Gracie's 1st Birthday

Yesterday, as I was making cupcakes, getting ready for Gracies little birthday party, thoughts flooded my mind of how much joy this first year has been, and just how grateful I am for the blessing of Gracie. I thought about those 3 long years of waiting for her to come to us. And how our hearts rejoiced when we first found out we were going to have her! While I was baking, I turned on the Oprah show which I like to do every once in a while, so I can watch from the kitchen. She had an actress on who I dont even know, and the actress was 40 something years old and had just had her first baby.
Oprah said, "I hear you have a message you would like to share with the women in our audience." She said "YES!" "I want to tell you to go and live your dreams, accomplish your goals, do what you want to do in life, and do it before you have children." She said something about how glad she is that she waited to have a baby because she feels that she got to do something important in life, and to live her dreams, she said she got it all out of her system before she had a baby, so that she doesnt have to be someone who regrets having children."
She then encouraged women to wait to have children. She said, "women are having children way too young, your 20's and 30's, those are years where you should be accomplishing your goals and dreams" With that,the audience stood and applauded her.

After watching this segment I turned the tv off and took a moment to think. Did she really just say that? Did the audience full of women, most of them probably mothers, just clap? Did they know why they just clapped? Does that woman really think that all the years of her acting in movies is more important and created more value in the world, than being a mother?

True, this is the voice of the world today. Live your dreams now, put yourself first. Dont let children rob you of your goals and ambitions. Sadly, I realize that you cannot force anyone to desire or to truly understand the sacred, joyful, and ever so important role of motherhood, or the importance of raising children.

I am just grateful that I chose to live my dream. To start my family when I could. To reach my goal of striving to raise up a precious little girl, and to help her become the best person she can be. I am grateful for mothers all accross the world who have a strong conviction that what they are doing matters, and the role they have is divinely sacred. I am grateful for the tender and eternal blessings that come through motherhood that completely outway the short term glory of fame. Truly, I am grateful for "mothers who know."