Madonna

I cringe to even scrape the surface of this deep controversey, yet I feel that I should mention it since the issue is not only dominating the adoption community but also the American media, if not the world's. I, like half the country and all of Ethiopian adoptees, watched Madonna's interview on Oprah yesterday and I, like everyone else, have some pretty strong opinions on the whole topic. But no matter what Madonna's motives and intentions were in adopting from Africa- and I do think they were all good- the bottom line is that this child will have a much, MUCH better life than he would have had in that orphanage. Anyone who's seen firsthand the poor or orphaned children in Africa or anywhere else in the world (or at least know anything about Madonna and he wealth) knows that. As for the interview, I thought that Madonna seemed very sincere- in fact, the only fake aspect of it that I detected was her British accent. I am sorry though that this hot debate has significantly affected, for the worse, the African adoption world- I've heard talk of some African countries shying away from opening up to inter-county adoption because of the "negative responses" from Americans. The bottom line of any kind of adoption is to place children without homes, without families, into homes with families. It's what Madonna did, what Angelina Jolie did, what we're doing and what many others have done/did do. Because of this I'm all for Madonna promoting adoption, but am very upset by how it backfired in this way.

On a very different note, here is something worth listening to: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6381100&sc=emaf&sc=emaf. It's a segment on NPR on Americans adopting from Africa. It includes an interview with Melissa Fay Greene and orphan doctor Jane Aronson, and on the whole is very insightful and eye-opening.