FAQ

When Rip Porter (Barry Pepper) is released from prison seven years after being convicted of spousal abuse, he learns from his wife Wendy (Mira Sorvino) that she gave birth to a son whom she gave up for adoption. Six-year-old Joey (Maxwell Perry Cotton) now lives comfortably with his adoptive parents, Jack (Cole Hauser) and Molly (Kate Levering) Campbell. Because of a loophole in the adoption process (Rip never signed the adoption papers), Rip is determined to get his son back.

Like Dandelion Dust (2006) is also a novel by American Christian fiction writer Karen Kingsbury. The novel was adapted for the movie by screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Michael Lachance.

On Joey's second trip to visit the Porters, Wendy shows him a dandelion head that has gone to seed and explains how to make a wish and blow the seeds from the dandelion in order to set the wish free so that it can come true.

As they attempt to drive to the airport to leave Haiti with Joey, Jack and Molly are apprehended by the Haitian police and returned to the United States. Child services agent Allyson Bower (L. Scott Caldwell) tells them that Wendy Porter would like to see them. Wendy tells the Campbells how much Joey means to her and Rip, and the Campbells do the same. Allyson then presents the Campbells with revised adoption papers, already signed by Rip who, as Wendy explains, is not ready yet to be a father. Wendy adds her signature and then asks the Campbells to tell Joey that he has two mothers—"one that loved him so much that she couldn't let him go, and one that loved him so much that she had to." She then asks to say goodbye to Joey. Joey seems truly sad when he realizes that he won't see Wendy anymore, but she gives him a locket with pictures of her and Rip and their address in it and invites him to come see them someday when he's "a big strong man." Joey then runs back into Jack and Molly's arms.