My Fav. Adoption & Foster Care Movies

Adoption and foster care are represented in some great movies.  Below are some of my absolute favorites to watch.  That being said, movie watching and the topics/questions that adoption movies raise, definitely make it a personal choice as to what you feel comfortable with for you children.  So I would highly recommend that if you're interested in any of these movies that you preview it first and decide what messages you want to draw out for your children ahead of time, or determine that you're not ready to discuss possible questions that the movie might raise.  It's entirely up to you.   These below happen to be ones that *I* LOVE.  


Meet the Robinsons is one of my favorite adoption movies.  A little boy deals struggles with living in foster care and not finding a family who will adopt him.  He begins to seek out his birth mother and it sends him on an incredible adventure.  He ends up discovering his incredible adopted family, and decides that it doesn't matter why his birth mom wanted to give him a different life because he doesn't need that for himself anymore. 

Obviously, if you watch the movie, you need to be ready for lots of adoption questions and it can be an avenue to chat about adoption for little ones who only think about their adoption sporadically. 

Personally, I love many of the incredible messages of the movie: family is something real and significant, but also a bit what you make it.  It has a message of failure as being purposeful and a way to learn, not a statement of who you are, and it has an incredible redeeming message for the "villain" in the movie.  LOVE THAT.

 The Odd Life of Timothy Green is a great movie that's fun for the whole family.  I think it's sweet for kids to see, but it's a great movie adults as well.  A couple deals with infertility and they dream a child, who magically becomes theirs.  It's an incredible story that eventually draws them to adoption. 

The story hits some topics hard -- like the ridiculous and hurtful comments others can sometimes say when we have an adopted child.  Other aspects of their relationship are perfect in the way only Hollywood can create. 

It's a magical, and endearing story of a family.   I loved it.

 October Baby is a great movie for teens and adults.  Essentially a young girl goes on path to discovering the story of her birth mother.  It's very real-to-life, not romanticizing relationships, but has an incredible redemptive story.  It was absolutely engaging and I loved that you walk with the main character as she sorts out in her mind who people are BEYOND good and bad characters.  There's a lot of depth to the story; it's fantastic.

If you stay through the end, one of the actors shares her personal story and it makes the movie all the more touching. 

The First of May did not have a cover that made me feel eager to watch the movie.  I won't lie to you; my interest in movies and books often lies in the cover.  BUT this movie is a precious story about foster care, and I love it because there are few movies that really talk about what foster care is like.

I love that the kid in the movie struggles with being in foster care and you get to see what that's like. 

It's a bit of an adventure story, has elements that are a bit unrealistic, but has a sweet ending.  It's not a blockbuster, but it's worth watching.

The Shunning is a great story of a young woman who discovers as a young adult that she was adopted.  It's interesting to watch and she goes through some very natural questions and feelings to finding out something that had been kept a secret from her for her entire life.

I LOVE one simply message in the movie: who she is doesn't change because there's more to her history.  She is who God has made her.  Love that.

I don't like that the movie ends with some questions left unanswered.  I never read the corresponding book, so I'm not sure if it was a director's choice or an author's choice.  It's a great movie for anyone pre-teen an up.

A Shine of Rainbows is a movie we found on Netflix.  A couple adopts a little boy and the father struggles to identify with the little child who is so different from himself.  The mother is incredible and speaking to his little heart and their bond becomes amazingly strong. 

However due to various circumstances, the little boy and the father MUST bond, and that process is both heart-breaking, and beautiful.  There is much redemption in this movie. 

It's very realistic as far as relationships and their complexity.  And I love that it tackles the very-real situations when bonding is NOT an immediate or gut feeling.  It's absolutely excellent and a must-watch.  It does have some hard topics in it, so I wouldn't advise a child under 10 to watch.

The Blind Side is probably not new to anyone's list, which is why I mention it last.  It's excellent, and you can't help but love that it's based on the true story of Michael Oher.  I love a few things about it: I love that it hits those hard topics, like people's poor choices in their reaction to finding out you're adopting.  I love that it explores adoption as a sometimes unclear path to navigate.  And I love that it's adoption of a teenager, which many people feel afraid to consider.

It's well done, we'll acted and well-directed.  If you haven't seen it, then hop on the band-wagon and watch it asap!






These are my favorites.  There are other movies that mention adoption or have adoption aspects to it.  I'll tell you I don't think all movies should be watched just because it talks about adoption.  The movie, Stuart Little, for instance, has a scene where the biological parents come back and take away Stuart from his adopted family.  Unfortunately, because the movie had been gifted to my kids, they saw this without me previewing it first.  It caused a panic and a flood of questions: could someone come and take them away?  What would happen if . . .?  

It turns out the "biological parents" in the movie were con-artists and not his biological parents at all, but at the point when you don't know the scam, they are saying things like, "we're his REAL parents."  You might feel differently, but I just am not a fan.

I'm certain that I haven't seen all the great movies out there.  What are your favorite adoption and foster care movies?  I'd love to know what I'm missing.  As a movie fan, I don't have a large line in the budget for movie watching, so I'm sure I've missed a ton.  I'd love to know what you've seen and liked -- or what you've seen and hated!  Share away!

The Bedroom Mailbox

The bedroom mailbox 

I was talking to a friend of mine about some ideas I had regarding our kids.  There were lots of things we were throwing around at one another about devotions, journals, and the like.  One idea that she shared was that she and her daughter have a nighttime notebook.  If the daughter wanted to share some last-minute information, but it was time for bed -- or if the daughter wanted to say something nice to her mom -- she could write it in the notebook.  After the daughter went to sleep, the mom would write a reply back.  The rule was that no one was allowed to rip anything out of the notebook.  The problem was that her son never could buy into it.  He didn't like writing and just never much wrote anything down.

So this lead to me a different version of the same idea.  What about a mailbox where we could write little notes in the evening and get notes back?  Writing one idea on a scrap of paper seemed less daunting than a notebook, plus I didn't think my kids would ever go along with the idea of NOT ripping paper from a notebook.  It's one of their favorite things to do when they've finished a drawing.  

So I picked up these little index card boxes for $.25 each at Walmart!  YAY!  My youngest son set upon decorating it immediately -- even giving it a little flag on the side so that we'd know there was mail ready!  He wrote his name all over it and since I've taken to calling him Sugar Monkey, I only snapped a picture of his brother's "mail box," which he kept completely plain.  We stuck it their bedroom doors with some handy 3M Command sticky tape.

So far the idea is working.  I keep all their little notes and am planning on putting them in a book if we keep this up.  I'd love for this to me a routine in our family -- a great way of bonding even when it's been a bad day.

2013 New Year's Resolutions

I generally make a list at the start of the new year for things that I hope to improve upon or to start.  I don't have any misgivings that in creating this list, I'll somehow transform myself become the person God had intended for me to be, but I find it's a super-good starting place to have a routine time to take inventory and self-evaluate.  Then I can start or modify practices so that God can continue to mold me.  Heaven knows there's lots of work to be done!

So here's the list.

2013 RESOLUTIONS

1.  Make my daily quiet time a SACRED time -- 

that it be the same time every day and not just when I can fit it in.  I hate to admit this, but I'm super-bad about squeezing in lots of important things, and this should not be the case!  If it's important, then there should be priority in scheduling.  It just makes sense, right?

2.  Continue my weight loss.  I'm down 20 lbs. with 

a goal for another 20 lbs.  in 2013!  Isn't this on everyone's list?!

3.  Keep a reading log of the books I read -- with a goal of at least one a month.

(I read a ton online, but generally my trouble in reading books it that the library doesn't carry the new reads from the Lifeway catalog, and I don't always have room in the budget to grab my next wishlist read.)

4.  This is just for fun:  keep a running list of hilarious things my officemate says on a daily basis.  She cracks me up.  Today she said:  "I don't work for communists; I work for God!"  Don't even ask the context; it wouldn't make it any less hysterical. 

5.  SUPER-IMPORTANT, intentional focus on patience and humility with my children.  I hate to confess this, but my kids are extreme worriers.  Throughout the day it can often suck my joy, and by evening I find that I've lost my silliness and good spirits.  But this shouldn't be the case!  My joy should not be dependent upon the others around me.  I've been convicted about this a great deal lately.

What's on your list?  Do you have any exceptional ideas that I need to consider for 2013 or 2014?  I'd love to hear them.  Not that I fancy a large readership following my daily ramblings, but if you there and want to share, I'd absolutely love it. 

one small step for a child, one giant step for the moore boys

Christmas is a joyous day for families.  Between family getting together, bread broken and savored, gifts given and received -- not to mention the the joy of Christ's birthday, families' various spins Santa and elves and the magic of believing -- there's no way that Christmas could be anything but exciting and wonderful.

In our family, we LOVE getting together for Christmas.  We, honestly, love getting together for any good reason, and Christmas is no exception.  My mom makes fantastic food on Christmas morning.  We start with reading the Christmas story and then we take turns opening presents.  There are so many of us that taking turns makes Christmas morning last until mid day, when we break for a brunch feast.  Christmas has been a fantastic day in our family's history.

 Adoption has impacted our Christmas.  Our little guys are anxiety-ridden little ones and the excitement leading up to the holiday has always seemed to set them up for a let down.  It's ironic because there's nothing about their existence that has ever felt like they were spoiled.  They love their Nintendo DS and TV, but when they don't have it or when they've watched their max, they'd rather climb a tree than to play with anything else in their room.  Still, Christmases thus far have not fared well for us.  We tend to have some meltdowns due to exhaustion and disregulation.  Disappointment has almost felt inevitable even though I always spend days ahead of time talking through different scenarios and helping our little ones try to remember the reason for the season.

But do you see Sugar Monkey's face right here?
Happiness.
Blessed, lovely, and treasured happiness.

Not that happiness was bought or found in a present, but somehow we achieved a day where excitement was enjoyed and contentment was found in just being together and appreciating one another.  We did have two small meltdowns.  Little ones.  And they were over pretty quickly, mercifully.

God's mercy knows no bounds.

1 John 1:1-4, MSG

From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in

—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, 

verified it with our own hands. 

The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! 

And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: 

The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.

We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, 

this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. 

Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. 

Your joy will double our joy!

It's incredible to see God changing these little boys and changing our future and our family together.  It seems like such a simple thing to want: a happy holiday.  But this was HUGE -- marvelously and miraculously HUGE.  And I know that God is the reason for this change -- that He is working intently in the hearts of those little kiddos.  I'm truly honored, and completely undeserving to be able to watch how God is transforming us.

A Weekend of Family Fun

The official Christmas photo

This weekend has been a ton of fun -- good quality fun.  Saturday, we spent a ridiculously long amount of time trying to take our family photo.  As you can see, it worked out.

In the first batch, Sugar Monkey forgot to smile.  I honestly think he wasn't angry, he just forgot to smile.  Maybe he was bored or thinking about something else.

In the second batch, we had troubles with long shadows, and blurry photos.

But by the third batch, I think we were all just a bit silly and ready to be done.  So here we are!  Merry Christmas 2012!

Today at church, I was in charge of this awesome project where we made Christmas presents for kids in our local schools.  The school system is going to pass these out to kids who receive free lunches.  It was a one-week deal where we announced the project and picked the Christmas boxes up the following weekend.  We got approximately 300 boxes returned!  This evening we wrapped them and the boys were phenomenal.  As church members wrapped, they grabbed the wrapped boxes and headed to the other side of the building to stack and sort the boxes for the schools to pick up tomorrow.  They were incredible.  Just back and forth, back and forth.  By 7pm tonight, exhaustion was written all over their faces.

What I loved about it is that they were gung-ho to help.  We talked about how there are kids at their very school who didn't have money for groceries or Christmas.  We explained that the schools try to keep it very secret so that we don't know who are the kids who are struggling, but the schools even send (through local non-profits) food home with the kids so that they have something to eat on the weeknds.  After we explained all this to All-Star and Sugar Monkey, they were all about helping out.

Of course, it did help that we were having a pizza dinner beforehand.
:)

There are lots of times that it's hard to rally them into doing things for other people.  And so tonight felt like the way family is supposed to be.  We had a great time and it's a happy feel of exhaustion that has throughly wiped us out for the night.  I love it.

----
Oh, and for those keeping score.  Blogging about my peanut obsession has helped!  I've not been near my peanut tin and I've lost a couple more pounds!  I'll give a total at the end of this week, but I'm pretty psyched about weight loss starting up again!

Sugar Monkey

Sugar Monkey is ridiculously creative.  I have no doubt that he'll grow up and work in a field where imagination is key, such as a chef or musician.  One day, I got a package in the mail, and Sugar Monkey asked if he could have the box.  He eagerly took it to his room, opened all the sides, colored it, glued things to it, and climbed inside.  He found a plastic dome that as part of another toy and placed the dome on his head.  Then he came out and presented us with an astronaut inside of his very own rocket.  He had a control panel for guiding the rocket, his space helmet, and was ready for travel.  It was incredible.

In fact All-Star was kind of jealous.  He asked for a similar box, but was quite disappointed that he couldn't devise a rocket as well as his brother.  It was quite a testimony to the originality that Sugar Monkey produced.

And even know, his favorite activities involve modeling clay, cooking in the kitchen, creating artwork, or making jewelry for his mom.  He loves decorating his room, much to his mother's chagrin, with stickers on the doors, and doodles taped everywhere.  And it's just pretty darn incredible that being sent to his room is never a death sentence because he always has his imagination.  Love that.

All-Star

All-Star is a tough guy.  He loves to rough-house, tackle, crash and anything else that seems like things only a hard-core boy would do.  But don't let all that wild child fool you.  Tonight almost broke his little heart because it was verging on too late for reading stories and he just loves to snuggle up on his bed and listen.  He wraps his little arms around mine as I read and then places his head on my shoulder.  His favorite books are non-fiction ones about various animals around the world.  One night he wants to listen to information about manatees, and the next we're learning about big cats in the wild.  It's fun to see this sweet and cuddly side to the same rough and tumble boy.

Day 2: Why I Love My Kids

Sugar Monkey is a truly funny guy.  In this video, my husband calls me out and he says, "grab your camera."  So I'm standing there, camera in tow, and he says, "I want you to watch this leafpile."  So I turn on the camera and this is what I get:

He had me laughing so hard!  

I don't know where Sugar Monkey got it, but he is often looking for a laugh.  He is even moreso with his friends.  Thankfully, I haven't gotten any reports home of him trying to be the class clown!  His teachers seem to genuinely believe he's just a sweet kid.  Which he is!  And that's what makes his nickname so perfect!  Sugar Monkey to a T.

A Glass Half Full

I've never considered myself a negative person.  I feel like I'm always smiling, and always joshing around about things.  My sister might tell another story.  I once asked her to make sure she called my college girlfriends should I die and she thought I was morbid and refused.  Oh well, college gals.  If you don't hear from me after a few years, just assume the worst.

All-Star and Sugar Monkey

I tell you what though, as a parent, I think I'm realizing just how negative my general outlook can be; I'm sorry to say.  My kids have had a hard story -- not the worst stories I've ever heard, by any means -- but tough enough that I think they are phenomenal little miracles.  With all of that hardship, they are not without their scars.  We see their scars on a daily and often hourly basis and it wears us out.  I won't lie to you that in the day-to-day walk of life, hubby and I feel more exhausted by their "difficulties" than we have pity for their recovery.  

So this is what I want to do.  And bare with me as this is definitely more for myself than it is for you.  Just like in November, people all over Facebook shared one thing for which they were grateful each day of the month.  So for the rest of December, I want to share one thing a day that makes me so proud of my little guys.  It's an effort to help me focus on the positive, and maybe even help you guys get to know our crazy family a little bit.  

Don't worry, though, I'll post my normal stuff too.

Before I get to posting about all this, I want to give my kids some fun nicknames.  So in looking at the picture above, my oldest is on the left, and I'll nickname him All-Star.  My youngest on the right will go by Sugar Monkey.  I think those nicknames say a lot about them already, and if you don't get the implications, maybe over the next month you will.

YAY!  I'm so excited about this journey in sharing with you all the best parts of my kids.  

So here's day #1:

All-Star working on putt-putt

All-Star is a go-getter in a way that I have never been in my entire life.  While I sit back and worry about failure, about getting hurt (physically or mentally), my son wants to tackle life like we're on a football field.  The day he got his first scooter, he began to spend inordinate amounts of time practicing his scooter and had it mastered within days.  It didn't matter how often he fell, or how tricky the idea of it was at the beginning.  It didn't matter how young he was or how little he had for an example.  He dove headfirst into the project and didn't emerge until he was a successful whiz on the streets of our neighborhood.  

This makes me so proud of him.  I know that he doesn't give up when something seems hard and that puts him above the rest of the kids -- and makes him super-special.  Most of us want to give up when something seems hard.  But he doesn't.  He works it through until he's the one in charge -- not the fear that crumples the rest of us.  It's pretty stellar.  HE's pretty stellar.

i love adoption

sometimes i feel like i want to be part of something so much bigger than who i am and where we are.  and when i see a story like this one, it makes my heart flutter -- like they landed on something incredible and its very nature is compelling and inspirational.  this is family.