We watch "All Dogs Go to Heaven"

There are so many films about losing parents. Film after film that we've watched with her has had that as its theme--Dumbo, Babar, Bambi, Lion King, Cinderella, Free Willy, Finding Nemo...


All Dogs Go to Heaven, it turned out was about that, too. It features an orphan who is looked after by a dog who is a likable rogue. He comes back to earth after his time has run out, and she represents his chance to redeem himself. Which he does, finally seeing her safely into a new house and family--a couple who don't have children--before he makes his final departure.


"She's an orphan," I said to her. I had sat down next to her, on the bench behind her stroller. The stroller is her TV watching chair.


"Orphan?" she said.

"Orphan. That means she doesn't have parents. And now they want her to become part of their family. To be their little girl."








I wasn't sure how much of this was getting through.

"Like Mommy and Daddy and Maia," I said. "Mommy and Daddy went to Kazakhstan, and we found you, and we brought you home to be with us."
















"And then we had dinner?" Maia asked.

"Yes, sweetie. And then we had many dinners."

I've used the word, "adoption," with Maia many times--usually in the context of how glad I am that we did it. And she's seen pics of the orphanage and has heard us talk many times about Kazakhstan. Today is the first day, though, that I tried to give her any detail on what adoption means.

These pics are from April 29, 2004--our second visit with Maia--to May 17, 2004--the day we went home. We met Maia on April 27th, and we adopted her on May 7th. In the space of those 11 days, all of our lives changed forever.

John, Saturday, January 13, 2007