"he looks just like you!"...

...and other comments of the like are ones we've heard quite a bit lately.

i don't know if it's because choi boy is seriously bringing the cute lately, just like his cute appa (but really, CB is WAY cuter than the hubs was as a kid. for reals. i'm sorry, babe, but it's true. need i pull out the bowl cut picture again?), or because CB is looking more boy than baby and therefore looking less like just another baby, or people are just trying to make conversation, or what, but we've been hearing it a lot.

way back when, before CB was home, i wrote this post wondering about how i would react and respond to such comments. and my very wise friends (sidenote: i accidentally typed WIDE friends. heehee.) shared that there would be a time and a place to share about our family story and there would be many other times when we would just be doing a lot of nodding and saying "thank you" and walking away.

we've been doing a lot of nodding and saying "thank you" and walking away.

because most of the time, when people make that remark, CB is right there with me. and though we talk about CB's adoption story and our family journey a lot, and CB will proudly tell anyone who asks that he came from "kee-yah!" on an "eh-pane!", i don't want him to feel like he has to be defined by the fact that he is adopted.

and i feel like if i were to correct people about this in front of CB all the time, saying something like, "well, actually, he's adopted so he probably looks like his birth family," it would make him (even at 2 years old) feel funny. like his adoption needed to label him and always be declared. you know?

but at the same time, i don't want CB to think we aren't proud of and so, so, SO thankful for his adoption story. so, if it is more than a stranger making such a comment, we do try to share a little bit about our family and our journey.

in short, i still don't know how to answer this. and i think i won't for while. i think and hope that as CB grows up, he'll be able to give us cues on how he wants us to handle this. maybe we'll come up with a secret wink or other signal we can give each other after we nod and say "thank you" in response. or maybe he'll openly share about his adoption story and i'll beam proudly behind him.

or maybe he'll say, "gross! you think i look like my mom?! she's a girl!"

(i repsonded similarly when people told me i looked like my dad when i was little.)

:)

but you know what's really funny? and a little eerie? CB kinda *does* look like our family. it's a little uncanny. he kind of resembles my dad,


but we think he looks most like my cousin, CB's 'lissa eemo, when she was his age. it's a little crazy:

right?!

uncanny.

and, just because....



you're welcome.