Innocent Enough to Make Me Think

We braved the Rec Center tonight. That, in and of itself, is a blogworthy mention.

But not tonight.

Tonight is all about a little girl and her innocent little question.

I was swimming around with my Isaiah and was being followed closely by a 10-ish year old girl. She was alone in the pool and very chatty. Almost to the annoying point. But she was cute and I happen to like kids, so I indulged her.

She followed me over to the stairs where I sat with Isaiah. She looked at him and pointed and said, "What is that? I mean, who is he? I mean...what is he?"

Me: "He's my son."

Girl: "What? He can't be your son...he's....he's....(whispers) black."

Me: "We adopted him."

Girl: "Oh. So his Mom is dead?"

Me: "Uhhhhh......(need a moment?)well, no. His birth Mom just couldn't take care of him so he came to live with us."

Girl: "Why not?"

Me: "She just couldn't."

Girl: "Do you have a daughter because I saw another black baby and she must be your daughter, too."

Me: "She is. They're twins."

Girl: "They can't be twins, they are a boy and a girl."

Me: "Oh honey....."

And she swam off.

She was so sweet and so, well, backwards. It made me think.

One, I am so glad she asked questions. It's so much better than the multitude of odd looks (and even some glares) we get on a regular basis.

Two, it made me realize that I actually need to prepare some answers.

Three, perhaps we need to be teaching people about the whole "twin" thing...