New Addition

While the movie, The Blind Side, does deal with adoption, issues of race, display and creating a family, I'd like to talk about the star of the movie, Sandra Bullock.

Who knew that she herself had adopted a little black boy from New Orleans? I didn't. My family and I were more empathetic about the press's obsession with her looming, now official, breakup with rebel husband, Jesse James. They have lasted five years and had apparently been trying to adopt, without any special benefits as celebrities, for four years. She, unlike my parents, adopted within the country - and did so now as a single mom, although legally still married. In an interview with People Magazine, she said, ''We somehow knew the right little person would come.''

And this little boy is the "right little person" and boy, is he cute. Although staged, but doesn't have the controversy that Mom's pictures with Shiloh and the twins had. First, Sandra looks like she is just playing with her baby and that baby has all of her attention. Jesse James, who? She is also NOT wearing white, but blue, which doesn't have the connotation of saving someone or something. She is also looking up at him - like he is going to save her from her troubled life rather than she is saving him.

But then there is that necklace he is sporting. I know I went through my aviator shades, mohawk, and beanie phases - but I was pretty much old enough to decide what to wear. That necklace looks a little bit like traditional African jewelry, bright and colorful with crude, handcrafted beads. It's suspicious to me because what person puts a choking hazard on their child like that? Why is that necessary? His nativism is already accentuate by his bare skin, displaying the difference in color between Sandra's hand and his body. She might be a little blind to this display and contrast, but then again contrast and drama sells magazines.

But I am glad to see that no one is criticizing Sandra for her "collectivism" like they do my mom. Most people don't know that she has already gone to court and helped to raise Jesse's children from other questionable women (a porn star. Really?)...

She's a natural. (Like Mom, but no one knows that.) And since she claims to have been in the adoption process for four years - that means she probably wasn't inspired by her role in The Blind Side to adopt a black baby boy. I hope no one tips off the NCAA that we have another suspicious adoption that will benefit Ole Miss, or rather that he might become a Longhorn for the University of Texas -Austin, where she resides. Although, Texas could use a good Left Tackle.

Right now, Sandra is just being a mom and soaking up time with her new son. Talking about their January adoption, she said, ''All I said when I met him was, 'Oh, there you are.' It was like he had always been a part of our lives.'' And that is how we all felt when we came home with Mom.