Celebrity Adoption

This has been rambling around in my head for quite a while now.  Stacy also approached the topic and she shares many of  my thoughts about it.

The whole thing with Madonna kind of skeeves me out.   It sounds like she basically bought a child.  The thing that a lot of people who are only reading about it and have not been involved in adoption may not realize that many African countries are very difficult for anyone to adopt from.  Some take as long as three years. Throw in a controversial white woman and well.   So unless Madge had this in the works for a while, I suspect something not quite kosher. 

While in many ways I admire these celebrities for adopting trans racially and trans culturally, I also wonder how those children will come to view adoption and their native culture.  Especially Angelina Jolie's children.  While I don't doubt her sincerity, I do wonder about dragging toddlers all around the world and the exposure they get in the press. 

Like Tom Cruise's older children, I wonder what they will think as they grow up and if they will wonder if every soccer game was just another photo op.  (For the record, I think Suri Cruise was Artificial Insemination or Chris Klein's kid.  I just don't think Tom likes girls.)

I don't discuss details about Mia's adoption on my blog.  That is out of respect for Mia's birth family and Mia herself.  Anyone who knows me in real life knows the story, anyway.  It's something I choose not to send out into the blogosphere.  It's a personal thing.

As an adoptive parent and as an adult adoptee, I am a little wary of these celebrity adoptions and a bit sensitive about it.

I worry about those children.  Is this going to be a one way ticket into long term therapy for a lot of them? 

While there are many children in the world who need a family, there are many right here, in this country, who also need families.

The whole issue gives me lots of food for thought and I don't really know how I feel about it.

Comments

[Vero]

The children are our responsibility. Wherever they come from, Madonna or whoever is bound to be giving them a better life than the one they would have had, left to their natural environment.

[Donna]

Adoption is not for everyone.

Celebrities have been adopting children for a long time. Look at Joan Crawford. Scary.

I think people who can afford to do so, should adopt as many children as they can and then stay home and take care of them. Care is equated with love by most children. I'm not sure how much attention the children of actors are getting.

The world will have 20 million AIDS orphans in Africa alone by 2010.

[Martin]

Donna and Ronni you both hit the matter right on the head as far as I'm concerned. It's absolutely amazing that none of the AIDS and even the mass murder/genocide that is currently happening in Africa does NOT get any attention in the American Media. I hear about it all from the BBC. The rest of the world seems very concerned about these issues and America is in the dark. So I say sure. If Madonna wants to adopt orphans from Africa, good on her, no matter how she does it. That's one less child to die of starvation, AIDS, or an intake of rounds from an AK-47.

- Martin

[Alaina]

My husband and I have been seriously considering and researching adoption for the last 6 months. And I agree with you 100%, there are so many children here in the U.S. that need the home we can provide. Which is why we want to adopt and laugh at those who ask how long have we been trying and give us "the look" when we tell them we haven't been. However, it is so expensive to adopt in the U.S. that we too have begun to look to other countries due to our financial restrictions. You mentioned Madonna buying a child in Africa, but my husband and I don't have the $25,000 it'll cost to buy a child here in the U.S. The legal fees have driven the costs up astronomically and it's not right because it's the children that suffer! Previously, we would have never considered taking out a loan and claiming a tax credit for expenses incurred to expand our family. We'd love to bring a child into our home and will fiercely protect them against anyone who has the audacity to treat our gift like anything but our child (family members and close friends have already been warned), but I have been unable to find any alternatives in the U.S. that won't send us to the poor house.