be "normal".
So you may not know this about us by just reading this blog, but I am a white mom with a Chinese husband, two black and 3 Mexican kids. With that in mind, it is probably not super shocking that being in a diverse community is important to us. We want our kids to have a variety of people to look up to and know. They already have Chinese, Guatemalan & White influence and cultural exposure from us as their parents and our families, but we wanted to provide them with a neighborhood as diverse as our family and places where they can have role models and friends of all different races, socioeconomic classes and degrees of privilege.
It's vital to us to discover how to love our kids well by encouraging them to regularly experience their barber shop, go to an amazing school that happens to be majority black kids - 95% (including ours) who have to financially qualify to attend there free of charge and also allow them to attend a camp, preschool (back in the day) and school in the heart of the city.
We had no idea that there was a neighborhood in our city that was diverse, safe, affordable and even had several foster/adoptive and racially diverse families. Sure - there are disadvantages of where we have chosen to live that we are very aware of. There are shootings in earshot, my car has been hit/broken into parked on the street, there are cars driving by super fast, a neighbor's house was broken into, someone was mugged walking home late at night in our neighborhood - these things do happen from time to time.
But what also happen is people look out for each other, people open their homes for an open dinners, there are block parties, neighbor kids playing together in the front yard & people delivering meals and groceries to each other when they are in need. There is an organic warmth that can't be produced. There is a concern for neighbors and an appreciation for the good things we have here.
It may not be considered "safe" to most people, but to us, the reality of our choice to live here is something we don't regret. We LOVE living here. The kids have more than enough space to play and live. We have teenagers who used to live over here we've poured into over the past three years showing up at our doorstep to have dinner with us or teach the kids basketball skills. We have countless friends who live near us who share life with us and we have real conversations!
We have found home for us. We've found a place that meets the needs we have as a family. People from varying walks of life who have decided to live among a diverse people. After reading so many blogs about transracial adoption and multicultural families (the best so far being this article: https://www.nataliebrennerwrites.com/blog/this-is-what-makes-transracial-adoptions-fail.
There is this beautiful mail woman who stopped by again yesterday for another glass of ice water as she continues to share her story of how she was adopted by a white family and constantly felt out of place. Basically a stranger, she has opened up to me about how to love my kids well and how to celebrate their hair, skin and expose them to the beautiful things about her culture as she wished her adoptive parents would've wanted to. Through conversations like these, our decisions for our family are confirmed time and time again. I'm not asking people to move to my neighborhood (although I'd love that!), but we chose to live here because of we thought this is what our kids needed and we have stayed because it feels right. God has called us here so we could align our lives with what we knew He had put in our hearts.
To learn more about our neighborhood, check out my neighbor Laura's blog - she's a much better writer and has a gift of capturing the essence of our neighborhood: https://blueoncenter.blogspot.com
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