Sometimes I Forget...

Sometimes I forget how lucky I am....
Sometimes I forget what a wonderful life I really have....
Sometimes I forget what beautiful children I have....
Sometimes I forget that I am married to an Asian American...
Sometimes I forget that I am a women....
Sometimes I forget that I don't look like my kids....
Sometimes I forget that they have a different skin complexion then I do....
Sometimes I forget that I can not protect them from every bad experience out there....
Sometimes I forget that I am white....
Sometimes I forget that others can do what they want and I can not change what they think....
Sometimes I forget that everyone is human and human nature is not always shown at its best....

And then something happens that reminds me of all those things, it puts life back into focus for those brief moments. Lets take tonight for example.... Ket, Ritavey, (Ket's brother who is now going to live with us for about a year or so) the four kids and I all go to Target to get some things. We are there walking around, and get our stuff and then head to the hotel to get the Car. I am sitting in the back seat with Kassia and Jesiah and I notice this car that keeps pulling up along side us and then backing way off...so I start to watch to see if they are drunk and hoping they will not hit us. But that is not what is going on, as I watch they pull up along side of our car again and lean out the window and look at Ket and Ritavey, and start making racial gestures towards Ket (us). Then they back way off and a couple minutes later they do it again. I am dumbfounded. I don't know what to think.... I have never experienced this kind of harassment before. There is about three or four boys in the car taking turns doing this. My kids have no idea what is going on until I say something... "What the heck to they think they are doing? Who do they think they are, I mean we are in a minivan and what are they getting from this?" I was getting more and more mad, because of my kids in the car. We stopped at a light and they pulled up right along beside us and continued to do the same kind of stuff. Ket asked if he should roll down his window and talk (yea right) to them. I don't even have time to respond when the light tuns green and we take off. Who can go the fastest is the game now. The minivan wins and Ket leans out the window and laughs at them. "Ha, they got burned by a Minivan!" is what he taunts. I say something like that has never happened to me before, and Ket and Ritavey both say it happens all the time. WHAT where have I been. Is this just because they could not see me, I was in the back?

I know I have had my fair share of looks, questions and what not when I am out with the kids or Ket. People stare the most when I am out with Ket and I get the most questions when I am with the kids. Things like...

what beautiful children...are they yours?
yes.
Where are they from?
Boise.
Oh, well where is their dad from?
California, oh, did you want to know what they are mixed with? Their dad is Laotian.
Where is that?
Next to Thailand and Vietnam.
Oh, ok, that explains it! Well they are beautiful children!
Thanks.

I know people are just wondering, and so that doesn't brother me...it is people like tonight that really bother me. What they were doing was wrong. And it was wrong of Ket to react they way he did.... But who am I to judge how he should have handled it. I don't deal with that all the time. He does. I would have wanted to pull those boys over, explained to them that not every Asian that they encounter is Chinese. That would be like me saying that every white person with a big nose is from Germany, or all the blond hair blued eye people are from Norway....I mean do you understand where I am coming from. I guess in a perfect society i could have done that.... but that is the trick, I would not have needed to do that in a perfect society.

My bad... I forgot that we still live in Idaho where people have a hard time accepting others that are not the same as they are... so what to do.... Nothing except continue to teach my children to be more tolerant of others no mater what they look like on the outside.

So it is moments like these that remind me of the special things in life that are good...
Today I will rejoice in how lucky I am....
Today I will rejoice in the wonderful life I really have....
Today I will rejoice in what beautiful children I have...
Today I will rejoice that I am married to an Asian American...
Today I will rejoice that I am a women....
Today I will rejoice that I don't look like my kids....
Today I will rejoice that they have a different skin complexion then I do....
Today I will rejoice that I can not protect them from every bad experience out there...
Today I will rejoice that I am white....
Today I will rejoice that others can do what they want and I can not change what they think....
Today I will rejoice that everyone is human and human nature is not always shown at its best....