Over the past couple of days, I watched the documentary film "Wo Ai Ni Mommy" by Stephanie Wang-Breal: http://www.pbs.org/pov/woainimommy/
The film is a little less than an hour and half and follows the journey of a young girl who was adopted at eight years old by a family living in Long Island, NY. I missed it when it was broadcast on our PBS station, but was able to watch it over the internet.
I think the most valuable part of the film for me was watching a child who was old enough to express her feelings go through the process of transitioning from her foster family in China into life in the US with her new family. What a heart wrenching process! So hard for her and so hard for her family. And of course the language difference made it so difficult for both her and her new family. My children were younger so I'm sure it was quite as traumatic, but it does give me new insight on what they went through in their own little ways.
In my opinion, the film didn't make the adoptive family look all that great. It really makes me wonder what I looked like when we brought our kids home. It was brave of them to allow for the film makers to document such a stressful time in their lives, and I am sure the film did not show the whole picture. But I did find myself, on occasion, wanting to shout at the mom once or twice "Give it a rest!", or at the dad "Let her talk!". And as a watcher of the movie, I had the advantage of subtitles to understand what Faith was saying while the family did not.
Definitely worth a watch for my adoptive friends! It seems that it would be priceless for anyone adopting an older child, especially. But good perspective for all of us.
Enjoy!
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