Madonna Musings

I have seen some of the headlines about Madonna adopting from Africa, and it has been a hot topic on one of the African adoption yahoo groups I belong to. To be honest, I really haven't spent too much time perusing the information...my finger seems to just hit the delete key :)
Another adoptive mom wrote the following in an email yesterday...thought I'd share it here because she is much more articulate than I will ever be.

People have been sending me links lately to various articles devoted
to criticizing international adoption and interracial adoptions,
coming from the debate surrounding Madonna's adoption. Now I am
completely out of the loop on celebrity anything, as I have better
role-models now that I've met Jesus, but some of these articles made
me smile. Especially the one that said African adoption was the new
hip thing to do, and having an adopted child was like having the
latest "hot accessory." If I could profile and stereotype the
families that have adopted from Liberia anyway, the majority of them
have been Christian homeschool families, many with several
biological children of their own. If we were interested in a hot
new accessory, we would have scraped up some money and headed to Wal-
Mart to splurge on some $15.00 pair of shoes. The only bandwagon we
were jumping on was the one God had called us to, which was to obey
His command to care for orphans.

Anybody who has actually adopted a child knows the huge commitment
in time, money, energy, and spiritual muscle it takes to adopt and
parent a child. It's a calling, not a fad, something that comes
from the heart of our adoptive Father God.



Another criticism has been that it is inherently wrong to rob a
child of their native culture. I wonder if the writers of these
articles have actually been to Liberia? When I was there I had
women coming up to me on the streets, begging me to take their
children while I explained that it was not that the adoption process
was not that simple. Like any culture, there are parts of the
culture of Liberia that are beautiful and also parts that are
totally depraved. I for one am glad my girls are missing out on
childhood rape, female genitial mutilation, malnutrition, disease
and early death.


As Christians, I believe we should be respectful of whatever
cultures we encounter, viewing each individual as created in the
image of God. I also believe that Jesus can redeem any culture, and
I pray for and invest in those countries and people groups that God
has put on my heart. I want to see a Liberia where children are
safe, fed, and shown the love of God. But it hasn't happened yet,
and I believe God used adoption to save my girls from some horrific
things. I think God is big enough and creative enough to use many
different avenues of rescuing a person. Therefore no one should
feel false-guilt if God has not led them to adopt, nor should anyone
who was called to adopt feel that their adopted child is somehow
losing out because God did remove that child out of their birth
country.

A Christian worldview does not overemphasize any one culture nor
does it place importance on the amount of melanain in an
individual's skin, their eye shape, their hair texture, nor the
shape of their nose or the size of their lips. Race, culture, socio-
economic status are not how disciples of Jesus categorize people.
God obviously loves diverstiy, and I don't think He has anything but
a big smile for those families that have embraced all kinds of
diversity into their lives. He Himself has the most culturally
diverse, multi-racial family ever, and He adopted all of us, with
all our 'special needs.'