Hapa Baby Palooza ---



(picture left - Maria, Noah, Corinne, Amalia, Malcolm - it aint easy photoging three rambunctious babies!)

I hosted a "mommas and toddlers" afternoon at my apartment(embarrassingly my first). The gal that babysits Noah is a film student and is of mixed race. One of her film projects has been focusing on the mixed race experience - post Vietnam War.

Now that I have Noah in my life I feel like there is so much more to consider when it comes to looking at his racial makeup. I cannot offer the cultural link of the Filipino language, perhaps some words I have picked up and hopefully what Ninong RJ will teach him. I spent my "terrible twenties" investing a lot of my time exposing myself to the Fil-Am experience, which included 3 visits to the Philippines, attending numerous conferences, becoming a youth organizer and Co-founding a website for adult Filipino adoptees.

In some respects I can relate to the hapa experience because my family is white and I struggled for many years to create a positive self identity, embrace my adoption and pride for my Filipina heritage.

One of the many things, I would like to instill in my son is pride of being Filipino, German and Italian. We do not know as much about the European American side of him but this may be an opportunity to research both his maternal and paternal grandparents lineage.