My first and third daughters happen to look like their father. My middle daughter, also looks like her father, but has my very fair complexion, light brown hair and green eyes. My MIL tries, but my poor baby can’t even get a hello from her grandmother if the other two girls are in the room. She will buy stuff for my oldest and completely forget her sister. It breaks my heart. I have canceled our visit for Christmas, because my 2 year old does not need to experience such fundamental rejection, especially during the holidays.

Ironically, she is my husband’s favorite. He is confused and saddened by his family’s behavior, but hasn’t quite figured out how to address the issue.

We decided not to adopt after experiencing secondary infertility because I knew that my ILs would never accept an adopted child. I never imagined they would reject a biological grandchild just because she looks white.

My (Italian) grandfather doesn’t acknowledge relationships (blood or otherwise) with any of my children because I’m his daughter’s daughter, and only the male line counts. My adopted son is no more related to him, in his mind, than the family dog.

My (Italian) mother considers our adopted son less “real” than our biodaughters, because “blood is thicker than water”. Don’t, however, interpret this to mean that she has loving and close relationships with the people she IS related to by blood…

Your MIL wins a few prizes for the funny stories (Sending Chinese food to China!) but this one is just crummy.