Celebrity adoption natter.

Because we within the adoption community (inasmuch as there is such a thing as one adoption community) can’t get enough of celebrity adopters either (not least because whatever they do in public changes the way people look at us in the supermarket checkout lines), it’s probably time for a check-in.

Madonna is insisting that no, really, we filed paperwork and everything to adopt her child from Malawi, a country that doesn’t actually have a formal international adoption program. The process started long before everyone heard about it because, hey, it’s private family stuff and putting forms in envelopes isn’t quite as photogenic as striding picturesquely across the dusty African plains. OK, she didn’t actually use those words, but the idea’s the same.

Somewhat more chilling, from that same Hindustan Times article, are the lines:

Meanwhile, Madonna, who already has a daughter Lourdes, ten, and son Rocco, six — with Guy is already planning to adopt more kids including a Chinese baby.

She is keen to turn to China next because of its links with her Kabbalah faith.

Perhaps I’m just jaundiced about the Kabbalah Centre, which seems barely related to mainstream Judaism, much less anything Chinese. Less said about that the better, probably.

More cheerfully, the Celebrity Babies blog reports that Meg Ryan is ready to head back to work.

I’m especially fond of the following quote:

‘But that said, I am convinced, completely convinced that there was nothing random about it. She is the daughter I should have. I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that. I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other this way at this time. We are so compatible. And also having the experience of having had Jack and now to have Daisy in a different way — there’s no difference in the love you feel.’

Jack being her biological son with ex-husband Dennis Quaid, and Daisy being her daughter from China, whom she adopted as a single mom. She couldn’t do that under the new guidelines, which makes her family something like mine — the parents who can say, “Well, back in our day….” On the other hand, she’s kissing Antonio Banderas as part of her new job, and unless I’ve been badly deceived, My Lissom Spouse is not, so maybe there are limits to this comparison.

Still, that bit about “no difference” is something I hear a lot around the house, and the “never felt like I was on a rescue mission” is something that kind of goes without saying, since we’re not Hollywood celebrities, and nobody ever mistakes us for trying that hard to be particularly trendy, even though our children are more beautiful than theirs.

And meanwhile-meanwhile, the same blog reports that Angelina Jolie’s kids just inherited $300,000 from their grandma. No, I did not add an extra zero. No, I can’t devise a way to get Angelina to adopt me. Yes, I think it’s a wonderful thing.

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