I’m not sure I can recall it correctly or specifically.
I want to say that my cousin and her DH had gone thru all the hoops and had a date to go to China. After waiting for over a year, when previously the wait was slightly less than a year? Then the govt did a moratorium on babies. So no baby. No trip.
Eventually China decided young special needs boys could be adopted tho I’m sure that wasn’t the terminology.
So more waiting.
Finally they got the go ahead. And got their son who is completing his first year of college.
Oh good! So a happy ending. At the time we submitted our first paperwork packet to China, wait times to “referral” were about 6 months. We ended up waiting 10 months and it was torturous by the end. Wait times continued to climb and when we submitted for #2, we expected to wait a year or more, but ended up getting our referral in about 10 months again! It felt much shorter that time around mostly because we had such different expectations.
I have thought you were right ahead of my cousin, initially. They went to get their son in the summer of 2008 tho their journey began years before. She was watching the process unravel as her paperwork navigated the system.
He still has one more surgery but luckily the hospital follows him as he ages. They can’t predict completely when maturity will be physically achieved.
Yes, everything fell apart not long after we completed adoption #2. A friend was going for #3, but the wait stretched into years and they decided to stop with two. It’s actually a positive development - less babies in orphanages! We’ve definitely seen this where my two are from. From an orphanage with 400 babies - most of them basically healthy, to maybe 60 kids all with fairly severe disabilities/health conditions. But it was so tough for people in the pipeline hoping to finally have a child! I’m glad it worked out for your cousin.
And sorry, @Jeff_AZ, for derailing the thread! If only you were talking about Meet the Robinsons on this thread! That would really get me going! (As it relates to adoption, anyway.)
Well, when this movie came out it was around a time when my older daughter had lots of intense feelings about her adoption. Deep down inside she felt like she wasn’t enough or wasn’t lovable and this is why her birth mother didn’t keep her. It was really hard to watch her go through that. I remember telling her that we didn’t know why her birth mother didn’t keep her but we know that almost all birth mothers love their babies and go through a lot of emotional pain in making the decision to give up their baby. Also, it may not have been her decision - family pressure - and the pressure from the government/society in China at that time. It was not really resonating with her. I remember telling her that bad things happen to everyone at some point in their lives. It’s not fair that she had to go through losing her birth family at such a young age - that was a really bad thing! But now it’s up to her to decide if she’s going to overcome that and have a happy life.
Then came Meet the Robinsons. The birth mother leaves our hero on the steps of an orphanage when he is just an infant. That’s pretty much exactly what happened with my daughter - found outside of a hospital at about 2 weeks old. No note, no explanation. He is trying so hard to go back in time to that moment so he can talk to her and find out why … But in the end he doesn’t do that. He just watches her place the baby on the steps and run away. It was almost cathartic for me/us at the time! Plus the over-riding message of our hero was “keep moving forward” which was basically what I kept trying to convey to my daughter. The bad things happen, but we keep moving forward. And we do it (hopefully) choosing to be happy.
(In the context of Inside Out, I was trying to think about my driver. I don’t know if I’m naturally driven by Joy, but I know I try to put Joy in the driver’s seat.)
Anyway, that movie almost certainly was written by an adoptee or adoptive parent. It couldn’t be anything else.
You are the best mama and this is such a touching story! I’m glad Meet the Robinsons resonates with you and DD.
The song at the end of Meet the Robinsons, Little Wonders by Rob Thomas, was used in my wedding video, so the film and song have a special place in my heart.
I don’t know about my awesome status, but I do try to be a good mom. It helps that I had a great one of my own. But it is humbling being a parent in any circumstances. Seeing your child in so much pain that you can’t solve is the worst! I’m just glad that she has come to terms with her story … for the most part. And has chosen happy!
When I first watched The Good Dinosaur when it was released, I thought it was pretty good. Then I heard a lot of hate for it and I wondered why. I don’t think it stands up to the greats in Pixar’s repertoire, but that’s a pretty high standard to hold it to.
This was my first time revisiting it since then, so I was curious what I would think of it. Highlights:
The intro sets this up as a story of "what would happen if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hadn’t hit earth? Thus we get humans and dinosaurs living at the same time.
The visuals were breathtaking – it was like a movie taking place inside a Romance Period landscape painting, which I love.
The animation of the dinosaurs is comparatively stylized in a way that doesn’t jive with their hyper-realistic surroundings. But I’m ok with that.
I kept making a mental comparison to Disney’s Dinosaur (2000), which is a pretty dull movie, and this one easily beats it as dinosaur movies go.
Baby Arlo is the cutest thing ever
“Make your mark” tee hee
The movie is blessedly short at 90 minutes
There are quite a few scary parts, including the dad’s death, that kept my girls on edge
I liked that Arlo’s dad respected and loved him, in contrast to most “macho dads” who would humiliate Arlo for not being “man” enough
The human boy as a dog is cute and makes for some hilarious moments
The hallucination scene was a literal trip
I loved the subversion of expectations with the T-Rex cowboys
There’s a great line: “You can’t get out of fear but you can get through it”
John Ratzenberger is Earl (one of the raptors)
I like this movie more than most people do. I think that’s because I relate to Arlo – a lot. He’s not the alpha male type; he’s relatively weak, crippled by fear and anxiety, and misunderstood by those closest to him. But he’s got grit and heart and he learns how to take care of himself and even care for others along the way. I also relate to him having the pressure of living up to his dad’s legacy and expectations.
However, the movie is a little uneven and not super engaging. So overall I will give it a middling grade. 3.5 stars.
This is so tough – the 3.5 star films especially are hard to place. Ultimately it comes down to “which movie would I prefer to watch again”? I’m leaning toward pushing Brave down a few spots but I’ll think on it.
I agree with your take that it’s a visually beautiful movie, but ultimately not very engaging. As a child of the late 80s/early 90s, I liked The Land Before Time much better. The stories were just too similar (plenty of differences, sure) for me to care much about The Good Dinosaur.
(As it relates to adoption, anyway.)
tee hee
😊
