The person I responded to had written that she "loved that she adopted a baby from the states." The unmentioned, but obvious elephant in the room was "instead of from overseas." Otherwise, WHY does it matter WHERE the baby came from? Indeed, why does it matter at all? I find no fault with her adopting domestically....or you for that matter. I am thrilled when it works out well for a family. I am happy when a child from
any country finds a home with a family, period. It's a win/win all the way around.
I am not slamming domestic adoption. Friends of mine have done so with success. Others have met with failure. Getting a baby quickly and easily is just not the norm. It simply isn't. With so many women opting to keep their babies these days and so many more families wanting to adopt, basic math tells us there will never be enough babies in the US to "go around." Some couples/singles will get lucky domestically and some will not.
Those of us who could not take one more failed attempt at parenthood....and I was one...simply may not be cut out for domestic adoption. If I had started trying to adopt before my first surgery and before I ever tried IVF and had all those miscarriages, I very well might have tried to adopt domestically. Back then, I would have been a different person. I have friends who were not cut out for international adoption (for various reasons) and I do not criticize them for it because it is NOT for everyone. For them, domestic was a better fit. I am not saying one is superior or inferior to the other. They are just DIFFERENT. And the parents who adopt have had different life experiences that make them choose various paths to parenthood.
When people automatically assume that it's better/preferable to adopt from the US than internationally, I merely try to point out that they might want to attempt to understand WHY some of us choose international. Adoption is rarely a breeze, whether it's domestic or international. It's so easy for people to pass judgment until they have lived through what we have. I cannot fathom why anyone would think it better for my husband and I to have gotten in a waiting line for a baby that was not even born yet when there were waiting babies elsewhere in need of loving parents.

We would have loved to have gotten a newborn (one of the reasons many people prefer domestic) but it was not a MUST. We figured why not go outside the US to adopt and let someone here "move up the waiting line" so to speak, if it meant that much to them to have a newborn? If we took ourselves out of the pool of domestic potential adoptive parents (because we were fine with going elsewhere) then a couple who was NOT fine with going elsewhere would stand a better shot of getting that US baby. It only made sense to us....for everyone.
I don't care if Sandra Bulllock (or anyone else for that matter) got her baby in the US, Africa, Europe or Asia. He looks happy and she looks over the moon. Without a doubt, he will have a good life. In the end, isn't that what matters?
So why do I even respond or bring it up? Because someone else brought it up by implication in the first place. Sure, I'm probably a bit touchy regarding the subject. Implying that adopting internationally is "less than" adopting domestically gets me riled up since it, in a roundabout way, is an insult to my child. You seemed to think I was criticizing domestic adoptions (I did not mean to....for that I apologize) and you seem to have gotten somewhat irritated yourself. I'll quit "giving a lecture" the minute people stop giving me a reason to get on my soapbox. So long as an adoption is legal, who cares where the baby is from?
For the life of me, I cannot see why it's better to adopt a baby from one place instead of another. Or a boy over a girl. Or an African American baby over a White baby. Or a this over a that.
What does matter is that a child has a devoted mother to love and care for him. She chose the route she took for her own reasons and that is her right and her business. She didn't choose my route and I'd never expect her to.
Both are wonderful ways of becoming a parent. The first words out of my mouth when I saw the pic of her and her son today were, "Good for her!" It never occurred to me to focus on WHERE she had gotten her son......