Two recent calendar quotes on my desk have made me pause and think:
"Becoming a mother makes you the mother of all children. From now on each wounded, abandoned, frightened child is yours. You live in the suffering mothers of every race and weep with them. You long to comfort all who are desolate." -- Charlotte Gray
and
"Oh what a power is motherhood, possessing a potent spell. All women alike fight fiercely for a child." -- Iphigenia
I believe those statements right there tell why someone like Madonna, in her 40s with two birth children, chooses to adopt a child from an impoverished nation, or why someone like Angelina Jolie has adopted two babies from countries in similar economic states.
People often joke about adopting foreign children becoming a new trend in Hollywood. For once, why don't we just think of it as someone offering a child a better life instead of looking for the ulterior motive? These women are in a position, financially, to provide for these kids. They're also in a position where they can influence other people's decisions simply because they are famous. Why not let them do good?
At the root of it all may be something as simple as wanting to provide comfort for a child or give a child a home when they wouldn't hae one in other ways.
Just for kicks, I'll look at things from the other foot for just a minute. Say there is an ulterior motive. Say they feel giving money for medical clinics or orphanages and adopting these kids gives them good publicity. The child still benefits by being out of an orphanage where they are just a number and out of a country where the changes of contracting some deadly disease are pretty great. Let me repeat: The child still benefits. That should be all that matters.