If you are a fan of the Hallmark Channel, then you may have heard of movies titles such as Love Comes Softly, Love’s Enduring Promise, Love’s Long Journey, Love’s Abiding Joy, and Love’s Unending Legacy, with other films to follow to complete the Janette Oke Love Comes Softly series. My mom and I are addicted to these movies! You may wonder how this relates to sibling adoption? Well, two of these movies (Love’s Long Journey and Love’s Unending Legacy) actually deal with sibling adoption. Of course we all know the adoption process back in the 1800’s was very different and probably easier then it is in present times. But, how easy was it?

In Love’s Long Journey, the main characters Missie, and her husband Willie LaHaye, move out west to start their new life together and begin a family. Once they reach their new homeland the LaHaye’s meet little Jeff Huff and build a close bond with him. Jeff’s parents died years before and his only family is his older brother, Sonny. Tragedy strikes towards the end of the movie and Jeff’s brother is shot and killed. Because of the close bond between Jeff and the LaHaye’s, Missie and Willie decide to take Jeff in. Later, we find out Jeff takes the LaHaye name and is finally adopted by this loving family. There are not a lot of details about Jeff’s adoption, but you gather there are not the piles of paperwork and hoops to jump through as it is in today’s time.

In Love’s Unending Legacy, Missie leaves the West to be closer to her parents after the death of her beloved husband, Willie. Missie and her two sons attend church and hear the pastor talking about an orphan train that would be stopping in their town and that each of these children would need a home to call their own. Missie listened to the pastor but had no intention of adopting a child. When the day finally comes for the children to arrive, Missie goes to the church, just by curiosity. Many of the town’s people take children to adopt and the only thing that is required from these people is to sign a document. Finally, two children remain, Belinda and Jacob. No one knew at this time that they were brother and sister. The two children know from past experiences on the wagon train that when it came time for people to adopt orphans the families tend to choose children without siblings for a variety of reasons. Belinda, even though she loves her little brother very much knows that in order for them to be adopted into a family the two of them must split up. A family chooses Jacob and Belinda is left as the only child remaining from the orphan train. Missie, the last remaining adult in the church, tells the pastor and town sheriff that she will take Belinda in as her own. After all, how hard could it be? Missie is faced with many obstacles as she deals with Belinda’s unruly behavior and realizes that maybe adopting Belinda was not such a good idea. As the story continues, Missie finds out Belinda’s behavior issues are due to her trying to protect her little brother from his abusive new family. The story concludes with Missie’s fight to save Jacob. Missie reunites Belinda and Jacob and adopts Jacob as her own.

Was adopting really as simple as going to a church one day, looking at a child and saying, “Let us adopt him or her?” Was adopting back then really as simple as signing one document where as in today’s time our parent’s have to sign loads and loads of paperwork? Was adopting as simple as giving a child to whomever without even knowing anything about the adopting parents backgrounds? Now we have to go through so much such as having a criminal background check done of each of the adopting parents, completing a home study, finalizing and certifying loads of paperwork, paying many adoption expenses and then the worst part of it all is the dreaded wait. I really do not know. All I know is these are great movies that really get you thinking about how easy the adoption process may have been back then. We may gripe and complain about all the paper work and time adoption takes, but if you really think about it, it is for the best. Would you really want children in an abusive situation as Jacob’s? No, of course not.

These movies are great family movies filled with wonderful messages of hope, determination, integrity, sorrow and love. These movies also take you back in time and show you a glimpse of adoptions in the past.