Kim Kelley-Wagner reveals some of the comments her Asian adopted daughters have received
KIM Kelley-Wagner posted a series of photographs revealing some of the comments said to her adopted daughters. She never expected to receive this reaction.
WHEN KIM Kelley-Wagner posted a series of photographs revealing some of the comments said to her adopted Asian daughters, she never expected the reaction it received.
The American mother who posted on Facebook about her adopted daughters late last year was inundated with messages of support.
She is still receiving comments from people who are in a similar situation or those shocked and outraged at some of the comments directed at the girls.
But writing on her Facebook page recently, Ms Kelley-Wagner said it was never her intention to prove people were racist.
Instead she said she only wanted to show how ignorant people could be and that they should choose their words wisely.
Ms Kelley-Wagner, who lives in Virginia, said the project highlighted just some of the comments she and her daughters had heard or received over the years.
“I have tried to explain to my daughters that people do not say these things to be mean, they say them out of ignorance, which is why I am sharing some of them. Words are powerful, they can become tools or weapons, choose to use them wisely,” she wrote on December 31.
The mum, who adopted her eldest daughter Liliana, 13, from China at 10 months and her sister Meika back in 2008, said she had been largely overwhelmed with messages of support for the project.
But she admitted some people had questioned why she did it, with one commentator even calling it cruel.
In a later post, she said her family were never defined by the comments and both daughters were happy, confident and the loves of her life.
“Our intention in doing this project was to enlighten and educate; to hopefully remind us that words can build up, or tear down; that they are powerful and that we have a responsibility to use them wisely,” she wrote last week.
“Not once have my daughters been brought low because of any comment made by a stranger, they realise that the things said are ignorant and treat them as such.”
Ms Kelley-Wagner said she had heard more positive comments than negative ones and these were said not just in her home town or in the southern states but from all over the US.
“All, with the exception of one, were gleaned over the years from various parts of the east coast and Midwest; from Ohio to Florida, as well as various parts of Virginia, our home state,” she wrote.
“No one area of the country, or world for that matter, is free from ignorance or those lacking manners.”
Ms Kelley-Wagner said both girls, especially her eldest, had found the project cathartic.
Just days ago, she said people still asked about her adoption story and while she stopped short of going into all the details she revealed parts of it in a blog written back in 2008.
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