There's a new independent film out that compassionately deals with abortion and adoption: Bella, winner of the Toronto Film Festival People's Choice Awards. I haven't seen it, but I've read good things about it. Below is an excerpt from the movie review at Focus on the Family's Plugged In Online. You can also find information at the review about the movie's (apparently minimal) objectionable elements.
Eduardo Verástegui [the lead actor] knows his little film (he also co-produced it) won't dominate the box office. But he doesn't mind. "I was caught up in the stardom and money of this business, like so many actors," he told us, "But I was drawn to do this. To just do something worthwhile." Thus, he and his fellow producers stepped away from successful careers to pursue an independent film with no guarantees. He said with emotion, "What I'd love to see happen with this film is to someday have this 12-year-old knock on my door and say that her mother was going to have an abortion. But she saw this film. That would be my Oscar."
He continued, "This film is for the Ninas of the world. This film is not for the people who already agree that life is personal and has dignity. I want to touch the girls who come from broken families who don't know anything about all these important issues—and next thing you know they find themselves pregnant and they think it's fine to just go and have an abortion because that is what they have been taught. I want to reach them and embrace them and love them through the film and then by that they can choose what is best for them, which is to have their baby."
Bella's pondering of love and true values may just be vivid enough to accomplish the things Verástegui hopes it will.
I encourage you to get the word out about this film. It doesn't have a huge promotional budget, so it's success will depend largely on blogs and word-of-mouth.
HT to Tim at The Wrestling Mat.
[...] And a review from Carolina Hope Adoption Blog : http://www.carolinahopeadoption.org/blog/archives/201 [...]
I agree that only saving or rceusing is not enough of a reason to adopt. But, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and forgive her inappropriate language and look to the sentiment behind it. That sentiment seems to be there are millions of orphans, with no safety net. Won't you consider helping?Since I don't actually KNOW Madonna (or any other celebrity for that matter), I don't what she is actually thinking. As an adoptive parent, though, I find it a little hard to believe that lots of parents would be willing to jump through the hoops, spend the time and money to adopt, just because it became a fad . I don't think it is. There are a handful of celebrities who have adopted internationally it makes sense to me that with the upswing in international adoptions, even a few of those in the spotlight would be drawn to it. I think it's insulting to suggest or crack jokes about it being the latest Hollywood fad. Ugh! I just don't see it that way. . .
Anon...wow, we can touch on so many points here. I'm going to try to stick to the orginial concern of the numbers being an issue. 🙂 TRY being the key word. LOL. I totally do understand that using a very narrow definition of the word "orphan" decreases the numbers significantly. However, I think it's WAY off to say there are 30,000 kids who fit the description of what most families are seeking in adoption (here's where I might get a little off topic). There is a HUGE difference in adopting to HAVE a child and adopting to SAVE a child. There's nothing wrong with either. And both can coexist...that was our case...we wanted more children and we also wanted to follow what we believe is God's command for us to care for orphans. There are many ways to do that. But for us, it was bringing a child into our home. You really have to understand your reasons for adoption. So yes, if you're talking about people who are looking to adopt because they want a cute little baby, then there are many less true orphans who meet that criteria.I do have friends (four very, very close ones) who have adopted from Africa. I can only speak from their experience because I have not been to Africa. From what they saw and experienced, there are many babies there who need homes. They may not be perfectly healthy (what baby is perfectly healthy???). One family lived in Uganda for six years and had 53 infants come through their home straight from the hospital to help get them healthy enough to go to the orphanage. I have another friend who lives in Africa currently who has literally had a woman approach her on the street and ask her to take her child. I KNOW most of these women, given the chance, would keep their children. So I TOTALLY agree that we have to get to the root of the problem and support birth parents who want to keep their children but feel they have no choice. I'm involved with several people/agencies that do this in Eastern Europe for families who want to keep their children with DS. Back to the numbers...there are approximately 115,000 children in the U.S. alone who are eligible for adoption. This number comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That's just in the U.S. where we have much better support services than many countries. Yes, that number includes children 0-18 and many of them are older kids. We adopted a five year old, so obviously we are open to older kids...I know many people are not. That gets us into a whole other can of worms about adopting older children. People have very strong opinions about it. My opinion is that I have to be open to God and whatever he calls me to do to help care for others, whether they're 1 or 81. Anyway, thanks for commenting and I really do appreciate the civil discussion. 🙂 I will do a post later about all of this...as soon as I have time. LOL!!!