Louis Bardo Bullock

So Sandra Bullock has filed for divorce AND adopted a little boy from New Orleans as a single mother, just like Vanessa Loring (played by Jennifer Garner) in Juno.  After a long process of paperwork with the prospective adoptive fathers, the couples broke up and the women decided the joy of motherhood is worth it to be a single mother.

In an effort to shield her new son from the prying eyes during the award season, she had hidden the news of adoption and little Louise away from the press' reaches.  Already, she's protective and acting thoughtfully concerning her son.

She named her baby boy after the jazz great Louis Armstrong, commemorating his signature song, "What a Wonderful World."  Some might be tempted to compare this to Brangelina's Pax and Zahara's names.  Louis Armstrong is a black musician just like Bob Marley, Zahara's namesake.  Thien is not such a bad Vietnamese name for Pax since it's usually a boy name.  To my untrained ears, it actually sounds so much better than Pax Sky.  Plus, in this case, Thien is a middle name.  When is the last time you introduce yourself using your middle name?  Mine was at the registrar, trying to decide whether I want the middle name in the certificate.  Also, Thien is easy to pronounce, has you ever try to pronounce popular Vietnamese male names such as Dung, Phuoc or even Phuc?  Yeah, try doing that without offending everyone within earshot.  See?  Pax Thien is a good name, so is Zahara Marley, Louis Bardo and Naleigh. 

Adopting Characters

After watching the TV series, you might want to change the pace a little bit and read a book instead.  If so, here are some lists of adoption related books

• Webrary - 2002 - C. Elmore
• GoodRead - Listopia 
• something for the kids Bestselling Adoption theme Biblio list  
• Slayground's list
• or the teen fiction series by Caroline B. Cooney about a girl called Janie.

And I also learn from the website of Slayground that November is the National Adoption Month.  I guess it's really true that you learn something new everyday.

I found this YouTube video of Nia Vardalos of the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" talking about her journey to be an adoptive parent.

Rescuing Babies

I was reading the Wikipedia... yes, it's pathetic.   BUT I came across something to blog about so it's not that bad, huh?  Well, it's called Operation Baby Lift, a mass evacuation of South Vietnam's children during the last day of the Vietnam War.  It placed thousands of Vietnamese kids in homes around the world.  If you are looking for media presentations of this event, here are three that you can probably get on DVD:

• Daughter from Danang
• Operation Baby Lift - the Lost Children of Vietnam
• Precious Cargo

This was the case of an impressive maneuver of government and nonprofit organizations' efforts in case of great disaster.  The newest comparable case would be the Haitian's orphan rescue by the New Life Children's Refuge of Idaho. If the children were taken out of a disaster stricken country, without proper paperwork, put up for adoption, chances are those kids still have living relatives that would like to take them back.  This is where the pros and cons of swift actions versus correct paperwork come into play.  Is it better to place the child in a stable environment ASAP or to wait for the UN-recommended 2 years waiting period?  Or in the case of Kyrgyzstan's investigation that I blogged about earlier, dragging its proverbial feet and making the families waited needlessly?

TV Shows that Have Adoption

Since I watch a whole lot of TV whenever possible, I'd swear Hulu is the best thing ever.  I thought it might be fun to make a post about TV shows I've watched and liked that have adoption.

Bones - Lance Sweet, a recently regular character starting the 3rd season, was abused until when he was adopted at 6.  Cam, the boss lady, adopted a teenage daughter. 
Dexter - Dexter was adopted by the cop who found him.  Later on, the adopted father taught Dexter the Code so he can become a serial killer who killed serial killers and not get caught.
Grey’s Anatomy - Izzie gave up her first child for adoption before she went to college.
Heroes - the Cheerleader, one of the main character, turned out to be adopted by the Glass Man.
Kyle XY - Kyle is a boy with no belly button, no memory yet he seems to know everything in the encyclopedia.  He is then adopted by his psychologist/ social worker.
Rags to Riches - 5 poor girls were adopted by an uptight millionaire.
Sister, Sister - Twin sisters were separated at birth, got adopted and found each other later on.
Smallville - Clark Kent is an alien, crashed on Earth years ago.  A nice couple took him in as their son.
Spartacus - Well, just a bit of it.  The main evil guy was infertile, his wife had an affair and got pregnant.  He told her that is his child and they would finally be a family.