It all started in an overly packed classroom. First of all, I was an incredibly spirited child. This is really just a nice way of saying that I was quite a handful growing up. At only five years old, I sat in my preschool class surrounded by all of my peers and my sweet preschool teacher when I, in classic Hope style, blurted out, “Teacher, I know where babies come from”.

As you can imagine my teacher’s heart rate skyrocketed as all of the innocent little girls and boys turned their heads and trained their eyes on mine waiting for me to continue. In classic teacher fashion, she attempted to dismiss the situation by moving on to the next subject, but I was a stubborn girl and I was determined to have my knowledge shared with the entire class. “Babies come from airplanes”, I announced to the class with the all the confidence of a five-year-old.

Now before you dismiss me as an insane child, you should know that I was actually right. My story starts when my parents signed the adoption papers and I flew on a Chinese airplane half way around the world from to join my family. So no, we are not what society would label as a "typical" family.

As a very curious child, it wasn't long before I discovered that my family wasn't like all the other families on our block, in our church, or at my school. For years after I struggled with my adoption because there were so many unanswered questions circling through my mind and too many things that made me feel instinctively different.

It seemed as though society was equally as aware of my family being different as I was. I grew accustomed to the confused stares and awkwardly phrased questions as people tried to "rationalize" how a family could possibly be made up of such diverse people. These were the stares that made me all too aware of this thing called "adoption", this part of my identity that made me so very different than everyone else around me.

For a long time, I wanted to be just like everyone else. I wanted that traditional homogenous "American" family. I wanted to have my mom's eyes and my dad's smile. I wanted people to see my family as a family without questioning why my parent's were Caucasian and their children were Asian.

I doubt they'll start teaching it in school anytime soon, but yes, some babies do come from airplanes. So, no, my family isn't "normal" by society standards but there is such beauty is being different from all the rest.