Madonna on Oprah; Some Rumors Are Cleared Up
Thursday October 26, 2006
So, who watched? I did.
Here are some quick points that were made:
Here are some quick points that were made:
- Madonna has been thinking about adopting for about 2 ˝ years and had started the process long ago with a social worker.
- She never thought about adopting from Los Angeles, as some reports have stated.
- She never spoke with or got advice from Brad or Angelina about adopting.
- She said that what she has now is an interim adoption and that she was allowed to take David home for the 18 months instead of living in Africa, which is customary. A social worker will check-in with the family to see if David is being cared for properly. At the end of 18 months the adoption will be final.
- She does plan on taking David back to Africa with her when she does her travels to check on her “Raising Malawi” project. She is planning one or two trips a year.
- Part of the adoption rules for the country state that verbal and written permission from an extended member of the child’s family must be obtained before an adoption could take place.
- She did meet David's father and he did tell her that he was grateful that she was giving his son a chance at life and an education.
- She feels that David's father is now saying he didn't understand the meaning of adoption due to the press hounding him.
- “My goal, and this is part of the bigger picture, is that I will give David an education and a chance for a better life. And what better way for him to go back and help his own people and help the Malawians and be a voice for his country than to be able to first have a life and be educated.”
It seems to me that the laws for Malawi state that you must be a resident to adopt. So my only issue with this is how did she get around this?? As someone who went through all the ‘legal’ requirements to adopt from Central America years ago only to have it fall through, I am really struggling with this one.
Regarding the 18 month interim given to Madonna, I’m an adoptive mom and certainly not in or relatively close to Madonna’s tax bracket. However, I can attest from my own personal experience regarding the adoption of my son who is African American. Statistically, in the U.S., African American boys are placed 2nd to female African American children. As a result, more African American boys tend to remain in foster care longer. My son was placed with us, pre-adoption, not foster care status while we waited to finalize his adoption. From my point of view, regarding Madonna’s pre-adoption status with baby David, it appears parallel to my experience.
Unfortunately, not many people can offer this prospective and be too quick to judge celebrities based solely on outside appearances. Yes, it seems celebrities have it easier because all of a sudden, the media catches up with the celeb just at the point of placement. In my opinion, the media either doesn’t have all of the pre-adoption information to report or conveniently leaves it out giving the outside appearance of ease to adopt among celebrities. We, in the adoption community are quick to shout “foul” before all of the factual information is presented.
I’m glad Madonna came out to clear up the rumors surrounding her pending adoption.
Further, my son’s adoption was far easier, less time consuming then my daughter’s international adoption. And, by far, I’m not rich or a celebrity.
I’ve blogged about this extensively and on the last post got a pretty big discussion going on about the Oprah appearance. I thought Madonna came off well, but not everyone agrees:
http://older-parent.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/madonna
I have real concerns re the rescuing of children from 3rd world countries.The money it will be costing madonna she could have set up a fostering service in malawi to care for orphaned children.Surely it is better to keep a child within their own culture and heritage.People forget that money does not always buy happiness and what are the long term implications for children raised in the celebrity lime light.How many celebrity children have been raised in dysfunctional families and end up with drink or drug problems.How stable is madonna and can she spend the time and energy to help this child become part of her family and cope with the media spotlight that she clearly thrives on.How much of this childs care be taken on by a nanny and what happens when the nanny leaves .Most adopted children suffer from attachment difficulties and need close love and nurturing by consistent adults who arent away on long tours etc.
Finally there are a lot of very disadvantaged chilren at home whose parents are HIV have addiction or mental health problems who would equally benefit from adoption and would not have to be taken to a different culture and ethic background.
Hope – This is one of my questions – how did Madonna “get around” the law of having to live in Africa for 18 months?
Barbara – The press seems to make things seem as juicy as possible. Have we as a public added to this problem? Seemingly more excited about dirty laundry than good deeds and happy news? Probably so.
Michelle – I haven’t had a chance to check out your posts – but I thought Madonna came off educated and well informed. In fact, my step- mom said the same thing – actually she seemed a bit surprised! My step-mom kept going on about how smart Madonna seemed. Kinda made me laugh.
Angela,
Madonna is putting millions into Malawi in her Raising Malawi project. She is also building orphanages.
I hear you on the attachment issues. It is very important that David have one main caretaker. This is a very good point. I wonder if Madonna has read up on these adoption issues.
She is false but very smart. Speaking in that accent and pretending all is fine and graceful, I do wonder what this woman will end up, either not very good or too good to be true, first class PR machine,
So, Charles, you see this as just a publicity stunt?
I hope not. Besides there area so many other ways for her to get publicity – and she is a pro at causing a stir!