"There is a spate of celebrity international adoptions atm and it has the air of "fashion accessory" about it. I'm not criticising those who are choosing to adopt from abroad, but I do hope you would consider adopting from this country first."
I'm afraid I think you are criticising - how else would you describe the term "fashion accessory" if not loaded with criticism. I would also be interested in which UK celebrity you know who has adopted from overseas (I know of only two and one of those is a public figure but could hardly be described as a celebrity) and if you know how many parents adopted as a result of seeing any non-UK celebs adopting. I don't mean people who rang up and enquired but people who actually adopted. I know of several hundred adoptive parents and would be amazed if even a single one of them did it for the fashion value.
I would have been perfectly happy to adopt here and was told in no uncertain terms to forget it. I'm single, white and over 30. Plenty of mixed race children available but they will not match them with white single adopters.
Believe me Rhubarb, you are preaching to the choir here! With the training thats given prior to adopting and the attitude from the newspapers and general public, no adopters looking overseas are in any doubt what they are doing is difficult and, in general, frowned upon. The country I'm going to insists that all children are on the domestic register for 6 months prior to allowing them to be considered for an overseas placement (and I believe there are very few, if any countries that don't have a similar policy). Kazakh families are always given first opportunity to adopt and even if you are matched with a child, they could be placed with a local family right up until the point that the adoption is legalised.
I guess do I differ from you on one point, I don't believe that it is in the best interests of the child to stay in their birth country - or at least not unless they are going to be adopted locally. I believe (as does the Hague convention on this subject which Britain has signed) that it is the fundamental right of every child to have a family life. Most children growing up in institutions in developing countries (even those which have a good record of care) have no posessions of their own, they live in dormitory rooms of 10-20 children, they have no hope of privacy and very little hope of an education past 14-16. The rates of suicide of these children leaving care at 14-16 is incredibly high (don't have them to hand but I have seen the studies) and when you add to that the number which end up in petty crime and prostitution, it's heart-breaking.
It has taken me over two years to get to this point - I have been trained, criminal records checked, had references taken (work and personal), opened my finances up to all and sundry, been prodded by doctors, had my childhood and previous relationships dissected by complete strangers, paid in excess of £5000 to various UK government bodies and then had to appear before a panel of 12 people asking questions about my private life and judging whether I'm competent to parent. Believe me, I didn't do this on a whim because Angelina Jolie adopted a cute baby - it just doesn't work like that in the UK. There are approximately 300 intercountry adoptions in the UK every year and that includes adoptions by family members and the average adoption takes about 2.5 years to complete. It's not exactly a stampede. France and Spain with not dissimilar populations adopt about 3000 children per annum from overseas.
My children will be Kazakh citizens until they are 18 and will then be able to choose for themselves whether to keep that citizenship. I have already set up a group of parents and arranged meetings with the kazakh embassy, trips to kazkah events and am planning a russian/kazakh baby and toddler group. I will of course take tehm back to their birth country as many times as I can afford and they want to go. Not as good as being brought up there, but on the upside - they will have a mummy who loves them and tucks them in at night, who reads them bedtime stories and kisses their grazes better. I will check their homework and fight for any help they might need in school and will do my best to make sure that they are proud of both cultures that made them.
Sorry to labour the point, but you're not the first person to express their opinion to me on this (and no doubt won't be the last) and I've moved from acquiescence to rebellion.