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Is Madonna at it again?

Kerry's picture
Wed, 2008-08-13 18:15 - Kerry

According to newsfeeds, Madonna and Guy are going strong, and ready to adopt from Malawi.

Madonna is reportedly set to adopt another child from Malawi after feeling her marriage to Guy Ritchie has got “back on track”

The couple were said to have been interested in adopting a three year old girl, Mercy, for more than a year but put the proceedings on a temporary hiatus in the spring.

A source close to the family told the Sun: “The adoption process in Malawi is so long and stressful that all the legal wrangling put a huge strain on their marriage.

“They dropped proceedings to pour all their energies into each other. But Madonna now feels they are stable enough to press ahead with the adoption again.”

Malawi government official Penstone Kilembe, who has overseen the couple’s adoption of son David, is also quoted as saying: “Madonna’s representatives have been visiting the girl.

“The adoption is now advanced - all the government is waiting for is Madonna to forward the petition of adoption formalities.

“Then Mercy will be able to leave the country for a new life.”

The newspaper also claims that the couple were first given permission to adopt the little girl last summer but the process was blocked by the girl’s uncle. Her grandmother is also said to be against the out-of-country adoption but says the government officials “keep on at us” to agree.

http://gossip.commongate.com/post/Madonna_at_advanced_stage_of_adoption_of_another_child_from_Malawi

In a related article, in 2007 Madonna is said to admit she knew of the difficulty adopting in Malawi, but pursued her personal interest, regardless.

Malawi is not part of the Hague Convention for intercountry adoption so there are few existing laws and procedures for the process.

Madonna said recently that the social worker warned her and husband Guy Ritchie about the problems with adopting from the country: “She didn’t say don’t do it, but she just said expect challenges, and, boy, did we get them.”

“We were basically creating the laws as we went. There’s over a million orphans in Malawi, and in my opinion the laws need to change because these children need to be rescued.”

From:  "Madonna: Malawi needs new adoption laws - and we helped create them", http://fametastic.co.uk/archive/20070120/4186/madonna-malawi-needs-new-adoption-laws-and-we-helped-create-them/

Tabloid gossip or not, should the press publish such stories when so few people are aware of the many dark-sides found in the history of child placement and adoption?

Comments

Wed, 2008-08-13 19:38 — Kerry

A word about the industry and a new form of anxiety

A very interesting piece called Foreign Adoption Anxiety from an ABC news affiliate addresses the problems American PAPs are facing now that some countries are trying to combat their child trafficking problems.  Because countries like  China, Guatamala, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam are known for their child trafficking practices, Americans are being asked to look elsewhere for adoptable children.

Oddly enough, where are PAPs being directed?

Eithopoia and Liberia.

The ABC article claims the interest in children from Africa is:

[It's] seen as a sign of attititudes changing about raising children from a different race.

http://www.abc2news.com/content/gmm/story.aspx?content_id=05babde2-b873-4102-9bb0-d9dad38d04b6

I suppose ABC wants the American people to believe child trafficking or corrupt adoption practices do not exist in Africa? 

Fri, 2008-08-15 15:21 — Kerry

Adoption Anxiety

A blog written by a woman who wants to adopt from Vietnam and China posts a USA Today version of the "Adoption Anxiety" piece.  [http://dearsamandsophie.blogspot.com/2008/08/usa-today-article-on-adoption.html]

Within the article it reads:

About 129,000 of the estimated 510,000 children in foster care across the USA were eligible for adoption in 2006, according to the most recent federal data. About 50,000 were adopted that year, compared with 20,679 foreigners adopted by Americans. Children are placed in foster care because of neglect or abuse. The average age is 8; one-third are 3 or younger.

"Increasing numbers (of people interested in adoption) will turn to foster care," Ledesma says. Her program is receiving more calls from people wanting to become foster parents, often the first step toward adopting children in foster care.

However, for the Markoffs and others who have focused on adopting a foreign child, the tightening rules on international adoptions are frustrating.

Jodi and Scott Markoff have two biological sons, ages 7 and 10, but wanted a third child — a daughter. They send Phan packages of clothes and hair clips. They phone every week, often prompting Phan to ask through an interpreter: "Can you come as soon as possible?"

Jodi says Vietnamese families were given first priority to adopt Phan. Because none stepped forward, she doubts Phan would be adopted domestically. Jodi fears Phan is "losing her childhood" in the orphanage.

I can't help but ask:  Is Jodi worried about Phan losing a childhood, or is Jodi worried she will miss the early years of a child who will be forever grateful for her american adoption?

 

Fri, 2008-08-15 16:49 — Teddy

From My Experience:

I know at least 100 adoptive families and every one of them, myself included constantly moaned about the time it takes to have the child come home.  The MAIN moan was exactly what you stated:  I'm losing so much of their young years/months.
Once adoption is started, the AP's feel that child is theirs.  They want to receive all the ooohs and aaahs  they can get, and the picture they received is already several months old when they receive it.  Usually when the child arrives, he/she does not look like the picture anymore and the AP's are somewhat disappointed.  They fall in love with the child in the picture and memorize the facial features.  It can take a year or more to get the child home and figuring that the picture is already old when they get it, and maybe they receive two more pictures in that year, the grieving begins to accelerate for the child in the very first picture that will not be the child they receive (older).  I've seen it and heard it many times. 
An example is:  the child is placed in HiFamilies magazine with a picture of when she first came into care; her age was 2 years and 4 months.  The magazine comes out 6 months later with her picture and she is already over three and 1/2 years  old.  By the time the PAP's get picked to adopt her she is almost four.  They had fallen in love with a 2 year old but receive an adoption packet with the picture of an almost four year old who has spent all this time in a foster home or orphanage.  And yes, that child has baggage; we all do.  She was adored in the foster home and comes home a year later a five year old who does NOT appreciate being a middle child of older AP's who have four other children.  She is NOT grateful to them for adopting her; she sees them as having taken her away from everything she has ever known or remembers. 
Her childhood is spent learning a new language, customs; grieving for what she has lost; rebelling against people who expect her to learn their ways and like them...
I've seen this happen.

One Step Up From Bottom,
Teddy