This summer Reese and I have been having a family movie night every week. So far we have watched The Lego Movie, Big Hero 6, Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, and tonight we watched the new Annie. We typically have our movie night on a night that Bryan isn't h ome. Tonight was no exception, and Bryan would be glad. (He isn't much of a musical kind of guy.) Thankfully, I am raising Reese right and he can appreciate a good song and dance in his movies and stage productions.
As we stood in the movie section of the grocery store today I gave Reese three options of movies. He looked at each one of the boxes, did eeny meeny miney moe, and then clarified "this one has signing?" before choosing Annie. Secretly, I was really hoping he would pick it as this was one of my favorites as a kid and I have been wanting to see the new version. I also thought it would be interesting to see his reaction to her being a foster child.
We became Reese's foster parents when he was six months old and it took us nearly three years to work through the process of adopting him. We have always talked about adoption with him and made sure that he understands the concept. He knows that he is adopted and occasionally asks questions about his adoption. He has two buddies that are also adopted and the same age as him. He has always been around other adopted kids and their families are open with them as well.
We have tried so hard to make sure that adoption is a natural and normal part of life for him. I didn't realize just how normal until he started making comments during the movie. At one point, he started talking about his friend Cadence and asking when she was adopted. Cadence isn't adopted and it was that moment that I realized that adoption is so normal to him that he thinks everyone is adopted. I explained to him that Cadence, like Brinkley, isn't adopted.
When he was taking his shower he started talking about Annie's sisters (the other foster children in the home). He mentioned the differences in their hair color. It never occurred to him that those girls weren't actually sisters. Our family is diverse and again, in his mind every family is that way.
He asked some questions about foster care and obviously didn't understand the idea. We talked about it, but I am not convinced that he understood. I told him about the foster family that he lived with and that we would like to foster children one day. One negative thing that he took away from the movie was the thought that people "steal" foster kids. If you are familiar with the plot of the movie you know that at one point a couple claiming to be the birth parents enter the scene and Annie leaves with them. He took this to mean that all foster kids get stolen and have to be rescued.
Needless to say, we had some interesting conversation following the movie and I am sure there will be more to come. The best part of the evening was him asking if we could have another movie night this week and watch the version that I saw when I was a little girl. Of course we can! Stay tuned to Annie, take two.
