Inside Out

We recently saw the Disney movie "Inside Out."

It's marketed as a kids movie about feelings inside of a little girl.  Honestly, I found it much more relevant and challenging to us adults than for kids, but my children seemed to enjoy it.

Because we saw the movie with friends, Zechariah ended up far away from me, at the other end of our long row of people.  After the movie, he confessed to having cried during some parts.  I didn't dig into it at the moment, but I assumed that it related to leaving Uganda and feeling joy and sorrow at the same time, something the movie addresses.  I put my arm around him and as we walked to the van, I chattered with him about how God gives us a full range of emotions about situations and it's good to feel them all.  Zechariah says he does and then he named them:  joy, anger, sadness, disgust . . . 

At bedtime, I intentionally raised the movie because I wanted to open the door to more conversation on this topic.  I specifically asked Zechariah what made him cry during the movie.  He immediately started to cry and could barely squeak out, "The part when she stood up in school and said she was missing home."  Zechariah sobbed.  Leah clung to him.  Seth protested and said we should stop talking about it.  Immediately.

Seth had to excuse himself (he can't do "sadness" yet) and Zechariah, Leah and I snuggled and talked about how when we allow the sadness to come out, just like at the end of the movie, then joy can start to sneak back in because the sadness is released.  I told Zechariah that it is OKAY to feel sad about Uganda.  I told him it's OKAY to miss it; it's OKAY to miss friends; it's OKAY to feel angry that his life worked out the way it did.  And none of these things hurt my feelings.

At base, I'm thankful for Inside Out because it may help us start to unpack real feelings about adoption and life and Uganda.  Because adoption:  it's not all rainbows and unicorns.