It’s Sunday and I normally write a post about a show, but today I’m doing a Movie Sunday. I watched the movie Instant Family yesterday and I just had to write about it, so let’s talk about this movie!

Married couple Pete and Ellie Wagner, feeling a void in the marriage, visit a foster care center. Two social workers, Karen and Sharon, guide the hopeful parents on the steps to getting into becoming adoptive parents. The couples are brought to a fair where they have the chance to go up to kids that they are interested in adopting. Pete and Ellie walk by the teenagers, although Ellie shows hesitance over raising a teen, but one of the teens, Lizzie, informs Ellie that they all know no one wants to adopt the teens. Pete and Ellie talk to Karen and Sharon over potentially taking in Lizzie. The social workers inform the couple that Lizzie’s mother is a drug addict who is currently in jail, and she set their home on fire because she left the crack pipe lit. It also turns out that Lizzie has two younger siblings, Juan and Lita. Although this seems like more of a challenge for Pete and Ellie, they agree to meet the siblings. Pete and Ellie have Thanksgiving dinner with Ellie’s family, where they all make comments about never having confidence in the Wagners adopting kids. Ellie has enough and decides that they will go through with the foster care to prove that they can be good parents.

Instant Family is such a good movie in my opinion anyways. Seeing the field I studied in college, foster care is something that I think is really important. Too many kids are bounced from home to home or put with people who are only in it for the money. As the movie also shows us, a lot of times the younger children are fostered and adopted and the teenagers are stuck in the system until they’re 18.

Instant Family doesn’t show the reality of the actual foster system, but I think it’s amazing it’s based on a true story. A lot of people don’t realize how this whole system works or how many kids really need a loving home. Most movies show an immediate happily ever after, but Instant Family shows that’s not the case. There will be struggles, but it’s so worth it!

On top of the important message this movie brings, it’s very entertaining. Instant Family shows us that no family is perfect, but the mistakes, awkwardness and chaos are nothing compared to the love of a family. This movie is filled with a lot of laughter, love and even some emotional moments. The actors did an amazing job and this is definitely a movie I will watch again in the future!

Have any of you seen Instant Family? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!