Family Wanted - Our Forever Family

Contact is a huge issue within both adoption and foster care, and many potential adoptive parents are put off applying by worries of having to meet up with the child's birth relatives. Family Wanted tells the story of an adoptive family which helps to demystify these worries. Seven years ago Jim and Lynda adopted two boys, Conor and Mack, then aged six and four. They were subsequently asked to adopt the boys' newborn half sister, Emily, which they did. Adoptive life has not been straightforward either for the children or the adoptive parents, and Conor, the eldest boy (now 13) has been diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. He has some behavioural problems and now attends a special boarding school, where he is doing really well. Throughout their adoption Conor and Mack have met up, twice a year, with their birth father for contact sessions. Family Wanted was there for one of these contact sessions, and hears moving testimony from the boys on what it means to have two dads. The emotional fallout that this continuing contact has on the adoptive family is also filmed. Lynda explains how her own experiences of life in care have shaped not only her understanding of the boys' predicament, but also hardened her resolve to support the boys. She is determined to make a success of being an adoptive family.