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Just watched the programme and I just wanted to say that you and your family are truly inspirational. Gorgeous, gorgeous family. Good luck!

Dear Sue,
I just watched the documentary on the 主播大秀 and I just wanted you and Jim to know that I was deeply moved by what you are doing for all your children and I could feel the love you have for them through the televisionscreen. Thank God for people like you and Jim, who are making the diffrence. All the best, you will be in my prayers.
Greetings from Holland, from Hettie
p.s sorry if my English isn't that good, hope you'll understand what I am trying to say.

You are an amazing couple with a wonderful, inspiring dedication to those who need a chance in life - it's people like you that make differences in this world.

just watched the programme.found it really interesting as we have adopted a boy who has similar problems to maisie.it would seem that as usual it all boils down to money.when are local authorities/government going to wake up and smell the coffee and make finance available to help these children.would have liked a bit more on the background of sue and jim.
thought you were both great by the way and good luck to maisie

Hi Sue,
You are truely an inspirational family. I have been totally moved to tears by Maisie's story. I am so glad that you were able to give Maisie a hope for a happy future. I wish you all every happiness and success in your future lives together.
Very Best wishes
x

An ispirational story of family & relilience & dedication, which brought back many happy memories with not a dry eye in the house, thank you.

H&Sx

I was amazed that for the cost of 1 secure residential placement at the very least 6 children in need of help could be supported in foster care or an adoptive placement. Talk about doing more with less, here's a government initiative waiting to happen, which could help 6 times more children for the same cost, I'm on board..........

So inspired by you both we have five adopted children and could not begin to take on more. The programme left me remembering why we adopted which sometimes gets lost in the struggles of daily life. We wish you Gods blessing on your valiant endeavours with all your precious children.

Reaching out from the island of Malta to one great family! Just watched the programme on 主播大秀2 and wished to say good luck to you all, adults and kids, in your special family as well as the therapists at Family Futures. So many children need the same kind of love, good sense and a hand in life. You have my support and prayers. Keep it up all of you!

What a brilliant programme. As a fellow adopter, although I have only managed one, I'm always really disappointed about the way adoption is portrayed on tv. Thank you to all for opening up your family to encourage others. Maybe I should do it again!

Dear Sue,
This is the first time I've actually watched a programme and felt I had to comment. I've just watched the documentary and was moved to tears. What a fantastic family! You and Jim are truly amazing parents providing such a loving and caring home, you have obviously enriched the lives of all your children and given them the start in life all children deserve. Wishing you all the very best for the future.

God bless people like you Sue and Jim, you give these poor chidren something to hope for. Ever since the death of baby peter, i have held a heavy heart for all the children that suffer at the hands of their parents ..lets hope more children can be saved like massie. I hope you all live happily forever.

Hi Sue,
Thank you for the courage and selflessness you guys show opening yours hearts and home. I am inspired and my husband and I are now starting to discuss whether we might one day do the same for an older child. Thank you! Other parents:the Tavistock and Portman Clinic has excellent services to support looked after children.

I have never commented before but signed up tonight because I was so moved by the documentary. I came across it by accident and was gripped by the courage of Sue and Jim and Maisie herself. Like one of the other blog posts suggested, the joy created by being part of a family really gives me hope in a world which often seems to present lost childhoods through a media panic.

Good luck with getting future therapeutic support for Maisie and thank you for such a memorable programme. I will always look at adopted children quite differently now.

I feel it is important to point out that the practice shown in the documentary seems to be a version of a a controversial practice known as Holding Therapy or Attachment Therapy. A first-hand account of this can be seen at
The blog also contains discussions and a history of HT in the UK

I have the greatest respect for you both. It is amazing to see that the world has been given 2 angels. You should both be very proud of what you do and the lives you have improved. I am honestly so heart warmed to see such 2 beautiful souls! Im sure I speak on behalf of everyone when I say Well done!

I'm a 64 year old guy with a troubled past living alone with no family and I guess reasonably happy but watching your program last night brought back a lot of painful memories coupled with the pure joy of knowing that people like you two are out there. It's only people like you that bring children out of the cold strange and ugly place they live in, wish the hell you two had been around when I needed you. I didn't think I believed in a God yet found myself saying, "thank God for Sue and Jim"............thank you for the ray of sunshine you bought me, I needed it.

Sue and Jim,
I have nothing but admiration for you both. Your dedication and perseverence to all of your children is an inspiration to us all, regardless of whether we are natural or adoptive parents. I was moved to tears with the fact that all of these children have now got such a loving and stable family. My husband and I have always talked about fostering and we will still be looking into this when our youngest daughter is a bit more independent, but from this programme I am wondering whether this is the answer for us, or whether adoption is the better route. Thank you for sharing your wonderful family with us!
Theresa x

I watched the programme last night and felt I just had to comment on it. You and your husband are amazing and so inspirational and have changed so many lives. It was such a moving and heart warming programme, there were definitely a few tears here! Good luck with all that the future holds, and thank you for sharing your wonderful story.

Hi,
As an adoptive parent of a daughter very similar in nature to Maisie I can confirm the benefit that our whole family gained from 5 years of Family Futures - the initial damage can never be fully undone, but we can learn to cope and accomodate. The whole experience of trying to coordinate input from social services, education and children's mental health services over the 10 years that she has been with us (she is now 16) has been a 'strain' - particularly in terms of the need to educate the 'educators' in how best to meet her needs. 18 months ago we finally got her into a school which is able to understand and meet her needs - the first time that she feels safe and secure since she left primary school (though this was not for want of trying by her secondary school who went well beyond the call of duty for her). The sooner that children like our daughter and Maisie can be removed from such traumatic and damagingly inadequate parenting the better chance they have in life. Sue and Jim - hang on in there.

Thank you for showing us the true meaning of adoption. Sue and Jim are inspirational to all of us. The love and commitment they have for all their children is remarkable. Maisie is a very lucky girl to have found them. She now has the chance for an amazing life. And it was heart warming to know that she finally found what all children need and that is a safe and loving family with parents who love her unconditionally and also to have brothers and sisters. I'm adopted myself, and under Irish law here I am not allowed access to my birth records so to see the help and support that Maisie is getting in remembering her past in order to prepare her for the future is brilliant. Thank you Sue, Jim and your family for sharing your story with the rest of us. And Maisie, you are a lovely girl and you must be so happy to have found such a loving home.

As an adult adoptee, I was very moved by this programme. What wonderful parents you are, Jim and Sue, and what great kids you have!

And thank God for the work of Family Futures.

Today's generation of adoptees have even bigger and more painful issues to deal with than people like me who were adopted as babies. Unlike the background Maisie came from, my own birth mother was neither abusive nor incompetent, simply a young woman who was judged harshly by society (then) for having a child out of wedlock.

I count myself very blessed as I was adopted into a fantastic family and was also able to trace my birth mum back in 1997 (sadly, she died last year).

We need more intelligent programmes like this about the realities of adoption. (I am often irritated by the sensationalist treatment of adoption in TV dramas and soaps.)

The remarkable Clifford family have my prayers for their future together.

Sue and Jim - your programme totally blew me away. I think most parents biological or not could learn a lot from your patience, love and commitment. You are both incredible and so inspirational. Thank you for being brave enough to take part in this documentary. And Maisie - you are wonderful and brave too! :-)

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Recorded this programme last night and watched it this morning. What an absolute inspirational couple Susan and Jim are. I am so glad they received support from Family Futures, I hope this support for other family continues. All the very best to the family.

As an adoptive mum of three beautiful children from a very damaged background I looked forward to watching this programme in the hope that it would give people with little understanding of adoption, a realistic and balanced view of the process. Over 12 hours on from the programme I am still enraged. It bore little resemblance to our experience of adoption, and most of our friends' perception of adoption. It resembled less of family life and was more akin to a residential care home. I find it incredible that this couple were allowed to adopt such a large number of children given the intensive love and care all their children need. We have had a similar experience of therapy with our very damaged daughter who displays very similar behaviours to Maisie and we are more than aware of how time consuming and emotionally draining it is. I find it really hard to see how each child in that family is given the input they will require when such energies need to be channelled into one. That said my main sadness comes from the way Susan and Jim talked of Maisie being part of their 'forever family', which is how I interpret adoption and then talk of how she will have to go back into the care system if further therapy is not funded. What sort of message is this sending to that child? Our three adopted children are just that....our children. Nothing comes between us and them. And I repeat, we face much the same issues, rages, violence from our child as they do with Maisie. It is dreadfully hard and it takes enormous energy and willpower and stamina to get through it but I feel if they are really serious about being a 'forever family' for Maisie, then just as with birth children, there should be no conditions attached. Finally, how they thought it was appropriate to let cameras follow that child around, knowing how damaged she has been, including her therapy being broadcast to the nation I will never know. I am utterly depressed by the whole thing.

Sue I just wanted to say to you personally that it took/takes an enormous amount of strength and love to endure the abusive behaviour which Maisie directed at you -we all understand and appreciate the reasons why, and my heart goes out to Maisie, but even knowing this, when I was watching the programme my heart went out to you. I hope Maisie is thriving with your family and I wish you and all of your family lots of luck and happiness.

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I wonder how Maisie feels or will feel in the future about the world and its wife knowing all the intimate details of her troubled background even revealing her birth mother's condition. I thought it was quite disgraceful. I also noticed that when she arrived she was assured this was her forever family but this was altered to forever family only if we get funding for therapy. how confusing for a troubled child. And just how did all those other children, with their individual needs cope with this public intrusion into their lives

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Sue

Me and the misses we watched your programe last night- how touched we were by you and all of your children and the journey you have all been on. We have 4 young children between us and i ( stepdad) am looking to adopt two. You and your husband are really amazing. We take our hats off to you both; and your children- yes a inspiration to many. God bless Maisie- what a lovely little girl- loved by you both and her bros and sis and in such a warm family.

You must have such strength- as we know also children bring lots of pleasure but there are the bad times too-arguing, but that is part of life i guess- we were all young once- we were all teenagers once.

I would nominate you both for a OBE any day.



God bless you all

Dear Jim, Sue and all - I agree with all the supportive comments and was also deeply moved. But I want to do something practical to help. Can't we lobby local authorities to change their approach. It's ridiculous that you have to wait every 6 months to find out if you have funding. How can we change this. Can't we work collectively together to put pressure on the decision makers - not just for you and Maisie but all the other kids in a similar circumstance. Please advise us how we can do this. With warmest wishes to your whole family. You are wonderful people and lucky to have found a way of life that is so meaningful. I hope we can all learn something from you and integrate in to our own lives.

Hello to the lovely family in this film! You guys have moved me to write my first ever comment on a TV programme. I am so grateful and glad that Sue and Jim you are able to give that wealth of love to all your children and it is combined with the wisdom you evidently have. And that you are willing to go through the suffering it takes. All your children are gorgeous, I wish I could hug you all. Maisie, you have so much fun and life in you, and you are brave in facing up to the past. The Family Futures guys are also evidently doing such a beautiful job. Thank you to you too.

With love and my prayers,

Alice

Alice

OMG! Masie's story was so powerful. I am and have been advised to steer away from 'heavy subjects' due to my depressive nature. I have to say that I couldn't; it was compelling viewing from start to finish and i've just relayed the whole program to my husband.
My story? An adopted daughter into a family that already had my natural older brother and after two and a half years, my adoptive parents 'found out' about his little sister who was left in a children's home, (shame I guess.) My word (holding back and some) I paid for that disruption.
The comments that were made about abused children was me, but I kept my cool and watched to see what would happen to Masie.
Thank goodness for Masie's parents and the good parenting skills, and so much love, that they clearly demonstrated throughout this difficult time. I wish every child that needs adopting; parents as committed to good loving parenting as you two are.
Just writing this is rewarding and I have supported and raised funds for the NSPCC for as long as I could afford; last 30 years, for the sake of future children in need of true love.
I salute you two. FANTASTICALLY WELL DONE.
PS Would you like to adopt (only love attached) a 47 year old with NO MUM? XXX

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Hello me and my wife watch your documentary it is going to greatly effect our lives from now on. We have to adopted children we have had them for eight and ten years since they were two and half. Our daughter is now 12 and our son is 10. They both have fasd our daughters show in learning and social difficulties. But our son is exactly the same as Maisie and as the same back ground. We feel after watch the program we have been missled and sent down the wrong avenues We have been offered and give help on how to deal with our son. But have had no help for our son. I was hoping we could get in touch by email and you could tell us how to access the services we need. Hope to here from you soon here is my email=[Personal details removed by Moderator]

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Hi Sue and Jim

I spent 14 yrs in the care system. I was taken into care at the same age as Masie was and I guess watching the way she behaved, I guess was like looking bak at my own very very painful past. I had 3 foster familes and spent time in 2 childrens homes. I remember being introuduced to another family, well not so much introuduced, as barged me way in with me photo album, as their were at the home to see another boy who wasnt interested. There took me on quite afew home visits, didnt work out, because like Masie, I was very badly behaved. Then at about the age of 11 there tried to get me adopted, never happened for me.

I then ended up in a theraputic school for troubled children, still didnt get the help I needed. What I would have done to have met a family like yourself, I guess would have been heaven. I watched the programme feeling very very sad. There isnt enough fostering/adoptive parents in the world, who can take on the very difficult children.

I ve gone through life, rudderless, and never really knowing why or understanding my own feelings. Finally in 2007, my fantastic Dr, finally found out what was really wrong with me, I was suffering with RAD, which alot of children, who have been abused, and been through what alot of your own adoptive children have.

I know I ve gone on abit lol. What I really wanted to say to u both, is that your approach to giving love and recieveing it from your children, is really inspirational. You let the children, become children again, and give them back the life that there were denied from birth. Reversing the arrested development that has stunted these children. The feeding thing was quite powerful and I understand what you were both doing.

So thank u both for saving 9 children from the hell of a childrens home life with out the love and support of a real family

K

that was a difficult programme to watch, I have worked with care-experienced children for 8 years and I get so frustrated with the ridiculous decisions health trusts make regarding the distribution of money. I hope you got more funding for Maisie as it is clear therapy is so important for her and has helped considerably - perhaps even avoided a very different future for her. Unfortunately I have seen the poor outcomes for the 'difficult' misunderstood teen, those who don't get the support or family they so desperately need when they are young.
You are both amazing, and all 9 of your children are too.

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I am astounded at the comments made by bibbyf. 鈥淎 主播大秀 for Maisie鈥� was not a documentary about the adoption process but one family鈥檚 story of adopting nine older children with traumatic backgrounds. As an adoptive mother herself I would have thought that bibbyf would appreciate that all children are different and are going to present different challenges to their prospective adopters. To say that the programme bore little resemblance to her experience of adoption, and most of her friends' perception of adoption is ridiculous. Does she honestly think that all adoption placements are going to be the same?

Bibbyf鈥檚 comment that the Clifford home resembled less of family life and was more akin to a residential care home is quite simply an offensive remark which couldn鈥檛 be further from the truth. The Clifford鈥檚 home was a loving, warm and safe environment for children who had not had the benefit of that before. Did Bibbyf not hear the children who spoke so highly of Jim and Sue? Did she not see the wonderful family that loved and supported one another?

Bibbyf states that she finds it incredible that Jim and Sue were allowed to adopt such a large number of children given the intensive love and care all their children need. If she had bothered to establish the facts before denouncing Jim and Sue for adopting nine children she would know that they have adopted their children over the course of 20 years!!! Four of the 鈥渃hildren鈥� are now well into their 20鈥檚 and two no longer live at home. How on earth can bibbyf seriously claim that the children have somehow been 鈥渟hort-changed鈥� and their needs overlooked?

Jim and Sue welcomed their first two children in 1990, the second two in 1994, the sibling family of four in 2004 and Maisie in 2008. These children have been anything but 鈥渟hort-changed鈥�. In fact, their lives have quite simply been turned around by Jim and Sue. Jim and Sue ensured that two sisters, two brothers and a group of four siblings were kept together and not sent to different foster carers/adopters. They ensured and continue to ensure that their children are loved and nurtured.

Bibbyf has entirely missed the point regarding why the documentary was made in the first place. Jim and Sue could not be described as anything other than a positive illustration of what adoption can achieve. Yes, the process of adopting and healing a child can be arduous but look at the rewards! Jim and Sue鈥檚 children are a credit to themselves and to Jim and Sue. A couple who have adopted nine children and made such a difference to their lives can be nothing but a good advertisement for adopting a child. In addition the documentary clearly highlights the severe battle that adopters face in securing funding that many adopted children need. Therapy costs a fraction of the cost of keeping a child in care (especially secure accommodation) and gives children a much higher chance of overcoming their past traumas and an adoption placement succeeding.

I think it is incredibly arrogant of bibbyf to claim to know that she has had a similar experience of therapy with her 鈥渧ery damaged daughter who displays very similar behaviours to Maisie鈥�. How on earth can she deduce this after only seeing a snapshot of the behaviour that Maisie exhibited?

Bibbyf鈥檚 observations are based on her being totally ill-informed and making presumptions about the Clifford family that are far from true. I hope she isn鈥檛 suffering too badly from vertigo up there on her extremely high pedestal. In her own, overly emotive words, 鈥淚 am utterly depressed鈥� by her accusations and attitude to a family who are the most selfless I鈥檝e ever come across.

Jim and Sue, you are an inspiration and have nothing but my wholehearted respect and best wishes for yours and your wonderful family鈥檚 future.

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Dear Sue

my husband and I watched your programme last night and were both blown away by the love, strength, courage and devotion you and Jim have, for all your children, for each other and for Maisie in particular.

What a beautiful little girl, but so hurt and so angry - it's so painful to even start to imagine what she must have witnessed and experienced already in her short life. I wanted to send you all a huge amount of love and respect for what you have done for all your children and what i know you will continue to do for Maisie.

We're considering adoption and we found the programme to be amazingly useful to really shine a light on what these children go through, and the impact it can have on the rest of the family. Thank you for being so open and so honest. It's anwered a lot of questions for me particularly and i feel more prepared now to take the first step.

Wishing you all love and happiness together
Michelle x