This evening our family watched a brand new PBS documentary about a family adopting an 8-year-old girl from China, Wo Ai Ni (I love you) Mommy. You can watch it online until the end of November and you definitely should enjoy the chance at an intimate view of adoption through one family's eyes.
I really like Dawn Davenport's review of the film and (as usual) agree with her. The Sadowsky family doesn't do everything the way I think it should be done. They aren't perfect. They struggle. They definitely don't follow the Morningstar pattern of parenting (patent pending). But there's so much I respect about the film.
I love that the filmmaker is sensitive to Faith's journey and to her loss. We've heard it countless times, "Oh, your daughter will be so glad to come home to her family in America!" and the truth is, well, Mei Mei may not really feel that way. She'll have lost everything familiar, everything she knows - nothing will sound, feel, smell, look, or be familiar. And she will rightfully mourn what she's lost, like Faith Sadowsky does in the movie.
And she will also gain - a family, a permanent home, a Mommy and Daddy and two brothers and a sister that love her to pieces, specialized medical care, an additional culture (and, admittedly, the confusion that comes with being a child of two cultures).
The Sadowsky family was really brave to let the world see their ups and downs, joys and struggles. Watch the movie and gain an appreciation for the Sadowskys' viewpoint and the journey of one adoptive child.
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