Angelina Jolie Adopts Baby Ethiopan Girl
 

I just saw this in the news. Thought I'd share.

Angelina's New Baby Girl

Whenever I hear about celebrities adopting orphaned kids from 3rd world countries, I can't help but think what a stroke of fortune it is for the kids. Imagine how different her life would be if she stayed in Ethiopia.

*cringe at the term "3rd world"*

Yay for Angelina and her new addition. She's going to be like Josephine Baker and her rainbow tribe.

I thought the same thing!

Good for Ms. Jolie. She's beautiful, talented and she puts her money where her mouth is, so to speak.

It may be antiquated, but I personally don't know of a more descriptive term. A lot of those countries don't like to be called "developing" as it implies that they must "develop" into our (North American/Western European) standard of living. "Poorer countries" is certainly offensive, as well as inaccurate, to some degree.

LOL @ J.B.

Seriously though, I hope she teaches this girl and Maddox about their heritage and how important it is to remain connected to your ROOTS. It would be great if she could connect with the Cambodian and Ethiopian communities in her area. A sense of identity is so important.

ETA, these children are not only American (now) but Cambodian and Ethiopian.

If I remember correctly, she bought a house in Cambodia soon after she adopted Maddox so that way he could learn about where he's from and feel connected to it. I'm assuming she would do the same for the girl with Ethiopia.

Congrats to her.

I agree! Something about Angelina tells me that she will make sure that her children are aware of their heritage! I also want to adopt children from around the world.

i wonder if she will ever add on kids of her own

My husband and I are long-time and seasoned international adopters (5 kids from 4 countries). Here is my problem with Ms. Jolie: when she adopted her Cambodian son, there was a moratorium--imposed by the US, not Cambodia--on adoptions from that country. For several years, Americans were unable to get children out of Cambodia, even if they'd been assigned the children and had already been over to meet them. Several local couples' children were trapped in Cambodia.

Angelina Jolie waltzed into Cambodia and waltzed right out with a child. This is not some urban legend; I heard it repeated several times by angry agencies and parents (I was working for an agency at the time) who were there and saw it happen. Nobody ever really knew who greased the wheels so that she alone could adopt a child and this was at that time when she was doing real weird stuff like wearing a vial of her husband's blood around her neck. In addition, there were already rumors of her marriage beginning to falter, and yet SHE got a child?

Money, money, money, money...MONEY!

Didn't know that. That’s great:) Obviously it benefits Maddox

Wow. Well, all we can do is hope that she did it for the right reasons.

Ditto.

That is exactly what I was going to say.



Let's face it, we live in a society where if you have the bucks to throw into someones face, you'll get what you want. Where "normal" people like us have to spend years wading through the red tape of international adoption (and going broke while doing it).

i do like that when stars do things like this that it does bring more awareness to the areas. its not like i or other people had never heard of cambodia but when she adopted maddox it was brought to the awareness of many people. and yah, i'd read somewhere that she keeps him involved in his cultural roots. i also read something about her donating 1/3 of her annual income each year to other countries in need. i think that's awesome.

- marissa

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?