Wow--someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

We didn't set out to "adopt a black child", and if you had read my comment more closely you would have seen that our motivation was the need in other countries. Orphaned children here at least have the benefit of some foster care.

My daughter weighed 17 pounds at age 3 1/2 because of severe malnutrition, and her brother was hydrocephalic. It took a few weeks for us to train her away from pretending to limp and hold out her hands to beg.

Ethiopian (and other) orphans live on the freaking street. They need help.

Shame on you for blinding yourself with such quick judgments.

BTW--I'm a Ron Paul supporter.

There are two streams of ignorant comments happening here.

First, those who claim this mother was justified in any way in the actions she took. The adoption process means that the family takes on all legal responsibilities for the child as their *own*. What this mother did *is* akin to abandonment and should be roundly criticized and investigated.

We adopted two former-orphans from Ethiopia, and OF COURSE there are challenges--as there are with birth children! Investigate the statistics though, and you will discover that adopted children (foreign AND domestic) fare BETTER than birth children (statistically-speaking, based on criminal activity and/or education).

Anecdotes are not data.

All this to say that the problem here isn't the adoption per se, but clearly the preparation of the mother (which is her responsibility, and the placement agency). She had no right to do what she did.

But the second stream is flat out offensive--and should be so to all readers: that foreign adoption is either A) self-indulgent or B) unnecessary because "what, we're running out of kids here?"

There are tens of millions of orphans out there living in horribly-institutionalized orphanages or just plain on the street. Domestically, with all its flaws, we have a FOSTER system which is designed to prevent that here (and it does, generally).

Foreign adoption is an act of mercy that should be applauded, not seen as some sort of multi-culti wish-fulfillment. Yes, there are easy targets (Madonna, Brangelina, etc.), but I would be willing to bet that put aside celebrity-distaste, and even THEY were seeking to rescue children.

It's sad to me that the vast majority of successful adoptions will get tarred with the over-broad conclusions of the ignorant based on this one woman's selfish decision. She clearly wasn't prepared--and she clearly didn't fully explore the (legal) options for getting more assistance.

Pray for all involved -- and freaking leave aside the ignorant crap re: cultural imperialism or wish-fulfillment. Please.