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In the last decade, China was the leading country for U.S. international adoptions. Now, there are over 70,000 Chinese children being raised by American families. Eight-year old Fang Sui Yong, aka Faith Sadowksy, is just one of them. After being abandoned at 2, sent to a city orphanage for two years, and then taken in by a loving Chinese foster family, Faith's life is suddenly upended when she is adopted by Donna and Jeff Sadowsky, a Jewish family in Long Island, New York.

Wo Ai Ni Mommy explores, for the first time, what it feels like to be adopted from the child’s perspective. This intimate and honest story is told in real-time by Faith as she tearfully parts ways with her birth culture, language and foster family—the only family she’s really ever known. Wo Ai Ni Mommy documents her struggle to adapt to her new life in America and offers a rare glimpse into a personal transformation that neither she, her American mother, nor the filmmaker could have ever imagined.

Wo Ai Ni Mommy touches on the unique adjustment of children adopted internationally at older ages. The film captures the experience from multiple perspectives and helps to give a voice to older children entering new families. It highlights the stress children experience with regards to language learning, acculturation, loss, and maintaining connections with important people within their birth country. An evocative film that is a “must see!”
Samantha L. Wilson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin International Adoption Clinic, Child Development Center

Although I am not adopted, I have a similar situation to Faith. Before I came to America, I couldn’t speak English very well. I didn’t know how to communicate with people. I think it is important to see this film because we might have a similar experience and can understand the sadness. Also, it shows how people from two different backgrounds can be a family!
--student, Flushing International High School
Jewish Museum High School Film Festival

“This film is a no-holds-barred approach to foreign adoption, showing the process and its conditions, the language barriers, culture shock, and inherent familial acclimation. Footage of orphanage officials and social workers and the litany of government rules set the tone for a mixture of anxiety and hope.”
Marianne Eimer, Emerita, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
Library Journal

This tender, important and unique film should be required viewing for anyone interested in the psychological challenges of adoption and acculturation.
Ravi Chandra, M.D. (Psychiatrist, San Francisco)

Wo Ai Ni Mommy is mandatory viewing... filmmaker Stephanie Wang-Breal laid bare the rocky places and complexities that lie between here and there, and without an honest acceptance of those shoals, we can't cross them.
Lisa Belkin
New York Times

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AWARDS & SCREENINGS:

• Winner: Grand Jury Prize for US Feature, AFI/Discovery Silverdocs Film Festival 2010
• Winner: Best Documentary Feature, San Francisco Asian American International Film Festival 2010
• Winner: Best Emerging Director for Documentary, Asian American International Film Festival (New York) 2010

• Winner CINE Special Jury Award Telecast Non-Fiction Division 2011

• National Emmy Nomination, Best Documentary

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