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During a January 2021 address, Pope Francis noted that the greatest joy for every believer is to respond to God’s call. However, as true as the Pontiff’s statement may be, sometimes that joy is not always self-evident at first. After all, God’s calling rarely involves something like winning the lottery and becoming a millionaire philanthropist. Chances are there’d be a line waiting to hear from God if that were the case.
Instead, when God does call someone up, it’s usually to challenge that person to do something much, much harder. For proof, just ask the fine citizens of Possum Trot, Texas.
As a pastor’s wife and mother of two in a small rural community of financially strapped families, Donna Martin was already near her wits' end. Then, in 1996, her beloved mother died, sending Donna spiraling into a deep depression. Begging God for some kind of direction, she finally heard a small voice offering an answer to her dilemma. What that voice proposed, though, seemed impossible, if not insane. Even with everything else she was dealing with, it appeared that God wanted Donna to adopt.
Though a good Reverend by all accounts, Donna’s husband was initially vehemently opposed to the idea. He was already overwhelmed with trying to support his existing family, maintaining the town’s aged church building, and doing odd jobs for parishioners in need. If God was asking him to take on something else, certainly it wasn’t more kids to feed and care for. Only, that’s exactly what it was.
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot, the new film from Angel Studios (Sound of Freedom, Cabrini), follows what happens after the Martins accept the call and seek to adopt children from Texas’ overburdened foster system. But not just any children.
“Give us the ones nobody else wants,” Donna tells befuddled social worker Susan Ramsey. Reluctant at first, given the Martins’ already precarious financial situation, Ramsey eventually agrees to a trial period, granting the Martins custody of two children they’ve been unable to place elsewhere due to behavioral issues resulting from abuse and neglect.
Things go wrong from the beginning, as Donna would later tell People magazine in a 2012 interview. “They did everything but set the house on fire.” Donna noted, before adding, “Actually, Tyler lit up the garbage can.”
However, the situation improves enough that the Martins feel compelled to ask the members of their congregation to join in their calling. Dubious at first, but trusting in God, 22 households eventually agree to adopt a total of 77 children.
The movie doesn’t try to sugarcoat the results. Most of the families endure emotional and financial hardships, with some finding themselves facing the possibility of being unable to follow through on their commitment. The Martins themselves go through a severe crisis of faith after adopting two more children, including Terri, a young girl whose mother allowed boyfriends to sexually molest her and whose prior foster family left for “vacation” and never returned.
Driven by years of abuse and abandonment, Terri acts in ways that are both bizarre (insisting she is a cat) and destructive (lies and promiscuity). Her conduct eventually brings the Martin family to the breaking point, with even Donna responding to the girl in decidedly un-Christian ways she wouldn’t have thought possible of herself.
Filled with doubt and shame, Donna and the community of Possum Trot must find a way to come together and support one another. The only other option is to admit failure and send many of the children back into the foster system, a choice that would leave most of them unadoptable to anyone else.
Ably helmed by first-time feature director Joshua Weigel and looking very nice thanks to the cinematography duo of Benji Bakshi (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99) and Sean Patrick Kirby, Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot may be Angel Studios' most successful outing yet in terms of cinema. It manages to avoid being overly exploitative or unduly sentimental, not an easy task given the melodramatic nature of its subject matter.
More importantly, the movie accomplishes its primary goal, which is to inspire -- not necessarily to adopt a child (though I’m sure the filmmakers wouldn’t mind that outcome one bit), but to accept whatever challenge God calls us to face. As Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot shows, doing so can be hard, even traumatic, but as Pope Francis pointed out, the joy ultimately brought by responding to such a call is worth it all.
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot opened in theaters everywhere on July 4, 2024. Visit Angel Studios to find a theater near you.
