August 31, 2009

Starving children in Africa

Last night, Brady and I finished watching a movie, and Brady went downstairs while I was perusing all of our whopping 13 TV channels. I came across the Daytime Emmy awards, and for the 5 minutes I watched, they were doing their Daytime Gives Back bit about whatever philanthropic work they're doing. Well, they're trying to feed starving children in Africa, mostly orphans I think who are part of Feed the Children, a shelter and school opened by an American couple. They had these shots of beautiful, starving children and talked about how, with just a little bit of attention, these children light up. And, now that I'm a mother, it __ b r o k e__m y__h e a r t__. And I couldn't change the channel. I couldn't. Of course, then there was a "pitch" where they asked viewers to donate. I finally changed the channel, because I've been working out our household budget for this year while I am working part time, and it's not pretty. Not pretty at all. Some day, one of us really needs to start making more $. Or, sell our house and move to a commune. I think the latter is more likely.

Anyway, it got me thinking about not only adoption and the idea of having a big family full of adopted children to be Eliot's siblings (probably not a reality for us, due mostly to the aforementioned budget), but also about phases of a woman's life. I also began reading a book last night called The Female Brain. I'm only about 10 pages into it, but it notes that hormones have a huge effect on peoples' behaviors and desires. Obviously, I am in the nurturing/mothering phase, with all the hormones associated with that. And watching those starving children in Africa, it was very clear. Since having Eliot, I have so much more love and nurturing energy. I want to nurture the world! Everyone. And I also understand, now, why older women who have been mothers always want to hold my baby. I get it. I'm going to want to do that in a few years. I even want to do it now, hold other peoples' babies. The wife of the guy Brady is coaching soccer with this fall said I should come to games and bring Eliot with me so the other moms, whose kids are in high school now, can hold Eliot and play with him. And I'm thinking, that would be great. I could probably drop Eliot off, leave for an hour, and come back. Free babysitting.

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