Strollerderby : Mary-Louise Parker

The Jolie-Pitts Need to Pick Up the Pace

Madeline Holler — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:02:00 GMT

Not even Angelina Jolie could turn these numbers around. International adoptions in the U.S. have fallen dramatically for a third year in a row.

State Department figures show that only 19,411 children were adopted by Americans from foreign countries last year, a decrease of 15 percent in the past two years.

The huge drop is due to tougher requirements in two countries – China and Russia -- where most children have been adopted into the U.S. in recent years. As waiting times strectched in China from 8 months to 2 years, families started looked elsewhere for children. Russia suspended all out-of-country adoptions this year, until it could reaccredit the agencies handling their adoptions. Both countries are trying to boost adoptions within the country.

Angelina Jolie certainly brought international adoption into the spotlight, but even before she snatched up baby Maddox and brought him back to Hollywood, foreign adoptions had been on a fast and steady increase since the early 1990s, tripling until they reached a peak of 22,884 children in 2004. The number then fell by more than 2,000 kids in 2006.

According to State Department figures: “U.S. adoptions from South Korea and Haiti also declined significantly, although the overall drop was partially offset by large increases in adoptions from Guatemala (up from 4,135 to 4,728), Ethiopia (732 to 1,255) and Vietnam (163 to 626).”

Adoptions from Guatemala will also drop drastically for the next couple of years as that country suspends adoptions and in an effort to ensure the legitimacy of the whole process.

Guatemala to Suspend Adoptions

Madeline Holler — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:08:00 GMT

After growing unease with his country's adoption process, the president of Guatemala said he will suspend adoptions from his country starting Jan. 1, 2008, leaving 3,000 children already in the process of being adopted in limbo and countless other families mulling adoption to look elsewhere in the world.

The country's president said he is taking the measure -- seen by some as extreme in that it ignores the fate of what will quickly be thousands of abandoned children -- amid growing concerns about the current system, which opponents say has led to paying mothers for children or coercing them to give up their babies.

An average of 17 children born in Guatemala leave the country for the United States every day with the parents who adopted them. Guatemala has long been considered a place where adoptions are relatively fast and uncomplicated. The Central American country is behind only China in the number of children adopted out to American families every year.

Guatemala has the highest per capita rate of adoption of any country in the world. One of every 100 children born in the country is adopted internationally. American officials say 5,000 adoptions have been approved this year, an all-time high for Guatemalan adoptions to the U.S. American officials also say that last year's 4,000 adoptions were legal and untainted by any problems.

Hotels, lawyers, social workers and some orphanages and foster families have built up businesses around Guatemalan adoptions, which cost an average of $30,000 to process and include at least two trips to the country before bringing baby to a new home permanently.

Adoption has been hotly contested for years there, too, with some people claiming the fact that the process is run by lawyers and social workers -- not the government -- leaves it vulnerable to undesirable practices, such as baby selling or stealing.

NPR's recent report on the country's adoptions looks at charges against a recently raided agency in Guatemala, which was shut down pending charges of exchanging cash for children. The owners, an American and a Guatemalan, deny the charges.

International adoption has become very visible -- and even more attractive, some might say -- thanks to celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Mary-Louise Parker and others Hollywood stars. But it is a subject that is fraught, made even more so whenever accusations of baby-buying surface.

Still, who doesn't know a family who has created a family through international adoption? What do you think? Is Guatemala solving a humanitarian crisis but shutting down adoptions or is it creating one?

Babble Talk: Interview With Mary-Louise Parker

Karen Murphy — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:34:00 GMT

I admit, I've always had a bit of a thing for Mary-Louise Parker ever since I saw her in Fried Green Tomatoes. Mary-Louise seemed quirky and eccentric yet strong, just the sort of person I'd be if I was shorter and a brunette. And famous. (And buff! Have you seen her lately? She does "over-40" proud.) And Ada Calhoun's recent interview with Mary-Louise does not disappoint; in fact, the actress seems to be living an idyllic life with her three-year-old son, playing the urban mom while introducing him to the joys of art through frequent museum trips and walks through the park while at the same time trying to provide him with balance and down-time. In short, Mary-Louise Parker seems to be doing what we all aspire to: enjoying our children, teaching them about the things we feel are important in life, while at the same time remaining true to ourselves.