Eye on the Sparrow on AllMovie

Curiously listed as a 1991 theatrical production in some sources, Eye on the Sparrow was actually a made-for-TV movie, which first aired December 7, 1987. Mare Winningham plays a blind Missouri woman who marries sightless teacher David Carradine. He is resigned to a world of darkness, but she is bitter over her lot in life, especially after an operation all-too-temporarily restores her sight. Unable to conceive children, the couple tries to adopt: but this is the mid-1960s, and agencies are unwilling to entrust "normal" children to the visually impaired. The only children permitted into their household are the handicapped rejects from foster homes. During their 12-year struggle to prove themselves acceptable as adoptive parents, the woman grows spiritually, learning to shelve her own self-pity by caring for those less fortunate than herself. Based on fact, Eye on the Sparrow was written for television by Barbara Turner (the mother, incidentally, of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh).