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importance. I smiled as I thought of an experience with my own little daughter, Elliana. When she was five years old, she was invited over to play at the home of a family that was new to the area. The mother, father, and their four biological children were all Caucasian, blue-eyed, and very blond. They also had a sweet little African American daughter that they had adopted. My wife, Donna, had grown up in Los Angeles, and had lots of friends from other races and nationalities. I lived in New York for a time and grew to love people from almost every religion and region of the world. But our children had not had any such opportunities. The culture here in Idaho is not very diverse. Donna was concerned that our daughter might be surprised at the mix in the family, and innocently say something she should not. So she simply told her that one child in the family was adopted. “What does ’dopted mean?” Elliana asked. “Well, when a child is adopted into a family, they are not born to the mother of that family, but to another mother,” Donna replied. “But if that child’s mother can’t take care of them, the other family takes the child 26