The world of international adoption is one that seems to be open to constant scruitiny and supposition by the press. I have written about this before (sorry no links–you’ll have to search if interested). Why is it that the media and the press feel it is their job to plaster a child’s loss all over the front page of papers, etc. Why do we only see this in international adoption and only recently. Jamie Lee Curtis’ daughter is adopted and I don’t recall reading all about how and why she was given up and how dare some family want to raise her as their own. Nor with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman’s adopted children. What about Rosie’s kids? Why don’t we delve into their pasts and take their private and painful beginnings and discuss the ethics of those adoptions. Are does the media only care when it might be Sensationalized? Why don’t we question why people here in the US give up their children for adoption or how our country here is so unfair that poor pregnant girls sometimes feel that they have no other choice but adoption? But we question why someone in a developing nation would give up their child?
Does it really matter why or how a child came to be available for adoption? I am not saying that we should ignore possible breaches of ethics–domestic and international–but these stories are not just stories. These stories are personal tragedies that have befallen to real people. Zahara one day will be old enough to read the article above that the Daily Mail published. How do you think that will make her feel? I certainly wouldn’t want my son to read an article like that about himself. It saddens me that selling papers and making money is more important than the welfare of a child and the privacy of that child’s beginning in life. Adoption is something to be celebrated not demonized.
I am thankful that I am neither rich or famous. I am thankful that my child can grow up in peace and I can parent without judgement.
Embracing Imperfection 
It pisses me off, too. It seems that every few months a new, different “mother of Zahara” comes forward. I too don’t doubt that she might be out there somewhere, but how is Angelina and Zahara ever supposed to know the truth? You read these articles and they make it seem as if no one in Ethiopia has a TV or knows Angelina is rich and famous. Of course people are going to come forward and claim to be Zahara’s family! And as a mother who hired an investigator to find her kid’s family (to no avail), I know how shameful abandonment/adoption is to Ethiopians. It’s not something they’re proud of and splash all over the village. My other favorite thing was a recent news report saying the birth certificate of Zahara was found and lists this woman as the birth mom…um, birth certificates don’t exist in Ethiopia. I know, my daughter’s lists my name and my husband’s name because the court in Ethiopia had to create it after our case passed court and the investigation into her background was complete. It’s just blatant lies that they put out there.
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I am so with you on this! I think people should just leave adoptive families the hell alone. Dammit.
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Hi there – I’ve not checked in for a while, but thanks for posting this. I remember seeing a fleeting blurb about this on a mag at the grocery checkout, but with a toddler for a shopping companion, I didn’t get a chance to see what it was about.
How terribly sad for everyone to be so exploited in such a private, intense ordeal.
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I’m totally with you on this. I wondered if any adoptive families of Ethiopian kids (or any family with an international adoptee) would comment on this. You’re the only one that I’ve seen.
It’s horrible how the circumstances of Zahara’s birth and adoption could be made so public.I have never seen such hurtful things printed about another “celebrity adoptee.” It’s just shameful that a number of publications chose to publish those stories. I saw one headline that was particularly horrible. Poor Zahara. I’m sure her parents were mortified.
Thanks for writing about this.
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I can’t even read the article b/c it is making me sick. I agree with you completely.
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