While I know they can be corny, or inaccurate, and often play like a poor soap opera, I happen to enjoy watching those Lifetime channel movies. Yes even the ones about adoption. Sometimes they do not get it right, the terms are antiquated, or the information dated and biased to one area of the triad or another but every once and awhile I see or hear something I really like. So I keep watching.

The other day one such movie aired that lured me into watching as I unpacked from our recent vacation. The film, “Mom At Sixteen" staring Mercedes Ruehl, Jane Krakowski and Danielle Panabaker, drew me in with it’s topics of teen pregnancy and adoption. I was hopeful that they would portray all these complicated topics with some sense of accuracy, and I did not think they did too badly.

The main character, Jacey Jeffries, is a an excellent student and a talented athlete, and also finds herself with an unplanned pregnancy at age 16. When her mother finds out they agree that adoption is best for everyone, but once the baby (Charlie) is born young Jacey simply cannot bring herself to let him go. Her mother agrees to raise the baby, but only if they move away and everyone believes that baby Charlie is Jacey’s little brother, and not her son.

In Jacey’s new school she meets a teacher who is undergoing treatments to have a baby and who has already had a failed adoption placement. Jacey becomes intrigued with the teacher and her husband, and eventually confides to them that baby Charlie is in fact her own son. Jacey also finds a support group for other pregnant teens and young mothers and finds the confidence to really look at what type of situation she wants for her son. At this point in the movie it is already obvious that although Jacey loves her mother, she does not feel their earlier agreement about raising Charlie is working out for any of them. There is also a failed attempt to reconcile with the baby’s father, and eventually Jacey begins to look into open adoption and also more closely at her teacher who wants so badly to raise a child.

Near the end of the movie Jacey decides to approach the adoption agency that her teacher is working with now (with the support of her mother), and surprise the teacher and her husband with her decision to place her son Charlie with them for adoption. One of the things I liked most about this movie is how we get to see Jacey move through her process to come to this difficult decision. We also are able to observe how her extended family have been affected by her pregnancy, the secretive situation of grandma raising Charlie as her own, and then Jacey’s eventual decision for adoption.

One of the best lines from the movie no doubt will stick with me long into the future. When we see young Charlie, now ready for Kindergarten, talking to his dad who is making a family video. He talks to each member of his family, his mom, dad, his new baby sister, and his birthmom Jacey. Little Charlie says that only he knows how much his birthmom Jacey loves him because he is the only one who “heard her heart from the inside” Then Charlie gives Jacey a hug.

I also found an interesting link on the movie synopsis page that shares the insights of several real persons involved in different aspects of open adoption. A very interesting read.

I just love seeing how things can come together when everyone has the interest of the child involved first and foremost in their hearts, even if it was just a sappy movie.

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