Warning: Major spoiler alerts included in this post! If you don't want to know the ending to The Good Dinosaur (oh wait, if you're over the age of 16 you probably already know how it ends), then don't read on.
Once again, Disney and Pixar have created a (fantastic) movie with an all too familiar theme.
About a year and a half ago, Brian and I realized that almost every good kids movie had one thing in common: an orphan. If you have already come to that epiphany, you're many steps ahead of us. It seemed like we couldn't rent or watch a movie with our Little Lady without her being thrust into the plot of a little girl who was lost in a scary world without her parents.
I'm not just referring to the obvious ones like Annie...if you start looking for it in kids movies, you'll see it everywhere. It makes sense - the best way to pull at a kids' heartstrings is to help them imagine their worst fear - losing a parent, or worse, both of their parents.
The Good Dinosaur follows the journey of a wobbly-legged premie dinosaur who attempts to find his way back home after getting lost and losing his dad. It's absolutely adorable and the recreated Wyoming backdrops perfectly satisfied my husband's wanderlust needs.
Everything was going great until the last 10 minutes of the movie.
It was at this point that the sweet little dinosaur had to say goodbye to the "creature" he had befriended along his journey. It was time for the creature to begin a new life with his new family and for the dinosaur to return to his home.
Naturally, the scene was accompanied with instrumental ugly-cry-your-heart-out music. Their final hugs and glances over their shoulders seemed to never end and I couldn't help but think of our Little Lady on our final day together. Let's just say we all shared a bittersweet cry together in row 6. We left the theater loving the movie, but quietly hating Disney for causing our emotional breakdown. Rude.
We knew it was time for her to move on. We knew she'd be well taken care of with her grandparents. We knew she'd be loved and would find healing. What we didn't know was our own future. How would we function without her daily presence? We didn't know how serious her grandparents were about her being able to visit us. Luckily, they were very serious and kept their word!
This week, our Little Lady is in town for our 11th visit with her in 13 months. We do not take these visits for granted and we feel beyond blessed to spend time with her. We have a great Thanksgiving week planned with this little girl!
So very happy that you are able to stay in her life and glad that you updated! I have been following your blog since before LL's beginning with you and have really enjoyed it. Our first little one is still here, we had two join us after him and they went home recently and another sweet little girl came to join us 3 weeks ago. There are so many joys and sorrows that go along with this journey! Just know that she is blessed by everything you have to offer her. You and Brian have SO much love to share :)
ReplyDeleteThis blog is so incredibly touching and I'm thankful you and Julie have chosen to share your adventures and love with this precious Little Lady. So sweet! It is clear that the 3 of you(+ with 4 legged friends) were meant to be together for however long or short. Blessings!
ReplyDeletein.tears. I'm so grateful you get to spend time together frequently. I just found you through a blog post on our TFI page.
ReplyDelete