Genetics

Four of my children look nothing like their birthmother. For some of those kids I am their birthmother! When my oldest was little she was jealous because she wanted a birthmother. She was so excited when I told her she had a birthmother, too. "I do?! Who???!" I'll never forget her reaction when I said,"ME!" Such a crack up! This morning all the girls got their hair trimmed. When I saw the lock of one of the girls hair on the floor, it reminded me of a lock of my hair my mom had saved in my memory box from when I was that age. We saved today's lock and compared later. An exact match of color and texture. That is my only daughter who looks anything like her birthmother. I thought about my BFF and her birthmother...they have never met. All these years I have pictured my BFF's 1st mom looking like my BFF. Maybe she doesn't. I'll never forget how shocked we all were when my dark, tightly coiled BFF begot three straight haired blondes, one of whom looks like my BFF's sister who looks nothing like my BFF and does not have the same first parents. Got all that? I got such a kick out of a picture my BFF sent me the other day of her daughter after she had rolled her hair on drinking straws to do her best to look just like her mom. I have been told by kids and teens that they don't mind being adopted, they just wish they knew someone that looked like them. So, today when we saw a mother with very dark skin, hair and eyes, with her very blonde child, we all cracked up when one particular daughter exclaimed,"Wow! Look at that mom with her baby! You never see that!" Inside my head I thought "EXCEPT any time you and I stand side by side and look at our reflection in the mirror!!"