Was Jack Adopted?

I recently had a conversation with Jonah that I was completely unprepared for. I wasn't ready to talk about this and thankfully... I didn't have to.

Jonah's best friend, since he was 18 months old, is Jack. Jonah and Jack play together beautifully and work together really well also. One time Jonah told me that when they each want to play something different at recess (since they ALWAYS play with each other at recess) they each get to pick one thing they like that the other wants to play and then they combine the two ideas and play that. For two first graders? Brilliant. See what I said they are BEST BUDS.

So the other day when Jonah asked me if Jack was adopted, I wasn't prepared for the conversation. It went something like this:

Jonah: Mom, was Jack adopted?

Me: No.

Jonah: I think he was.

Me: No, Jonah, he wasn't. Why do you think that?

Jonah: Because Jack has brown eyes.

Me: Yes, I know. So do Megan and Jonas. (Jack's older sister and younger brother)

Jonah: So then they were all adopted because they all have brown eyes.

Me: No, Jonah. They weren't. Jeremy (their dad) has brown eyes.

Jonah: I know, but Becky (their mom) doesn't. She has blue eyes and you can't have a kid with brown eyes if you have blue eyes.

Me: Yes, you can if one of the parents has brown eyes.

Jonah: Yeah, but it has to be the mom because the baby comes from the mom. What does the dad have to do with it? Why does it matter if the dad has brown eyes?

Me, in my head, thinking: Oh crap, I didn't know that this conversation was going that direction. Not prepared! Not prepared! Retreat! Retreat! Not going to talk about the facts-of-life yet with my seven year old!!!

I decided to meet him where he was at, at this point. He's very black & white, analytical, methodical, and really loves to learn things.

So I talked about genetics. I said, "Well when God puts a baby in a mommy's tummy He takes the genetics, which are the characteristics each person has, like eye color, skin color, height, face shape, stuff like that, from both the mommy and the daddy and blends them all together and combines them in the baby. That's why you look so much like daddy!"

That was a satisfactory answer to him- THANK GOD!

I'm still looking back at it and how caught-off-guard I was. I was just NOT seeing the curve in that road we were traveling down. But, thankfully, crisis averted!

Now, don't get me wrong- Youth Director by trade- I will be talking to my children about sex and all that jazz very openly and honestly, just as I did with my youth group kids. I was very open about it all with my younger siblings too. I was honest, but held my standards high. I will do the same for my children. WHEN. THE. TIME. IS. RIGHT. And that time was not last week. Whew.