Yahoo Finance Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger Are Prioritizing 'What Diversity Means in Our Home' for Daughter Sloane
Ali Kreiger/Instagram
Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger know they have to put in the work to overcome any challenge of raising their daughter Sloane, who is Black and Puerto Rican.
Krieger, 36, and Harris, 35, announced Sloane's arrival in February, with Krieger writing a touching note to Sloane's birth mother. Now the World Cup champions, who wed in December 2019, are settling in with their newborn, and they're doing as much learning as they can.
"I think for us it's putting in the work," Krieger tells PEOPLE of how they're preparing for challenges that might arise. "I think for what's going on in our culture, it's really just sitting back and listening and doing our research and giving the floor to our teammates who are Black and having them, not educate us, but really lead us in the right direction. And it's our job to listen."
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Harris previously told PEOPLE that the couple is hoping to reflect a mix of cultures in their daily lives.
"We're just diving into the work and understanding what diversity means in our home, first and foremost," Krieger says. "That goes to dolls, magazines, food, the people, the diversity in our lives, everything matters. We want her to feel that we are celebrating her culture in our own home first, but making sure that that's the same in her school, and with our nanny and all the things like that, it really does matter."
Krieger adds, "We're taking diversity courses online, we're doing the work we need to do to make sure she gets to celebrate her culture."
"And we know the work will never be done," Harris explains. "We're going to continue to work every day until we're no longer here, obviously. And that is a long, long time. And we're willing to dig in and dig deep, and just continue the work every single day so that she can live a better life."
The Orlando Pride players will be encouraging Sloane to proud of her birth story from a young age.
"We plan on being very honest with her from the very beginning about her birth parents," Krieger says. "We have a great relationship with the birth mom, and I think these are all important things for the success of our family and for her individually."
It's a challenge they're happily taking on. For Harris, becoming a mom has been her favorite job yet.
"I feel like I've had a lot of job titles and cool job titles — professional athlete, world champion — but being a mom for sure surpasses it all," she says. "This has been one of the most rewarding, incredible experiences I've ever done in my life. And being able to do it with Ali has just been the coolest moment of my life, truthfully. We're just really, really happy and we're just glowing."
