Wo Ai Ni Mommy: One American Family's Adoption Story

[GoldenShellback1]

Faith is a very smart girl. I can see another Lucy Lu in the making. My favorite Chinese actress.

[AJChow66]

@lisababy4lyfe It's exactly this train of thought that I complained about. It's pretentious. When you adopt a child, you're taking someone who isn't exactly rightfully yours into your home, regardless of the circumstances. When you say that everyone deserves a family, this is where cultural differences become clear. I have nothing against adopting, but one must consider all points of views and possibilities first.

[guitaristhebaka]

Watched the documentary yesterday and i was pretty sad when she did not know how to communicate with her guang zhou family in mandarin and her dialect anymore after about a year. she spoke so fluently in the beginning but had difficulty doing so at the end.

[lucamansan]

Some people criticize the mother, she has a very strong personality, but I think the girl will grow up to be smart, successful and confident.

[theeReddVision]

Such good parents!!! I would love for all interracial adoptive parents to be like that mom... Except to be a little less hard with the cards, aha:)

[lethel4444]

I think a culture is a combination of an innate and learned behavior from birth through childhood;

It's primarily a way of thinking; it's conforming to the society around you; you can't re-learn a culture and then say - you ARE that; She isn't Chinese anymore. I can say that. I've been to China. The attitude,thinking behavior is just not something you just learn. No one's culture can be learned as an outsider. YOu can 'observe' it. YOU= the environment you were in before birth and growingup.

[lethel4444]

she seems to do this from a strong ego as opposed to a soft heart

[lethel4444]

sorry this lady teaching is a bitch; how about if someone taught her Chinese in the same direct, flashcard, boring ass way all by yourself being taught by your stepmom; hell get somoelse to teach her; parents lack patience and objectivity usually

[nerdface92]

i think it would be cool if she still knew mandarin.

of course, if you don't use it you lose it so...yeah.

but i'm sure if she took say, a class in mandarin she would pick it up quickly because i think that she was exposed to it long enough that it's still there, at least a little bit. it's like playing piano for a few years and then not touching it for a long time. you may not remember a lot, but if you were to have a few lessons it will come back to you more quickly and easily.

[AJChow66]

Sad how she had trouble learning English and now barely remembers Mandarin.

If they genuinely cared about the child having a cultural identity, they should let her keep her true name. If not anything else, that at the very least.

People see themselves as heroes when they adopt when they are really robbing them of so much.

[CAFREEB]

@AJChow66 Not every family who adopts is cookie cutter. And certainly ours didn't see ourselves as "heros" My son went to China for two years and became fluent in Mandarin and now shares that with our adopted Chinese niece. We learned they share a birthday after she was adopted and if anything she is more a blessing to us than anyone feeling we are a "hero" for having her be a part of our family. I don't think she would have been better off where she was. She was abandoned in a park as a baby.

[bluemonolith88]

@CAFREEB then again, she would've been better off in china with loving chinese parents. adopted kids like her typically face huge identity issues and must put up with discrimination and glass ceilings in the West. if you're not already doing it, you should raise her as a chinese-american who knows chinese language and culture almost as well as american language and culture, especially important because china will likely be the next superpower when the kid reaches her middle age.

[nerdface92]

@AJChow66 did you watch the whole video? she is taking classes in mandarin to relearn it. i posted my first comment about hoping that she would take mandarin before i watched the whole video. now, i'm glad that they're re-exposing her to mandarin. :)

[lisababy4lyfe]

@AJChow66 How is adopting a child robbing them? When you adopt, you're adopting the child to help give them a better life & to give them a chance of having a family. Every child deserves to have a family... When I'm older, I want to adopt. Also, the family is making her culture her #1 priority but they're not the type to constanty push her about it.

[truebluepat]

PBS had this running for a while. Its a great documenatry, the little girl will melt your heart.

[kfosho]

donna is meannnnnn

[1221Shawnie]

You can watch Wo Ai Ni Mommy on pbs.org

[xwatevaa]

where can i watch the entire documentary?