Madonna's Adoption: Back Off, Big Mouths, She's Not "Stealing" A Baby!
When Little Orphan Annie is adopted by Daddy Warbucks in the Broadway show "Annie," does anyone in the audience think, "This is an outrage"? Daddy Warbucks lives in a huge, fabulous mansion on Fifth Avenue, is friends with President Roosevelt and when he first brings Annie home for a tryout visit, he assigns his assistant to take charge of her — yet no one in the audience gasps. I don't recall theatergoers telling their children that poor little Annie should have stayed in the orphanage because Daddy Warbucks is too rich, too single, and possibly in too much of a midlife crisis to adopt her.
And remember, it's not ascertained until the end of the show that Annie is in fact a true orphan — her parents could still be alive.
Well if it's OK for richie rich Daddy Warbucks to become an "adoptive" dad, then why are media and other Big Mouths in a fury that megarich Madonna is about to "steal" another African child from an orphanage? So what that she's rich and is touring the Malawian orphanage in a $2,800 Chanel sweatsuit? At least she's there and she's spent a portion of her fortune making improvements to that orphanage. Are her critics raising money to improve the lives of the one million Malawian orphans or lining up to adopt them themselves? There's certainly plenty of children desperate for parents in the small African country — one in five of its children are, in fact, orphans.
If Madonna can give an opportunity to even one of these poverty-stricken children, 
why should her wardrobe matter? Has anyone priced out Angelina Jolie's outfits when she went to Vietnam, Ethiopia or Cambodia - the home countries of HER three adopted children? When Angelina dresses for red carpet events, she routinely wears Ralph Lauren, Versace and Max Azria. Should this disqualify her from adopting in the future? Should all wealthy people with designer-laden wardrobes be excluded from adopting? Should Oprah forget her dream of educating poor South African girls because she likes to carry an Hermes purse?
The child that Madonna is adopting is reportedly named Mercy and she is 4 years old. I remember hearing that when Madonna adopted David Banda as an infant — he's now a healthy-looking 3-year-old — she had also wanted to adopt a little girl named Mercy. So she's had Mercy in her sight for two years, and never forgot about her. She's hardly returned to Malwai to "shop" for a child. If anything, she's refused to forget about an orphan that, like Annie, desperately needed a home to call her own.
According to press reports, Mercy's 18-year old mother died when she was just five days old, her dad is MIA and she has a 61 year-old grandmother Lucy Chekechiwa who has accused Madonna of stealing her granddaughter. Mind you: Mercy lives in the same orphanage where Madonna discovered David Banda. She does not live with her grandmother.
Now, I am sympathetic to the feelings of Mercy's grandmother who doesn't want to lose all ties with her granddaughter. But put this in an American perspective. There are hundreds of thousands of children in this country who are ineligible for adoption because a parent or grandparent who can't care for them has refused to release them for adoption. Instead, these children and teenagers are caught in the foster care system for years, and can be shuttled from foster home to foster home to group home, until they are 18.
The result: They never have the opportunity to have their own loving, 
stable home with an adoptive family of their own. Instead, when they are 18 they are thrown out like unwanted animals to fend for themselves in the streets. Rosie O'Donnell just filmed a movie called "America" for Lifetime about this harsh reality.
Now imagine being Mercy. She has a chance to escape a place where one in five children doesn't live past the age of five, the average life expectancy is 48, and the average household income is $160 a year. How powerless would you feel if a bunch of muckety mucks that you've never met are trying to ruin your chance for a better life?
Wouldn't you want to be special to someone? Have a mom? Have someone to kiss your boo boos? Have a big sister and two brothers? Have a cozy bed? Go to school? Be able to see a doctor when you're sick? Have enough to eat? Go to college? Be able to have a profession that you love when you grow up?
Would you really want to be denied these things because your potential mom was rich and wore a $2,800 Chanel sweatsuit? Madonna with her Kabbalah and fitness obsession may not be everyone's cup of tea but by all reports she is a loving mother. Lourdes and Rocco have been photographed playing happily with local kids in Central Park numerous times. They look like completely normal, happy children. Pictures of David Banda show that he's grown into a healthy, smiling three year-old. There's no evidence that the children of rock stars grow up any more or less dysfunctional than other children, at least as long as they aren't featured in a reality show, Ozzy Osbourne- style.
So have mercy on Madonna Bigbucks and Mercy. If you're not prepared to go to Africa and adopt a needy child, then don't diss someone who is, even if she is a material girl.
For more on Madonna's adoption, follow Bonnie at Twitter at twitter.com/bonniefuller.
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There's a crushing sense of avoidance in Fuller's ideas that is represented in Madonna's $2,700 designer outfit worn in a scene filled with poverty. It is not that a child shouldn't be plucked from poverty's degredation; it is that Madonna is not actively engaged in the mothering process and relies on a retinue of hired staff to do this . It is the arrogance in the valueless idea that a child only needs money to be saved -- that is NOT the story line in "Annie." "Annie" is about love, connectedness and attachment -- basic concepts that Madonna cannot provide because she is simply not present in the mothering process. Fuller misses the humanity of this. Madonna never got that.
You're making assumptions based on your own biases - you don't know if Madonna is an involved or uninvolved parent to either child.
However, unlike Annie, indeed this child can be saved with just money, because there is far too great a chance this child will die where she is.
If you want a pet, buy a dog. Not a human being. She doesn't adopt here because she can't pick one off the rack, like that sweatsuit.
Spending 2 years trying to adopt a child is hardly picking out luggage. It's still respectful dedication.
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Money talks. Buy a school, get a baby.
But too much attention makes even Third World countries pay attention to their own rules.
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Some people just love to hate her. I applaud her.
I also strongly applaud Madonna. These are children who are in serious need. Why should we bad mouth her to allow the poor child to be deprived of a better opportunity in life. If she should do a fostering ;the care that the child would be able to receive could not be comparable to that of living with her.
I honestly think that we tend to always look for things to talk about when they are really not necessary. If she was an abuser I could understand.
We need to allow some of these poor under privileged kids to enjoy some comfort, it is not the fault of the kids that they are brought into an impoverished life.
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Madonna may have toured Malawi School in a Chanel suit, but she has contributed more than all journalists combined to humanitarian causes. I hope the adoption plan becomes a reality. Judgmental people offer nothing to the impoverished besides words. Thank you Madonna for holding on to your humanity, even after so much success. Your critics can only dream of having such compassion. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta
Aint it the new thing? For the mega-star who has everything, a little baby with no parents from Africa. It kind of completes their collection.
Seriously, this is nothing more than soothing the guilt of an over paid circus clown who has sold the public a bill of goods with her two-bit mindless yammering to "music" and I use that term with reservation. Hey Madona, your money could just as easily be spent here in the US and help far more people.
Read the article - she has helped the orphanage - and US children do not have the same 1 in 5 odds of dying before 5 due to neglect, starvation, violence, and lack of medical care. If she's looking at who has the most need, regardless of what country they happen to be born in, America doesn't make the list. Not even remotely.
This little girl is only one of ridiculously many millions of children in dire need - but much like the starfish story - "It makes a difference to that one" - this little girl will have a very different life now than before, and it does make a difference to her. Go show her a nice American orphanage, with plentiful food, medicine and education, and tell her to her face that you think they need help more than her.
Don't you find it hypocritical that in the USA, a loving, decent, law-abiding, educated woman, like ME for instance, can't adopt a child -- of ANY color -- here in the USA, because we're not "financially secure" enough?
In other words, I'm not rich enough to offer only the BEST any child could want- the best schools, the best health care, the best clothing, the best toys, etc.... as if lower economic children in loving, secure, happy households just can't live as well (or be as happy) as some rich, spoiled brat.
But what would happen if Madonna wanted to adopt an American child? OMG!! The Haters would come out of the woodwork and blast her for being TOO rich, being TOO famous, being TOO liberal/se
I admire Madonna, for the charity work, the money she spends on helping others around the world AND in the US, and for her personal sense of who she is in spite of the haters who tear into her at every chance. Go Madonna! Peace and Blessings! Namaste!
The reason to adopt Mercy rather than an American child is because the American child in the American orphanage or foster home is not looking at a 1 in 5 chance of dying by the age 5, will NOT be left uneducated, hungry, and with a short and hard life span. That child here in America, thank goodness, has no notion of how hard life could be were he so unfortunate as to be born in another country.
And while no doubt Madonna (or many of us reading) could go donate a bunch of money to the orphanage - that in no way denigrates her charitable impulse to adopt a child, just because she could do more. Is it a bad thing to donate $500 to a worthwhile charity, if you could afford $1000? Nope. Good is good, and that child is going to have a much better life, for having a mother and the type of financial stability where she won't be going hungry, starving, failing to have necessary medical treatment.
me thinks you doth protest too much.
when it comes down to it, madonna would not be approved in an homestudy in this country.
she associates with convicted murderers and mobsters, and you only have to look up the name chris paciello to see it. i'll give credit where it's due - she might have business savvy but as an adoptee, i would never have wanted to end up as her child. not for all the chanel track suits in the world!
Methinks YOU suffer from a false sense of righteousness fed by scandal rags. 3 million cases of abuse and neglect are reported in America but experts believe its actually 3 times as much!
When I was a child, I would have preferred Madonna as a parent even if part-time to what I grew up with. I have scars on my body that at 50 I'll take to my grave thanks to a heartless mother. So far I have not heard any reports of Madonna abusing any of her children.
This reminds me of that SNL Weekend Update bit they did. (The below is completely paraphrase
Anchor (Amy Poehler): The biological father of Madonna's adopted child suggested that, since her divorce, the child might be better off back in his home country with his biological family. The kid said, "Nope, thanks. I'm good," and continued on to baby yoga class.
And that sums it up right there. Filthy water vs. baby yoga. I know which one I'd pick.
Thank you.
I can't help but wonder why Madonna doesn't adopt an American child out of foster care. They're not all unobtainable because they have a living relative.
Of if she really wanted to do a lot of good for impoverished children, why not adopt that orphanage? A modest fraction of her wealth would improve their living conditions, give them a decent school, medical care and training in some skilled trade. Those children could go on to change their country for the better.
An unfortunate truth is that a lot of people are afraid to adopt in the US, because they think the only children in the system are crack babies with significant mental retardation or similar issues. No one says it unless you're a nice middle-class white girl who can't have kids and talks to people close to you about adoption. Suddenly, it's almost lock-step. There are some places its ok to get babies from, and some where people think the babies are somehow defective. It's twisted, but it could explain the celebrity overseas adoption thing.
that's not truly accurate. it is extremely difficult to adopt through the foster care system in the US, and the system needs to be reworked. there are lots of people who would like to adopt that way, but the system plays against them.
OK vim, I'll buy that. But who created the environment you speak of? Try being a white couple and attempt to adopt a black or hispanic baby. You are last in line. Why Vim? Why is this so?
A modest portion of your wealth would likely do the same - we're so much wealthier than they are.
What if it has nothing to do with anyone's clothes, and is more about how adoption, particularly international adoption, is seen as a lovely gesture, no matter how far it separates a family? What if Madonna's high-profile choice (like the Jolie-Pitts ones) highlights the huge disparity between people who CAN afford to circumvent normal adoption proceedures, who CAN afford to raise children, who have THEIR family at the expense of original families? My Unicef box says a dollar can provide a child with safe drinking water for 40 days. If someone is concerned about children, doesn't it make as much sense to build a summer home next to a hospital/school, and work to improve the lives of everyone? And, no, I don't mean a school to teach kabbalah, inspiring though I'm sure that is.
I don't begrudge Madonna her experience as a mother, and I hope she's great at it. The world needs great parents, everywhere. But adoption isn't as simple as supply and demand, and this story helps illustrate that.
Madonna MAY be eligible to jump through all the right hoops to adopt a baby. To make a point, though, the author has boiled down her argument to the idea that rich people are always better parents than poor people, just because of their wealth, and therefore they should be able to adopt any poor kid they want with no strings attached.
This is so true--Mercy is one lucky kid to have a loving family who wants her and is capable of providing for her. So many will never have the chance to have access to life's basic necessities--so why are we wasting time chastising Madonna for doing the right thing and helping a child in need? She should be applauded, not demonized!
I've never understood how Jolie is a saint, and Madonna a sinner for this - as an adopted child who also spent time in a group home, my bet is all those of us who have been in that position think all the rest of you folks who haven't had that experience are bloody nuts for objecting.
Folks like you are really the only people who can offer a worthwile opinion.
I agree that it is really whacked that Angelina gets all the praise and Madonna is vilified. I am not a fan of either woman's work, but I do applaud any woman who gives as much to children as these two have.
coz joile adopts real orphans,not kids that have family who dont want them adopted.sh
To Badralduja,
Not so, Angelina Jolie's African daughter's mother and grandmother are alive. Initially it was reported that the mother was dead but she surfaced and said the daughter was a result of rape, and although the adoption was notaltogether straight forward, she would not interfere for her daughter's sake.
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