Family Values

American Girl magazine published a lovely article about 11 year old Amaya, who was in the foster care system for three months and lived with 6  different families before she was adopted. She tells a touching story about how she had to carry her belongings in a garbage bag when she first arrived, the day she received the first nightgown she ever owned, and how fully loved she is by her parents and her three brothers. 

Here is the picture of her family: 

A group called One Million Moms wrote an article on their own website, criticizing American Girl's decision to feature a family with two dads. The article states “One Million Moms is extremely disappointed that American Girl is promoting sin. American Girl is attempting to desensitize our youth by featuring a family with two dads. We must remain diligent and stand up for biblical values and truth. Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature.”

This hurts my heart. 

There are so many children in the foster care system, and these children just want to be loved. I am sure they don't care if their parents are two dads, or two moms, or two space aliens. I applaud American Girl for featuring  Amaya's story, which frankly had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she has two dads. In fact, if a picture hadn't been included  of the whole family, the readers wouldn't have even known. 

Now One Million Moms is raising a big stink. What difference does it make? Whether you agree with the lifestyle choices or not, shouldn't you at least feel good that this couple made the choice to 
create a forever family for four children who just wanted to be loved? Would One Million Moms rather have these four children remain in foster care? It just doesn't make sense to me. It's like a vegetarian telling me, "Lovely, you eat meat, and I don't agree with your lifestyle choices, so you probably should just send BK back to family services." 

One Million Moms is inviting its readers to reach out to American Girl to chastise them for the decision they made to publish Amaya's story. I wrote an email to American Girl myself, thanking them for the touching story. I figured they're going to have some backlash from the One Million Moms fiasco, and I wanted to let them know that not everyone feels that way. 


The definition of family has changed, but it does not mean that we value family any less. 

Whatever you opinion, feel free to voice it in the comments, or you can email American Girl yourself at  susan.jevens@americangirl.com