My older son brought home his Martin Luther King Day project today. It was done in class, so I hadn't known of it before. And this is what it read:

"I Have A Dream Too!"

I have a dream that one day this nation will be healthy. I have a dream that one day I will help other people. I have a dream that one day I will be able to see my Russian mom. I have a dream that everyone will get along. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day all the people I know are still around. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day we will not have any big wars. This is my hope and faith. With this faith we will be able to all have better lives. This will be the day when I am all grown up.

So, I'll take 30 seconds to pat myself on the back for having raised (at least so far) a kid who has his head screwed on straight.

But of course we all know what I'm really going to write about: the birth mother bit.

I have told my older son the details of his adoption from Russia bit by bit over the years, in language appropriate to his stage of development. But I knew, as he got a better understanding of biology, that there would be detailed questions about his birth mother.

I just never expected that they would come while we were driving on a highway in horrendous tractor-trailer traffic. Not ideal conditions for finding the right words. Still, I managed to let him ask all the questions he had to ask that night. And I told him more about the problems in Russia in the year of his birth that had made it very hard for many families to stay together. He took it all in, and then moved on to the next thing on his mind, which, if I remember correctly, was whether his socks for baseball were clean.

We went through a few days after that of him calling me "fake Mother" (which I countered by asking him if that meant he was my "fake son.") But he regularly comes back for more information about that initial conversation, and his thoughts about it still pop up when I least expect them. I am sure they will continue to do so as he grows up, and if his dream is to someday meet his birth mother, we will do that too.