STUCK the Documentary

“It’s more than a documentary. It’s a love story.”

Last week I saw a documentary that I wanted to share with all of you.  All of you who have adopted.  All of you who are in the process of adoption.  All of you who have ever thought about adopting.  And maybe most especially, those of you who really haven’t given much thought to the world of adoption at all.

STUCK is a documentary about the current state of international adoption.  It is currently touring the country in limited markets, but you can also download the video here--

http://buy.stuckdocumentary.com/

Or you can catch it in a theatre near you--

https://bothendsburning.org/initiatives/stuck-tour/itinerary/

And you can watch the trailer below--

STUCK TRAILER from Both Ends Burning Campaign on Vimeo.

 

I want you to watch this movie first and foremost because it is the most clear and concise explanation of the international adoption process with all its piles of paperwork and hoops to jump through.  If you never really understood the steps in the process it is very well spelled out here.  If you are a grandparent, a friend, a co-worker of someone who is adopting, this will put a lot of things into perspective for you.  I also think it is a great movie for older adoptees to watch to get a better understanding of the process, too.

Before you sit down to watch this movie, be sure to grab a box of tissue.  This one had me sobbing almost from the opening credits.  Now of course, this is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart.  As the parent of 6 kids through international adoption I have lived a small piece of STUCK.  I know the unbearable wait.  I expected my daughter Grace to be home in just 8-10 months and it took over 2 years.  And I know the unfathomable loss.  My Baby Lisette was STUCK for just a little too long in an orphanage in Congo where she contracted malaria and died before we could get her home.

No child should be STUCK. Yet thanks to bureaucracy like the Hague Treaty millions are STUCK. 

Two things really stayed with me after watching this documentary.  First, the number of children being adopted in the US has dramatically DECLINED in the last several years.  So even though there are more parents ready and willing to adopt, fewer kids are coming home because of the Hague Treaty, UNICEF reports and country closings. Second, as a result of those declines the number of children waiting in orphanages is increasing every day and the conditions in those orphanages are getting worse.  So the kids that are left behind, STUCK for their lifetimes in orphanages and without families, really don’t have a lot of hope for their future.  They will come out of an orphanage setting as an adult that is sicker, weaker, and psychologically damaged. 

Children NEED families.   Period.  Please set aside some time and watch STUCK.

If it moves you the way it did me, take a moment and sign the petition to the President to MAKE A CHILD'S RIGHT TO A FAMILY OUR PRIORITY--

http://www.change.org/petitions/make-a-child-s-right-to-a-family-our-priority

There are detractors of this film that bring up the same ethics questions that always come up in adoption discussions: what is being done to keep children with their birth families, what about adoption corruption, what about older children?  All valid points, but not the point of this particular movie. There is a need for international adoption, there always will be.  There will always be a portion of the orphans in the world who can't or shouldn't be adopted.  But there will also always be kids who need, deserve, and absolutely should be placed in families.  That is who this movie is for and about.

Please watch and let me know what you think!