"TO LOVE AND TO BE IN LOVE"

(who could not be in love with these two kiddies)

Love XM radio as I can now listen

to my favorite Oprah Winfrey

on her own network via radio.

Last night coming home from taking HOBL

to the airport I tune into the OWN channel.

Many times it is the old Oprah shows replayed

and edited for radio.

Last night is an old interview with Dianne Keaton.

I love, love, love, Dianne Keaton.

She is talented, so funny and an older aged mother

as she adopted children I think in her 50's.

This topic comes up as she speaks to the O.

She begins to read small quotes that her children

have said, she writes them down.

O questions her why she does this and she

says that children should be honored, should

be remembered for all they say and do.

She writes them down so not only will her children

have a legacy to look back on but so she can remember

because she knows in time, she will forget these things.

O asks, "What kind of Mother writes down all her

kids ever say and do?"

As I listen I am thinking

"I am that kind of Mother"

I journaled for and about my children since

the day I knew they were coming.

They now have books that cover their lives

until they graduated. I also have a copy of the most

memorable happenings that I never want

to forget. I love to write so it's no

surprise that I have done this.

I knew that they were miracles to me and

I really believed back in the day that they were

the very best kids in the world.

I mean, let's face it, it took baby boy to poke holes

in a bus seat with a pencil to make me realize he was not

perfect. Thankfully, for all of us, that happened

when he was in 1st grade.

MY perception of course.

Now I find myself doing the same thing with the Bean's little life.

The child is not yet a year old and I almost

have a whole journal written already.

Then O says something that struck me,

that I had never heard before.

"I think it is the best thing when I meet a Mother

who does not only love her children but is

in love with her child"

I have never thought of it in this way.

When they were young, I was just this,

In love with them.

I thought everything they said or did made them

the smartest kids ever. If they hurt, I hurt.

I find myself in awe of the bean almost in the same way

I was with my children.

I am in love with her.

An interesting way to think of mothering, I think!

Children deserve to be loved by their parents

but to also have a parent "in love" with you is

and extra blessing.