The American Look

The family in Omaha I wrote about that adopted older children from Ukraine three years ago, started a chain-reaction of like adoptions of older Ukranian children that has led to our own recent personal adoption odyssey. Here is a photo of a bunch of kids that have been adopted from Ukraine since 2004 that live in and around the Omaha area.

I have been looking at lots of pictures families have taken of kids while they were in Odessa, to get an idea of what it is like for the kids, and what the kids themselves are like, as much as you can from pictures. I was struck by this picture of the kids that have been in America, adopted into American families, some for up to three years, some for just three months, that these kids look different than they do in pictures from Ukraine.

I’m looking at this picture, and it’s more than just that they look happy, happy to be adopted, to be in America, to be part of a family. No, I think that these kids have a distinctive “American” look to them. When I look at their pictures taken when they were in Odessa, they had a distinctive Eastern European look to them, but now, I think they definitely have the American look down.

So, I’m analyzing this to see just what it is about them that makes them look more American. Here’s what I think. It’s the hair and the tan. The hair is definitely different. I can’t tell you the details of it, but the hair just looks different. It’s just more American-like in the way the hair is done. Then the tan, throw the tan in and you definitely got the look. No more Eastern Europe, you’ve got that American look. We fry our skin here in the good ol' US of A.

Anyway, our number one daughter is turning one quarter century old tomorrow and she is in Omaha doing an elective rotation for Vet school, so we are going down to Omaha this weekend to see her and celebrate. We are going to the zoo, eating raw fish and getting together with some of the families and kids in the picture. Can't wait.