Off and Running

Hubby and I watched another documentary about adoption on PBS Point of View. This one was called Off and Running and it was pretty good! The film is about an African-American girl, Avery, who was adopted as a baby by a single White mom (Travis). Travis eventually meets a woman named Tovah who had adopted an African-American boy. Travis and Tovah move in together, form a blended family and adopt a Korean boy together. When I first started watching the documentary and discovered that Avery had lesbian parents, I was wary to watch the rest of the film. However, the film doesn't really focus on the lesbian parents, it is about Avery and how her life is shaped by her adoption.

Once Avery reaches high school, she starts to feel like she needs to know about her biological roots. Avery does get in contact with her birthmother, but eventually, her birthmother stops writing to her. At this point, Avery's life starts to deteriorate. She runs away and lives away from her home during her senior year in high school and actually stops attending school. I don't understand why Avery's parents don't do more to bring Avery back home. I am not sure if she is of legal age or not. From what I have read, some children feel rejected when they are given up for adoption. If they eventually contact their birthfamily and then their birthfamily doesn't want contact with them, the adopted child feels rejected yet again.

It also seems that Avery is struggling to get in touch with her African-American roots and to do this, she rejects her White mothers. For this reason, we seek to make sure our child is exposed to their Ethiopian heritage as well as their American heritage. That is one thing I noticed Avery's mothers did not do. Avery had no idea what it meant to be African-American.

As we have learned in our classes on transracial/transcultural adoption, it is important to make sure your child knows about the race and culture they were born into. Sometimes you may have to move to a different neighborhood or church so that your child can know their birth heritage. Otherwise, many children end up bothered by the fact that they may look a certain way, but they know nothing about the ethnic group they biologically belong to.

This film was also very good at showcasing the diversity found in how adoptees react to being adopted. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, not all adopted children are troubled. Avery's brother is quite content with his place in the family. He does not wish to search for his birthfamily and goes on to attend an Ivy League college after graduating high school. His outlook on his adoption is very different from Avery's. He mentions that he feels he has the power to create who he wants to be. Therefore, he doesn't feel like he needs to find his birthfamily to figure out who he is.

Here is the link for the streaming video: http://www.pbs.org/pov/offandrunning/full.php

All in all, I think this film is good for all parents, but especially adoptive parents and those who have adopted transracially/transculturally. If you do watch the documentary, I welcome your thoughts on the film.