It's a true fact that Emma and Samantha are somewhat of celebrities out here in this country. (Emma more so than samantha, just because emma has longer hair and so everyone thinks she looks like a porcelain doll!) Every time we go out the door, large numbers of people come up to hold emma, feel her hair, pinch her cheeks, hold her hands, touch her just to see what a foreigner "feels like". Truly, people here hardly know how to react to her. We've even had other children point at emma and say, "Mama, what is that?" Undaunted, the mother said, "That's a child. A foreign child." I was about two seconds from giving that kid a swift slap for calling my child a "that", but such is life here. Adults and children alike can hardly fathom that foreigners birth children that look so different.
So I can understand Emma's hesitation towards Asians that she sees. She often turns away in protest when they try to hold her, pulls her hand away when they want to touch her, and usually offers a sharp "No!" to whatever request they might be making of her. But today's incident was pretty clever. I've always thought Emma was brilliant, but today caught even her doting mother off guard.
The three of us girls had gone up to josh's school; we were all going to meet when he got out of class and eat lunch together. As we were waiting for him to finish, the usual crowd of people came up to stare at Emma. One brave girl asked, "What is your name?"
Emma sat for a moment, looked around, then looked right at the girl and said confidently, "Clara!'
Who can blame her for wanting a bit of an escape?!
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