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Our copy of the U.S. Census 2010 arrived today, and true to claim, it took me less than 10 minutes to fill out.  For any of you who haven’t received yours yet and are curious, you can see all the questions on the form on the U.S. Census website.

The most interesting thing (and it’s pretty straightforward, so nothing really enthralling) was that there are two separate Race/People Group questions – #8 and #9. I guess I didn’t pay attention to that last time, just checked “White,” “White” (oh so very pale) and moved on.  Hadn’t even met Fred yet, last time.

But this time, answering for our whole family, I actually had to stop and think how I wanted to fill out the latter question.  Question #8 is “Is Person X of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?  Easy enough: ”no” for Fred and me, “yes” for the twins, with a write-in of “Guatemalan.” 

But then Question #9 asks “What is Person X’s race?” and I had to decide how to list the twins, since Hispanic/Latino/Spanish is not considered a race according to the census.  I ended up going with two answers for them – “White” (their Spanish ancestry) and “American Indian or Alaska Native” with a write-in of “Maya.” 

I don’t think it will make any difference to our kids, how I answered the question, but since the census does purport to drive future government policy and programs, it occurred to me that registering them to the best of my understanding of their full heritage may benefit other people who fall into both categories but identify only as “White” (a fairly common practice among Americans of Latin American origin from what I understand).  There does seem to be an up-tick of Native-American pride in the Central American countries, but “Indigenous” people are still considered “lesser” and are oppressed people groups in many of those cultures, so some decide to distance themselves from those roots.  Indeed, the boys’ birth mom listed them as “not indigenous” on their birth certificates even though her heritage is quite evident from her picture.

Funny how something as simple and routine as a census can represent so much.  I do want the twins to be proud of the way God made them, and I believe I set the tone by my being pleased that they are just as they are.  And tonight, it meant taking an extra few seconds to be thorough on a government form.

Would love to hear how others of you who have adopted registered your kids, too!