To see the smile on a kids face, when she knows she’s found a home, helps us to be grateful for all that we have. Long gone are the days of Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks… Well, unless you’re lucky enough to be adopted by a mom in entertainment. More and more it seems, celebs are seen with newly adopted children and by doing so, attracting the media to both themselves and sometimes, their related causes. Madonna notoriously adopted David Banda from the country of Malawi, drawing praise and criticism to her charity Raising Malawi, supporting orphans in Malawi with the greater goal of building a girl’s school to improve education in one of Africa’s poorest nations.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have 3 internationally adopted children and rally several causes for the betterment of the world’s children, including “Global Action for Children,” “Kids in Need of Defense,” “Jolie-Pitt Foundation,” and “SOS Children’s Villages.”

And who wasn’t shocked when, after the devastating break up of Jesse James and Sandra Bullock in the wake of her post-Oscar glory, she revealed that they had adopted baby Louis from New Orleans just months prior? I doubt Oliver Twist would have continued to pal around with the Artful Dodger had he such prosperous parental prospects!

Hollywood and the media aside, adoption has changed so much over the past 6 decades. As our social and political climate has changed, so has the way we view the traditional family. This year, there were several outstanding documentary features addressing the subject in very different ways, two receiving critical acclaim and becoming audience favorites at top festivals. The third is getting close to starting its festival run.

Somewhere Between directed by Linda Goldstein Knowlton, Jury Prize winner for Best Documentary at Hot Docs, shares her own personal experience as an American woman having adopted a Chinese child. The lives of other Chinese adoptees are interwoven, along with the social and cultural implications.

In Sundance selection Family Portrait in Black and White directed by Julia Ivanova, Olga Nenya is a foster mother and guardian in more ways than one, to sixteen black orphans in the painfully white landscape of the Ukraine. Questions begin to arise regarding what a family looks like and thereby the rules are deconstructed. Or are they? On the flip side, some of this apparent growth, acceptance and transformation of values further casts into shadow the ever-present issues of race and politics. The film won the Hot Docs Grand Prize: Best Canadian Film Award.

A young family from Colorado moves to Uganda to adopt a child, in Moving On. In addition to providing a home to a young child, the family ultimately transforms the lives of many in the village.

The highly controversial issue of gay marriage also raises questions about family and adoption, and how society will react to a child raised by two mommies or two daddies. Daddy & Papa,and “Living Adoption: Gay Parents Speak” are two interesting shorts on the subject, with the latter being produced in association with the Human Rights Campaign.

In stark contrast to those looking to adopt is The Giving, an award-winning short documentary by Mary Durnin Firth that details the other side of the coin, the birth mother, in a compassionate and heartwarming light.

And at the end of the day, finding kids a home is a worthy cause. Regardless of your take on the situation, this great group of films won’t fail to educate, inform, and entertain. As we celebrate Adoption Month, let them serve as a reminder of at least one thing we have to be thankful for, our children.

Photograph by People Magazine