The color of your skin.

The little one and I prepared for spring pictures this morning.  I normally don't purchase spring pictures;  but, these are kindergarten graduation pictures.  These are very special, once (or four times...preschool, kindergarten, high school and college) in a lifetime picture which are happening today.  So, as we picked out a special outfit (even though it will go under her cap and gown) and fixed her hair just so, I sighed with longing for the "good ol' days" when she was in preschool and little.

"Oh Molly, can't you just stay in kindergarten forever?" I said with longing in my voice.

"Mom, I HAVE to grow up. " she said with exasperation in her voice.  She is definitely tired of having this conversation with me.  "You grew up and you still see your mom.  It will be the same for me."

"You are right."  I said.  "I grew up and then I had you, so now Grandma has even more people to love.  And, I will still get to see you as long as you don't move far away like Australia."

"Yeah, I don't think I will move too far away just maybe Florida.  Or Africa.  But, probably not Africa because everyone in Africa has dark skin and I don't." she said.

"Isn't it amazing that God gave the people of Africa dark skin to protect them from the sun?  There is so much sun in Africa that they need dark skin so they don't get sunburned all the time.  But our family came from Ireland and there isn't much sun there, so we have very white skin so we can absorb the sun's vitamins when the sun is actually out."  I said.

"So I am Irish?  And what else?" she said.

"Well, you are also Norweigian..." I began to say.

"And English?" she interrupted. "And the English have white skin?"

"Yep, there isn't much sun in England either." I said.

"So how come there are people in Minnesota with dark skin? It gets cold here and we don't have sun all the time?"  she asks.

"Well, today people move all over the globe instead of stay where their families have lived for thousands of years.  So you can have all colors of skin all over the globe.  What do you think it would be like if we had to stay where our families were from thousands of years ago?  I would live in Ireland and I would have never met Daddy because his family would live...well I don't know what Daddy's family is mostly from."  I said.

"Wisconsin.  Daddy is mostly Wisconsin." she said.

I had to leave the room I was laughing so hard.