NORM: The arrival many years ago of our adopted daughter, Emily, from Korea, caused Bonnie and me to reexamine the whole question of identity. I have to admit that at first we felt comfortable for the wrong reasons. We figured that because Emily couldn't be affected by either of our families' idiosyncrasies, and because she hadn't had time to be influenced very strongly by her biological family, she was free to be herself. We soon realized, however, that we still had to come to terms with what a lot of people believe is stereotypical of her Asian culture.
We knew that Emily was, like all of us, "an heir of God."
This is perhaps a good place to mention that our study of Christian Science has given us a rewarding concept of identity as reflection, divine reflection. More specifically, a person's true individuality is the mirror image of God, the one creative power. So, any attempt to track character traits back to another source turns out to be a waste of time. What we try to do instead is to allow Emily's God-given originality to bloom.
