4:52 pm - 10/06/2008
Mary-Louise Parker often reflects back on her childhood, wishing her parents would adopt a sibling and promising herself that someday, she would adopt a child of her own. Now mom to Caroline "Ash" Aberash, 2, the 44-year-old actress says the adoption from Africa was a dream fulfilled. "I think it’s something everyone should do if they can and want to," Mary-Louise said Saturday night at the New Yorker Festival in New York City.
"I can’t adopt 500 children, but I did adopt this one beautiful little girl and it was an amazing thing. Especially after having been to a Third World country, and having seen the desperation there, and the need, and all the children, and holding those children and seeing them and touching them."
Mary-Louise said that she recognizes that the need for adoptive parents is just as great in the United States as it is abroad, but believes every child should have a chance at a great life, regardless of geography:
"I hear the comment, "Why not adopt from this country?" There’s a lot of need in this country. And I think if you want to adopt anywhere it’s a beautiful thing, but it’s not a contest. So you shouldn’t say "Why don’t you adopt this child over that child." A child is a child and every child deserves to be loved."
"If was a contest, however, a Third World country is different from, say, Baltimore. It’s different when there are dead bodies by the side of the road and parents having to amputate their children’s limbs so children can beg to get money, and mothers are having to sell their daughters into sex slavery. It’s a different thing, so I don’t think you should make it a contest when it comes to children, and who’s deserving of love and who’s deserving of a family. Every child is deserving of that."
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I love what she says about adopting. <3
Mary-Louise Parker Talks Adoption
Mary-Louise Parker often reflects back on her childhood, wishing her parents would adopt a sibling and promising herself that someday, she would adopt a child of her own. Now mom to Caroline "Ash" Aberash, 2, the 44-year-old actress says the adoption from Africa was a dream fulfilled. "I think it’s something everyone should do if they can and want to," Mary-Louise said Saturday night at the New Yorker Festival in New York City.
"I can’t adopt 500 children, but I did adopt this one beautiful little girl and it was an amazing thing. Especially after having been to a Third World country, and having seen the desperation there, and the need, and all the children, and holding those children and seeing them and touching them."
Mary-Louise said that she recognizes that the need for adoptive parents is just as great in the United States as it is abroad, but believes every child should have a chance at a great life, regardless of geography:
"I hear the comment, "Why not adopt from this country?" There’s a lot of need in this country. And I think if you want to adopt anywhere it’s a beautiful thing, but it’s not a contest. So you shouldn’t say "Why don’t you adopt this child over that child." A child is a child and every child deserves to be loved."
"If was a contest, however, a Third World country is different from, say, Baltimore. It’s different when there are dead bodies by the side of the road and parents having to amputate their children’s limbs so children can beg to get money, and mothers are having to sell their daughters into sex slavery. It’s a different thing, so I don’t think you should make it a contest when it comes to children, and who’s deserving of love and who’s deserving of a family. Every child is deserving of that."
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I love what she says about adopting. <3
I feel almost like she is saying that it's ok for unwanted American kids to be abused/raped/disfigured (which they certainly ARE) because children in the vague expanse of Africa 'have it worse'.
I dunno.
What I do know is that Black foster kids in America are so unwanted that they are ridiculously easy to adopt; they'll even let openly gay people adopt them, just to get them out of the system.
I dunno, I dunno.
I don't know why this statement rubs me the wrong way. Gay couples can adopt any child, regardless of race. It's illegal to deny a gay couple adoption because of their sexual orientation.
I'm pretty sure it varies by state. There was a gay couple in Florida, for instance, a few years back who were finding it impossible to adopt the children they had fostered for years.
And I've always wanted my parents to adopt a kid, they never did. I will try too when I feel like I'm ready.
And to everyone who gets pissed when people don't adopt the way they want them to, go adopt your own fucking children and stfu.