BYU Homecoming Parade: FSA Float

We rode on the Families Supporting Adoption float in the BYU Homecoming Parade on Saturday.  I love FSA activities.  It reminds you that there are people who have successfully adopted through LDS Family Services.  It allows you the opportunity to talk with other people about their adoption experiences.  One funny thing about these activities, though.  It's impossible to guess which kids belong with which parents when the kids are all running around.

Surprisingly, some kids do look  like the parents who adopted them.  That's probably because birth moms often choose people they have a lot in common with--including some physical characteristics.  For me personally, I don't think it matters a ton whether kids look exactly like their parents or not, but it can be  extra challenging for parents to raise a child who is obviously racially different.  At adoption agencies, you have to state all sorts of things about your child preferences, including what ethnicities you prefer.  It's a difficult thing to do.  While I won't go into the details of our preferences here, any birth mom who registers with LDS Family Services can see ours listed with our profile.  One of the few benefits I see in having a child who looks more like you is that people don't immediately assume that the child was adopted.   However, Daniel and Benjamin are biologically brothers, and they look nothing like each other.  People have wondered if one or the other of them was adopted.  Also, our extended family varies widely in ethnicity and appearance.  So,  many different things are taken into account by parents considering their adoption preferences.

We got to BYU about an hour before the parade started.  Our float was the second to last in the parade, though, so we were waiting a total of about 2 hours.  It was a cold morning.  We drank hot chocolate and walked around looking at the floats while we waited.

This was Benjamin's favorite float (besides the one we rode on, of course):

It's a float to promote the new Paleontology Museum at BYU.  Apparently,  the new museum is a lot bigger and cooler than the old Earth Science Museum.  Since we love dinosaurs and museums, you can bet we will go there sometime in the near future.