How important is ethnicity in adopting a child. I believe love is an emotion that begins in the heart, and it is manifested in the action of the person. Love has no color. I would like to say love doesn’t discriminate, but it does. However, it’s a beautiful thing when the heart is open to accept a person from another race into your life. It begins with love. Once love exists, caring and sharing comes easy. An adoptive parent will take the time to learn about the child’s original culture; how to cultivate the child’s original culture along with the new culture.  This child will have the best of both worlds. I remember, in my day, we carried slates in school. When I took my new slate to school on Monday morning, it has no mark on; it’s just a blank slate. I had to give that slate to my teacher. My teacher then took that slate and used a ruler and a nail to set some strait lines on my slate before she gave it back to me. I remember having a female teacher on my first day of school.  When she finished setting the rules on my slate, she wrote letters on the slate, and she instructed me to copy those letters; of course it wouldn’t be perfect on my first try. However, I got it eventually; sometimes it took a little hand holding from my teacher. This reminds me of the mind of a child. When a child is born into this world, it’s mind is like a new slate. The parent, be it bio/adoptive is that teacher who’s going to set those lines, those boundaries, those teachings for the child to copy.  It begins with home training.  If a child is surrounded by love and honesty in who he/she is, the skin color will not matter.  How a child sees himself/herself and other people is a learned behavior. Feeling loved and wanted bring security to the child; the skin color of the one who provides those things will not matter to that child. When a child is raised with confidence at home; this out weighs any opinion outside the home. The child knows that home is a safe place, a place to discuss whatever disparaging experiences out side the home.  Love and affection breed confidence in any child, no matter what race, or creed, or bio, or adoptive. In my opinion, the Multi Ethnic Placement Act is a valuable tool. What do you think?