From time to time May and I will be featuring guest bloggers. Our first was Mindful Momma this past weekend.
Today we would like to share freelance writer MaryLou’s perspective on Madonna’s current adoption of a little boy from Malawi.
As the adoptive mother of two African children, I have to admit that
my motherly instincts get replaced with the fight/flee instincts
every time I see another headline about Madonna’s imminent adoption
of a young Malawian boy. Fight: I challenge anyone to say there is
not a need for stable, loving, safe homes for children, around the
world and in our own back yard. Of course Madonna should be allowed
to adopt, so long as she’s been checked out by the local They Who
Have Say authorities. Of course she’s getting preferential treatment.
She’s an uberrich rock star, and if my own international adoption
experience is any indication, what is a hard-and-fast rule in one
situation is only a suggested guideline in another.
But then there’s the flee urge: What if Madonna’s paparazzi-
documented experiment in parenting turns people off from adopting?
What if she’s just doing it for the attention (Madonna? Clutch the
pearls.) and not for the best interests of the child? When we brought
our children home, we over and over again endured the comment: “Oh,
you just want to be like Angelina.” Well, yeah. I’d love to be a
unbelievably hot Amazon that most of my girlfriends would switch
teams for. But when it comes to adoption, it boils down to this: You
just want to love a child. You just want to raise a child. And if you
are lucky enough to pass the scrutiny, scrounge up the not-
inconsequential funds, and ride out the roller coaster, you get a
little one in your life that changes the way you look at everything.
Including Madonna.
