I NEVER get to watch Oprah… it is on at 4 p.m. here… right in the middle of kids coming home and doing homework and wanting a snack, and me starting dinner, etc. But I might just try to fit it in today, because Oprah is doing a story on transracial adoption.

Oprah’s show today is called “Fascinating Families”, and one of the families that she is interviewing is that of Lysa and Art from North Carolina, who adopted two teenaged boys from Liberia after seeing them sing in a performance by a boys’ choir from an orphanage in Liberia. Although they had never considered adoption and had attended the concert with their daughter’s brown troop with no intentions of it being a life-changing event, after meeting two of the boys after the performance, Lysa knew that they were her sons.

I had a similar experience the first time I met Belane, so I totally understand how overwhelming those feelings are. I laughed out loud when I read this from the story,

Lysa left to call her husband, Art. "I had to get in the car and call him on the cell phone and say something like, 'Hi, honey. Do we need milk? And by the way, there are two teenage boys from the other side of the world now calling me Mom.'"

The story gets better though… Lysa’s four best friends, who were originally very concerned about Lysa and Art adopting two older boys, ALL ended up adopting some of the boys themselves after hearing the choir perform and meeting the boys. One of the couples adopted six of the children! And the story gets eve better from there…

That fateful concert was just part of the miracle that was about to happen. In all, 14 families from this North Carolina community adopted a total of 31 children from the same orphanage.

I find it wonderful and amazing that so many children from the same orphanage in Africa found homes in the same community in the US.

Here is the link to the online story on Oprah.com (click on "Songs of the Heart"), including pictures, and this story was also featured in the December 2006 O Magazine.

Also on today's show as one of their Fascinating Families, Oprah has on a transracial gay couple, Mark and Andy, that has found the family of their dreams by fostering many children, adopting four children and are now in the process of adopting two more.

If you get a chance to watch it today, leave me a comment and let me know. I would love to see what Oprah seems to think about transracial adoption, and I think it is great she is including two happy, transracial families on her show today, (especially after that whole Madonna mess). These are the kinds of adoption stories that need more attention in the media…the happy ones!