"It all began December 31, 1999 In St. Petersburg, Russia. I was a baby that got left in a basket on the steps of an Orphanage."
This was the opening line of an "autobiography" written by then, 10 year old Sean. When asked about his work of fiction. He replied 'isn't this what always happens? You know, just like in Meet the Robinson's".
Huhh? A Disney Movie-really? But Sean, you know your adoption story. "Oh yeah" he said with a sheepish grin. I guess a movie about a boy named Lewis who is a brilliant inventor, travels in a time machine, meets the family that adopts him before it happens and saves the world in the process is bit more exciting than I was born in Russia and adopted when I was three. At least the remainder of the story that he wrote was fairly accurate.
But Meet the Robison's is so much more than a story about the spiky haired Lewis. Walt Disney, an adoptive parent, probably understood how a child feels about being placed on the stairs, his desire to know what his birthmother looked like and children who are not adopted. Each one of these issues as well as his motto of "keep moving forward" are central to the plot, yet subtle.
Movies and books like Meet the Robinson's can serve as tools too initiate conversations with children about adoption. Except in Sean's case, when a wee bit of the Blarney left this grandmothers '"Irish eyes a smiling."
Labels: Adoption Humor, Cultural Identity, Family, Kids and Teens, Parenting Teens, Toddlers
