Slice of Life – Family Reunion

I was online surfing last night and came across a neat Sunday meme called “Slice of Life” it’s hosted by Cricket. The idea is to take one (or more) of her three prompts, and to write a “slice of life” as it happened to you. When I read the prompt “family reunion”, I just knew I had to tell this tale – which, by the way, is completely true…

Several years ago, before Hubby and I adopted Woody and Tigger, we were their foster parents. At the same time, we were also fostering another boy, Mickey. Mickey was a beautiful Hispanic boy. As it turned out, Mickey was born exactly one week after Tigger. So it was sort of like having twins, because they were essentially the same age. They were similar in size and in developmental behavior – however, they looked completely opposite from one another.

Mickey had handsome black hair.

Tigger had handsome blond hair.

Mickey had big brown eyes.

Tigger had big blue eyes.

Mickey had beautiful caramel skin.

Tigger had beautiful milky white skin.

We decided to attend a family reunion in East Texas. It’s a beautiful family of Scots/Irish/American heritage, but the words “culturally diverse” could be a foreign concept. This particular side of the family does not have a regularly scheduled reunion, so most of them didn’t know about us being foster/adoptive parents. When Hubby and I arrived with three loud children in tow, we certainly got their attention. But when they noticed that one of the three was remarkably different, but similar in size and stature to another, they were puzzled and almost speechless.

Then my dear husband, because he thinks he could be a comedian, said to the near silent group, “The younger two are twins.” Then pointing to Mickey, said, “His features are darker because he just stayed in the oven a week longer.”

To which a member of my family said, “Really?”