What is your Cultural Fluency Quotient?

This may be a question that you've never considered but now you have decided to adopt a child from a different country, culture, and/or race? Are you drawn to Ethiopian adoption but question whether or not you have the skills to handle transracial adoption? Maybe when you first told your family and friends about your adoption plans you received a negative reaction or as you moved through the process your realized that there are new challenges with raising a child of color.

This forum is for those parents adopting from Ethiopia (or their families) that are sincere in their efforts to develop the awareness, knowledge and skills that they need to raise culturally fluent families.

CULTURALLY FLUENT parents:

ASK questions that stimulate thought and reflection.

HONOR and respect the cultural and racial differences of their children.

SEEK the best strategies for developing the whole child with a healthy cultural and racial identity.

CHALLENGE negative beliefs, stereotypes and the devaluing of their child's culture.

DEVELOP a keen understanding of their own cultural identity and how it influences how they see the world.

SEE the world through their children's eyes.

TRANSLATE their cultural observations into positive learning experiences for themselves, their friends, family, and especially their children.

SHARE their experiences, fears, and concerns openly and allow others to do the same.

CELEBRATE the differences and adopt new cultural traditions that honor their children and enrich their families.

LAUGH! Humor is important.

I hope in this group we can discuss real issues with openness, honest, and compassion. The focus should always be on sharing or developing strategies that will help the children develop strong positive cultural identities.