My Passion..........

After one of the many dance recitals.  

Yeah we are officially silly, after another recital!

Writing about interracial marriage and family is my passion because I'm passionate about my marriage and family!

~I'm passionate about all the things we have gone through in a mixed race household.

~I'm passionate about helping other's that feel they are alone in this journey, and letting them know they are not! 

~I'm passionate about changing perceptions about mixed race marriages and showing everyone that they are just marriages with a "twist." 

~I'm passionate about shaping the future for my child and teaching her to be proud of all of who she is!

~I'm passionate about showing other mixed race parents they too can do the same. 

~I'm passionate about hearing your stories and helping you through difficult situations. 

~I'm passionate about getting to know you and your families so we can all share in this wonderful experience of interracial love!

~I'm passionate about laughter and hearing the funny stories too!

~I'm passionate about not taking ourselves so seriously each and every day. 

~I'm passionate about standing up to racism. 

~I'm passionate about speaking out and speaking up! 

~I'm passionate about teaching tolerance and forgiveness. 

~AND....I'm passionate about always being here for you!     

Adjusting to Each Other.....

My latest story on The Next Family

Click here to read: http://thenextfamily.com/2010/07/adjusting-to-each-other/

I'll Be Your White Friend!

I am a member of this great site called She Writes @ http://www.shewrites.com/.  It's a site filled with women writers from all over, who are on there for the purpose of helping each other grow in their writing.  It's inspiring!

Yesterday, as I was catching up on the site, one of the many posts caught my eye.  The post was from a writer named Lori Tharps.  She was asking "white writers" on the site to become her "white friends,"  buy her book, and pass the word to their "white friends" about her book.  I kid you not!  Guts huh!?  I'm sure there were a lot of people on the site that were taken aback by her request, but I totally get it. Why, you ask?  Me being a "white writer," how would I get it?  Well, she is a black writer about to publish her third book and books for some reason get categorized just like people do.  We assume that only black people are going to read books written by black authors, so that is the "pile" they get filed in.  It's the weirdest thing.  It's almost habit for people.  Will my book about interracial marriage get both categories because it's "half black and half white!?"  Hmmm?  It's nuts!  Authors are authors, black, white or otherwise!

Sometimes I feel like we are going backwards when it's comes to thinking and talking about race.  I don't get it. It's 2010 for goodness sake.  I always think I'm going to run out of things to talk about on my blog, yet every single day something about race comes up in my daily living.  It's kind of mind blowing.  I don't seek it out...it just happens.  If I wrote it all down I would have a library, not just a blog or book.      

So even though I've never met Lori Tharps, except in cyber space, and I have yet to read her book "Substitute Me" http://www.amazon.com/Substitute-Me-Lori-Tharps/dp/1439171106 because it's not quite published yet, I'm going to be her new "white friend,"  I'm going to buy her book, and I'm going to pass the word to other's to do the same.

Maybe, eventually her book will not be a "black book" but just a "book."  It's a perfect analogy for my marriage.....I have the same hopes, that maybe one day, it will just be a "marriage" and not an "interracial marriage!"  It's possible right?  Now get to reading!  =)

Embrace it, Don’t Erase it!

My latest story on http://www.thenextfamily.com/

click here: Embrace it, Don’t Erase it!

Is That Your Mom?

After one of the many dance recitals.

So the other day I was off work early and was able to pick our daughter up from dance.  Normally my schedule only allows me to pick up once a week and my husband covers the rest.  However, this particular night I was able to pick her up from the class that she asst. teaches.  I love being able to see this class because it wasn't that long ago that Tatiana was one of the little dancers...now she is helping to teach them!  Crazy!  All you Mom's out there...and Dad's too, you get it, right?  It's heart warming and freaky at the same time.  How do they grow up so fast!?  Anywho, back to the story...after the class was over, and my heart was all warm and gushy, we were walking out to the car and two of little dancers that Tat teaches were sitting on the curb while their Moms talked.  One little girl just so happened to be Black and the other little girl was Hispanic.  As we were walking by, the little girl who is black said, "Miss Tatiana, is that your Mom?"  Tat said, "Yes."  The little girl said, "Ohhhh, I like her!"  Right after she said that, the little girl who is Hispanic said, "Blanca!"  Tatiana and I just cracked up!!!  First of all, the fact that they were so surprised that I was blanca (white) was hilarious in itself, but the fact that they were excited about it was even funnier!  It still blows my mind, that people, whether little or big, are so shocked that I am Tatiana's Mom.  I am here to tell you, that YES, I am her Mom!  :)  

Check Out My Latest Story on www.thenextfamily.com......

http://thenextfamily.com/2010/07/“i’m-sorry-did-you-say-sewer-water”/

"A Family"......Just Like You, and You, and You.......

Recently I was asked to be a contributing writer to the website The Next Family at, http://www.thenextfamily.com/  I am very excited to be writing for them because their website stands for everything I do.  It's about all types of families and all types of love.  I will be writing for them once a week and look forward to sharing the beautiful message that yes, we are an “Interracial Family,” but really we are “A FAMILY” just like you!

You can check out my first story at the link below:
http://thenextfamily.com/2010/07/%e2%80%9can-interracial-family%e2%80%9d-or-just-%e2%80%9ca-family%e2%80%9d/

About The Next Family:
http://thenextfamily.com/about-2/