True life adventure. UK couple take on the international adoption system and the government on a wild journey through Mexico to adopt their baby.
When Fiamma and Shaun decided to adopt a child, they thought it might be difficult. What they didn’t expect was an international adoption system where the goalposts didn’t just shift; they disappeared.
Their decision to ‘do some good in the world’ is not shared by a process that doesn’t know its own rules, a UK government department that goes into hiding refusing all contact, people who think they are being indulgent, middle-class liberals, and strangers who are constantly judging them. In desperation they throw their lives into chaos and embark on a journey through Mexico that will test every bit of their resolve, expose them to a wild cast of Hollywood villains and heroes and finish up with the arrest of their two months old daughter at Heathrow airport.
This is a story about one couple’s attempt to navigate the maze of international adoption and to adopt a Mexican child, something that had never been done by anyone in the UK. It’s also a story of how millions of children in the world are denied a chance at a decent life because of a system that is convoluted, obstructive and often immoral.