Friday, June 12, 2009
Shoot.
Darn it, after the Judge so wisely quoted Chesterton and prevented Madonna from adopting the child, Madonna has now (?paid off someone and) adopted little Mercy.We should pray for both Madonna and Mercy.
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Perhaps we should pass a law in this country (or perhaps in each of the 50 states) that reads that Americans cannot simply go adopting abroad. It could be similar to the anti-foreign child rape laws we currently have. I know children in foreign countries are poor off, but so are all of those children here without a real home to grow up in. I hate celebrity fads.
ReplyDeleteThere is enough from Madonna Ciccone (I was surprised to find that that is her real first name) that we come to a negative judgment, I suppose. Likewise, the whole thing kind of makes my skin crawl. However, I think we should remember that we don't really know and we are not really called upon to judge. What we can see is so overwhelmingly artificial and market-driven that there is no evidence of a real person there, none. It is possible for such things to consume a human soul, I suppose, but eventually, there is a human soul. I am aware that I am mostly talking to myself and upbraiding myself for my smug judgments.
ReplyDeleteI cannot comment on Madonna's case as I really have paid little attention to it. But as a father of three daughters, all adopted from foreign countries, I have trouble with those who think it merely a "celebrity fad" or that there should be laws to prevent international adoptions. For those of you who think this way, I suggest you try to adopt a child in "this" country and see what kind of laws, restrictions and otherwise bureaucratic nonsense and expense one has to go through just to adopt and love a child. Once you understand this, you may well understand why many couples who only want to adopt and have children go abroad to do so!
ReplyDeleteUm, I think people were adopting kids from abroad long before Madonna or any other celebrity decided to make it 'fashionable' I think that however demented Madonna might be, at least in this one thing she seems to have a good impulse. I would hate to give Madonna that much power that simply because she chooses to do something we should reactively make laws to
ReplyDeleteprevent it! I know several children adopted by families from Russia and China and adoption is a beautiful thing!
Blessings,
Faith
(who is posting as anonymous because I've never figured out the 'select profile' option given on some blogs, such as this!)
My niece was adopted from China a few years ago as a blind 9 year old who had spent all but about 8 months of her life in an orphanage. The unit she was in was for disabled children, many of whom were mentally slow. She is an incredibly intelligent child who since coming to America has learned to speak English, read braille (at above her age level), and is currently learning Spanish and making an independent study of English dialects. She lives in the Bronx and goes to the grocery store by herself. She is sings in a choir and is learning to play the clarinet. Had she stayed in China her life would have been very bleak. As it is she is in a loving family (where she fits in as if she were born into it). I recognize the disaster that some celebrity adoptions have been. I know that there are children in this country who need homes as well, but please recognize that there are also children in other places who will end up on the sreets unless someone gives them a home. BTW, my in-laws are not wealthy people. They had to take out serious loans to do this adoption and have yet to pay them all back. They have learned braille and are homeschooling this fascinating little girl with tremendous results.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't have a problem with Madonna's international adoption, I think that legal international adoptions are wonderful in most cases.
ReplyDeleteI had a problem with the fact that the law in Malawi was that children should be adopted in their own country. I wanted to respect that country's law by having everyone follow it, whether they were a celebrity with big bucks, or a farmer from Kansas. Someone made that law in their country for a reason, and the first judge basically said, let's not make an exception to this law because we--right now--cannot see the reasons for it being made.
Then, as I recall, a man came forward claiming to be Mercy's father, and I don't know what happened with that, and now Madonna has won her case.
So I presume someone in Malawi was convinced (I don't know how) to allow a non-Malawian to adopt a child from there, and hopefully the man who came forward was not Mercy's father. Or he was and decided to give up his rights.
I didn't want the USA to make any laws to prevent what Madonna did, I only wished to uphold the Malawi law that was already in place. Or I wanted someone there to uphold it. And I guess I wanted Madonna to respect it by adopting a child from a country where that's legal.
The stories here in the comments box are wonderful stories of international adoptions. My own cousin has two lovely girls from Russia.
So obviously I am not arguing against legal international adoptions. I'm arguing against taking down the fence for a celebrity who's motives, even if good, might be tainted by a need for publicity/popularity/notoriety, and who seemed to disrespect the laws of another country, the country where her adoptive daughter was born.
I hope and pray Mercy has a good life here with her new mother.
Good post Nancy. To be honest, I had a rough time understanding where you were going with the inital post, so I understand why there was a misunderstanding. I definately see what you're trying to say now though. It's an intersting point. I wonder what the details of the case were. Maybe the judges figured out the reason for the law and realized that those reasons didn't apply? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteThanks, davymax3.
ReplyDeleteHere's more on the story, and why the decision was overturned. And how 7 million might be involved.
http://tinyurl.com/m666ph