La Dolce Vita in Sugar Land

This afternoon I began my Thanksgiving preparations in earnest. I made the cranberry orange relish I love (Look for the recipe on the bag. Buy a couple of bags now, and freeze them for when they are out of season). I made place cards to impress my mother. I polished the silver plate pieces. I let the boys watch Dumbo in the family room and I watched Oprah in the kitchen.

I really enjoy a good, cheerful Oprah. I try to stay away from the downer episodes because I don’t want they boys to find out about about anything sexual or anything having to do with abuse. Today’s episode was great. The first half was Miley Cyrus. She is cute and so far appears reasonably wholesome. The second half was about American Girl. American Girl plays on one of my unfulfilled desires–the desire to have a daughter. I hope to one day have a bedroom in my house with some American Girl dolls and books, and a little girl that looks like my kids to play with them. I hope to take her to Chicago or New York someday and buy her a new doll, take her to the American Girl theater and catch a show, and have tea at the American Girl Cafe. There it was, my dream on Oprah. After she gave away American Girls to the audience, (surprise!) Oprah made a wistful comment that revealed that she too shared my American Girl fantasy. She too, wanted a little girl to be able to give an American Girl collection.

That is when it hit me, wait a minute Oprah, you can have a daughter. You can have several daughters. You have the ability to adopt an infant, a toddler, a preschooler, a school age child, a tween, or a teen. You have the ability to bring them ALL home. To give these girls and maybe even some boys, a life and love that they could only dream about. John and I hope to have another natural child if my body and sanity can handle it. After that we have talked about adopting a fourth. We have a lot of love to give. We are financially comfortable. I enjoy being a stay at home mom most of the time. But for us there is a real cost to having more children. There will be less vacations, less dinners out, less movies, less shopping trips at the mall, less savings, no private schools, etc. There will be a cost to everyone that is in this family. These are things I am sure we will be happy to sacrifice, but still I will be sad to see my kids go without things I know they could have had with less kids.

This would not be the case for my “friend” Oprah. She would not be giving anything up, but herself. She would still work and be super goddess for many people throughout the world. She could still campaign for Obama, run the school in South Africa, and give away homes through the Angel Network. She could bring the kids along or have plenty of nannies/drivers/assistants to keep them at home. All she would give up is that piece of herself that mothers give up forever the moment they bring their child home.

Oprah, I wish you knew how great it feels to have a fan club in your own home.