Brad is going with Angelina to pick up the child

Jolie, Pitt Taking Home Ethiopian Orphan
Jul 7, 11:01 AM EST


Photo gallery: Angelina Jolie

The Associated Press

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Angelina Jolie and her "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" co-star Brad Pitt are in Ethiopia to pick up the orphaned baby girl she is adopting, an official said Thursday.

Pitt, Jolie and Jolie's 3-year-old son Maddox arrived Wednesday. The couple have refused to speak to The Associated Press about the adoption.

Tesfeye Berhu, manager of the Wide Horizons agency, which arranged the adoption, said the exact cause of death of the baby's parents isn't clear, but he suspects they died of AIDS, which has killed more than 900,000 people in Ethiopia.

Jolie has named her 5-month-old daughter Zahara Marley Jolie, according to People magazine's Web site.

I'm with Carnation. We started the adoption process for our Chinese daughter before she was even born; didn't get her until she was nine months old! While it's great that Ms. Jolie is changing a child's life, knowing the looong and "looking at every angle of your life" detective work the agencies do, I'd love to know how long she waited after putting in HER papers before she got a child. (Assuming she did put in papers.) :rolleyes:

For those who have adopted internationally can you give me a website or any other resources where I can learn more about it?

www.precious.org has a lot of information for the beginner! :)

Yes, Angelina has built a home in Cambodia (I think in Siem Reap), and she goes several times a year. I even think that Maddox is still in contact with his biological family. She absolutely puts her money where her mouth is in regards to making sure that he still has "Cambodian roots." Granted, being wealthy makes that sort of connection easier to foster.

This is awesome! Mad props...

Wow...there are so many.:(

Isn't one of Jolie's residences in England? Maybe that somehow played into ther ability to adopt?

Why was there a moratorium on babies anyway"?:

Because we already have enough?

LOL KIDDING.

The US government found many cases of women selling their babies. They were selling them to citizens of other countries too but the other countries didn't try to stop the adoptions.

Most people in the adoption field feel that it was a really stupid move by our government because it hurt the kids and the adoptive families and didn't stop the problem at all. I'm pretty sure that there's still a moratorium on American adoptions of Cambodian kids even though the families who were in process (one being my boss' daughter) were finally allowed to bring their children home.

Even though Angelina Jolie does have an English house, she's still supposed to be bound by the rules for Americans because she's a US citizen.

Why is it so expensive to adopt? Doesn't that hinder a lot of families from adopting?

Yes, it does. I have watched average adoption prices go from $3000 20 years ago to over $23,000 now. It's due to pure greed. Just a couple of years ago, adoptions were around $12-$15K and then the government passed a tax credit of $10K for adoption. Surprise!:rolleyes: Adoption agencies increased their prices by $10K.

You can sometimes do private adoptions for less than that, like if you know a pregnant woman who will give you her baby. If her hospitalization is covered by Medicaid, you could get a very low-cost adoption as long as you can find a lawyer who will give you a decent price and not act like he found the baby and worked with the woman throughout her pregnancy.

That is so sad. I was talking to my mom about it last night about this. I really want to adopt but I don't have that kind of money.

A lot of newspapers have a "Want To Adopt" category in the classified section. I know both the one where I work now and the one where I used to work do. At my former paper I took a bunch of those ads. One woman in particular placed an ad, then a few months later she sent me a little card and a picture of her newly adopted baby, so they do work. :)

A friend of mine adopted her son privately. The birth mother was a friend of a friend of hers. I have no idea about all the legal things they did, but I do know my friend and her husband took the woman and her boyfriend into their home for the last several months of the pregnancy and it worked out well for all involved. (Her son is now 10, it's hard to believe!)

I think Brad and Ang have to stop denying the "couple" rumours at this point - he went halfway around the world with her to pick up her child!! It's not like he rode with her in the car to Target when she had to get toothpaste. ;)

He is just being nice. Maybe he just wants to be her friend. Can't gorgeous men and women be friends?