![]() “It was awful,” says Wells, “but I thought-as every white privileged parent wants to think-maybe this is an isolated incident.” As events quickly proved, it was not. ![]() At the time Ben was a 6-year-old boy who had just learned to ride his bike after only two trips up and down the driveway with his father running alongside him. Ryan Lowry for TIME Ben Wells at his home in Champagne, Ill.įirst, she says of her awakening, there was the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012. “But what I have been surprised by is this: At no point in the process of considering transracial adoption did I think I would have to teach my son how to stay alive.” “I figured I’d have to explain some name-calling, have hard talks about language, navigate the waters when somebody’s parent won’t let my son take their daughter to prom,” she says. Wells knew that raising a black son wouldn’t always be easy. The Wells are white and live in Champaign, Illinois, a multi-cultural Big Ten university town and have gone to some effort to create a diverse environment for their son and three biological daughters. ![]() She and her husband Timothy, a police officer and Army veteran, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, brought Ben home when he was four years old. Robyn Wells believed she went into the adoption of her Ethiopian son with eyes wide open. ![]() She and her husband, who are white, have two adopted daughters, one Ethiopian and one African- American. Karen Valby is a writer who lives in Austin, Texas. As transracial adoption becomes more common, here’s what every parent should know ![]()
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