Pertinent and timely -

[kyburg]

Foreign adoptions have long been a big business in the United States, with an estimated 22,000 children being adopted last year, mostly from China, Russia and Ethiopia. Ethiopia's relatively easy system has seen thousands adopted in recent years. Adoption agencies in Ethiopia have burgeoned in the past two years from about five to more than 20. Liberia is another African country where several new adoption agencies have recently been established.

But many African child care organizations are wary of foreign adoptions.

Madonna has done it again. If you've been watching Google News (hell, turn on any news 'source' in love with babies (and not people in general) and you'd have caught this one) - she's in the process of adopting an orphan from Malawi - and people are none too pleased with her for it. This article claims that this is only the first in many children she plans to move into a 4,000 bed orphanage.

The only thing I thought when I heard about it was, 'well, I can't blame her for going out of country for an adoption.'

I wish some of Josephine Baker's children would step forward - or could step forward - and tell their stories. As I understand, none of them went into the music business...and that's about all I've heard. Digging deep into Google (and then googling the names of the children), I found this one entry mentioning the oldest of the children, Akio Bouillon.

It isn't a bad entry, and as one might expect - if it's truly awful, you might have heard more. If it was a good relationship - where's the news in that? There's plenty of entries outlining Baker's financial excesses...and that they rendered her and the children homeless...but nowhere are there entries of the children castigating their adoptive parents. (Find one? Let me know. It's useful information!)

Forming an family out of adopting children has to be accepted as a formation-at-need, not a happy accident. You go where the need is, you want to adopt children.

Madonna's adopting a child from Malawi. Let her, if all the protocols and requirements are met. And that's the only reservation I'd have about it.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/little_e_/]

It seems to me that with that many orphans or half-orphans, there's plenty of room for all three solutions.

Some families will not take in orphaned relatives, even with funding. Throwing money at them isn't going to change things if they already feel overwhelmed or don't have the time and energy to raise another kid.

Although honestly, there aren't going to be too many Americans interested in raising a 5 yr old AIDS orphan who may also have the disease and is certainly 'learning disabled' by this point. I don't think Zimbabwe really has too much to worry about American's running off with Zimbabwean children.

Of course, 'cultural alienation' bs aside, if I were a Zimbabwean given the choice between living in the utter crapulence which is Zimbabwe or moving to the US, I'd pick the US in an instant. But I have this silly fondness for not dying.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

If the kid had no parents alive instead of a father who was too poor to take care of him I'd feel okay about it.

Because his father is alive and seems to care about his son, I think it'd be nicer of her to instead help the families raise their kids.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Just cruising around, I've seen all kinds of things about this - and in fact, no idea as to gender. I've heard that this kid is both male...and in some reports, female. No kidding.

OTOH, I have Swiss family who adopted from Korea and Tibet, back in the day - the Tibetan adoptee has been able to go back, find his biological family and establish relations with them. He was the "we can't feed you" kid who was placed for adoption - but it appears to have turned out well for him. I remember him fondly from the one visit I had with them back in 1985 - he was happy, engaged to be married and working for Swissair like his father.

That reminds me - I need to jot them all a quick email update....