Can I turn white?

Today Belay asked when he was going to turn white. He showed Andy the palms of his hands and said
 "look, my hands are already white."  I'll never forget seeing him show Andy those sweet pink palms on those tiny hands.

Immediately we both jumped in telling Belay how beautiful his skin was and how he was always going to be this beautiful brown. He told us he wished he was white, and that he didn't want to be the only brown one in the family anymore. I showed him a picture of all of us, including his "opia mom" (birth mom) and asked him who he thought was beautiful in the picture. He pointed to his opia mom. This went on for a while.

Then at bed time Andy talked with him about how on thomas the train there were lots of blue trains and only one red train (James) and reminded him that James was his favorite. Belay then told Andy that he didn't want to be all alone.  When I went in to kiss him goodnight he told me he was sad because he missed is opia mom and wished he could just see her one time!

Can this really be happening already to my 3 year old? Is he really able to verbalize this kind of grief at 3? We talk ALL the time about Ethiopia, his birth mom, and his beautiful brown skin so it isn't totally out of the blue that he brings this up. It just caught me off guard how articulate he was about his feelings. That he point blank said he wanted to turn white! My heart feels a little heavy tonight. How do I help my sweet little boy?

my proudest moment in parenting to date

We took the kids out for a quick dinner tonight after swimming all day.  When the waiter dropped off our waters at the table and Adi immediately responded with "thank you" and then Belay did the same.  This happened without prompting, at all! Not a single word out of my mouth. They both said thank you on their own accord because they knew it was the right thing to do. The waiter mumbled a quick "wow, good manners" and it literally brought tears to my eyes (which isn't all that hard to do these days with the pregnancy hormones raging).
I have never been more proud, honestly. This means they learned something. I have taught them to have manners. Whoohooo. Now, will it ever happen again?