Liam’s Story

In 1999 I became the proud mother of a beautiful baby boy through the miracle of adoption. My son, Liam, was the answer to all my dreams of becoming a mother. Together we have shared many moments of fun, joy and down-right hilarity at times!

One of my favourite funny moments happened when Liam was six years old and he came home from school one day announcing, “Mom, it’s not fair! I’m the only boy in my class who doesn’t have a dot!”

“Pardon? A dot?” I replied. I wracked by brain….were stickers being handed out and he didn’t get one, I asked? He repeated, very animatedly, “No Mom! You know! A DOT!”  and he pointed at the back of his head. As he rhymed off the names of boys in class with “dots”, I pictured these children. (It helped that I was also the part-time teacher in his class, I must admit.)  After a while, I realized he was referring to the spiral-looking crowns you could so easily see at the backs of these boys’ heads because of their short-cropped hair. However, because of his extremely curly hair, Liam did not have a visible “dot’ like the other boys. No matter how I tried to comfort him, he still felt it was a great injustice that he was the only boy in his class without one.

Shortly after this, I was cutting Liam’s hair with some clippers. Living in northern Ontario and having the only African-Canadian child in the community, I figured out early that not too many people knew how to cut his hair so I learned to do it myself. On that particular day, for the first time ever, the guard came off of the clippers and I took a chunk of hair out of the front of his head! I tried to hide my horror so he wouldn’t be upset by how I had disfigured him. All of a sudden I heard an excited little voice say “Mom, did you just give me a DOT?!” We both started whooping with laughter as I replied “Yes, Liam, yes I did!” To my amusement, he sported his dot with pride until it was time for his next haircut. Since then he has chosen a new look and wears his hair in dreadlocks with the same pride as when he had the mom-made dot.

My son has taught me so many lessons about love and life, acceptance and confidence in oneself. He has been an inspiration about being proud of our differences and celebrating our similarities. I’ve discovered sometimes it’s just all about connecting the dots!

Submitted By Sandy Zurbrigg