A Beautiful Day For A Walk...

Today was a gorgeous day in Vancouver. The sun was shining in a blue sky. Little clouds were lazily drifting. Flowers were blooming. It felt glorious after our snowfall last week.

In the late morning, I got Ayana and Moses ready and headed out to the duck pond in our neighbourhood. We live in a cute area with lots of trees and a local duck pond at the end of a cobbled street. The little ones LOVE the duck pond. Sometimes we even glimpse a turtle swimming slowly from one end to the other, or just kind of leaning/sitting on a branch in the water.

We got to the ducks after a slow walk in which Ayana had to stop at each flower bed and exclaim about the beautiful buds and blooming flowers.Moses was safely in his umbrella stroller or we would still be walking! We had a snack at the edge of the pond. We laughed at the ducks. Ayana skipped from one end of the bridge to the other. Moses toddled around and I had to be very vigilant as he approached the waters edge. It is actually a little difficult to take pictures and keep one hand on a lively baby!.

All in all a lovely pre lunch outing.

As we were headed back, they both heard an aeroplane and we spent a while looking up at it, Moses waving away and pointing in delight. As I was standing waiting for them to lose interest in the 'plane, I noticed ugly, scrawled graffiti all over the path. I was a bit surprised that I hadn't noticed it on the way in as it was vivid red and in huge letters.

As I read it, the day seemed to lose a little sparkle.

It was horrible. Very racist. Using awful words to describe people with black skin. Slurs against women. I felt cold as I read it, as though the sun had disappeared. The day felt grey.

As we walked home, Ayana was still skipping. Moses was still waving at the cars and shrieking with joy when we saw a doggie.

I felt so sad. So mad. There are people who will hate my beautiful children because...they have a different colour skin. This is reality for those of us adopting children that look different than we do. I have never had to read any graffiti imploring others in my community to "get rid" of me. As my children grow older, they will read things like that and we will have had to educate them as to how they respond. We got home and Ayana ran to the bathroom. After a while, she called for me to come and see her. She was standing looking at herself in the mirror, a huge grin on her face.

"Look mama, Ayana cute. Ayana beautiful" she said. Suddenly, the sun came out again. The day sparkled.

Oh yes my little girl. You certainly are beautiful and don't let anyone tell you different.