We all know that it’s coming eventually and a lot of media sources have already started speculating: The next Jolie-Pitt adoption. Both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have said they aren’t finished with having kids yet and we know that adoption is still very important to them. They’ve also said in the past that they would like to have a physical balance as far as ethnicity is concerned - for example, they adopted Pax from Vietnam to share some Asian heritage and identity with older brother Maddox from Cambodia.

It stands to reason, then, that they would likely adopt another child from Africa as they did when they adopted Zahara from Ethiopia, or perhaps a child with darker skin from South America. Whether it would be a girl or a boy, I don’t know, and I’m not sure if gender necessarily matters to them.

Obviously we have no way of knowing unless either Brad or Angelina talks to the media and says, “We’re adopting a child from [whichever country] next month!” Which, of course, is highly unlikely!

However, it’s fun to guess and we always have such great conversations in the discussion posts, so in light of a slow-down on the news right now, let’s talk about where Brad and Angelina might go to adopt next!

(Please keep in mind that the majority of us are not necessarily aware of all the international adoption laws, so if anyone should mention countries where it would be just about impossible, kindly refrain from attacking - this is just for fun after all!)

I could have seen the rumor about an adoption in India being true until people mentioned how difficult it would be - having read up on the international adoption laws in India now, I realize that even if they wanted to, it would be a near impossibility.

I see them going back to Africa at this point. They might even go back to Ethiopia specifically. It’s very dear to their hearts, and not just because Zahara was born there but also because they have their clinic that they started there to help treat patients with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS (through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation). I don’t know what other countries are like for adoption laws (recent news about Madonna’s adoption attempt in Malawi springs to mind), but if they don’t have any specific laws, Darfur might be another option for them - Angelina Jolie visited refugees in Darfur through the UNHCR and saw first-hand how in need the country’s people are.

Another question, which is more interesting to me than whether it will be a boy or a girl, is will it be a baby or an older child? Zahara was a baby when she was adopted (though not a newborn), whereas Pax was a bit older. With their current family dynamic - two twin babies, three pre-schoolers, and an older child - I wonder which would work best for them. I can’t even guess!

Like I said before, for all we know, they may have already filed the preliminary work somewhere to prepare for adopting. Angelina had mentioned they wouldn’t start the adoption process until Knox and Vivienne were six months old due to legal reasons, but that deadline has passed now. In some places, adoption can pass fairly swiftly, but in other countries the wait time can be quite lengthy so they may have needed to get started right away. Maybe while we’re guessing the origins of the next Jolie-Pitt child, they’re already half way through the set-up.

What do you think?

(Thanks to joliepittfanatic for suggesting this topic!)

Image used with permission: Newscom

All of my news alerts are currently flooded with rumors that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie plan to adopt another child “soon” - this time from India. There doesn’t seem to be any confirmed sources, so we’re still dealing with “a source said” gossip, but it’s not entirely unbelievable.

The alleged story is that Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, one of the ten-year-old child stars of Slumdog Millionaire asked Angelina, after meeting her at the Oscars, why she hasn’t adopted from his home country yet. Supposedly, Angie said they would be soon.

Yet another unnamed “source” claims that Brad and Angelina visited the Priya Darshini Orphanage when they were in India in 2006, but weren’t able to complete all the paperwork at that time.

Right now, it’s all just talk, but you know, this is one rumor that actually wouldn’t surprise me. We know they still want to expand their family, and we know they still want to adopt. We’ve also heard them speak favorably of India on several occasions - one recent time that sticks out in my mind is when reporters asked Brad what his reaction was to the attacks in India a few months ago.

With the twins getting older now and the amount of time that it takes to complete an international adoption, I could definitely see them making plans to adopt a child from India. Obviously, Angelina is a little busy right now with filming, but if there’s a trip to India in the near future, I would not be shocked at all.

What do you think of this latest rumor? While gossip is gossip, at least this one is a positive story, rather than the same old, washed-out “trouble in paradise” garbage!

(source)

Image used with permission: Newscom

Okay folks, back by popular demand, let’s start up another discussion thread. Several of you have asked for another one after we had a few really great discussion threads over the past few weeks, especially since we’re pretty much getting crickets chirping from the Jolie-Pitt homestead right now. Which is good, of course - it means Brad Pitt is getting whatever filming remains taken care of for Tree of Life and it means Angelina Jolie and the kids are enjoying a bit of privacy without worrying about cameras in everyone’s face.

I did some thinking to try to come up with a good topic for us to discuss and it finally came down to this one since so many of us have expressed annoyance over this issue in the past. Why is it that so many media sources constantly differentiate between the Jolie-Pitt kids as far as whether they are adopted or biological? It seems like just about ever story I read has some blurb along the lines of “Brad and Angelina have three adopted children and one biological daughter with another biological addition (or two) on the way” and it drives me completely insane.

They are all their children. I don’t understand the point of bringing it up in every single article out there. I’m quite certain that when it’s time for dinner, Angelina isn’t calling out, “come on adopted children and biological kid, time to eat!” Why does the media do it? Is it because people are so fascinated by such a blended family that they feel it’s important to mention it at all times? Is there underlying snark? Is it that journalists are, perhaps unwittingly, pitting them against each other like there are two teams of children? Is it because they think that there are still two or three people out there who don’t know who Brad and Angelina are and aren’t aware that they’ve both adopted and conceived children together?

I don’t like it. If it’s an article specifically about adoption then it makes sense, but just throwing it in the middle of every article or blog post about them is annoying. I don’t differentiate because they’re all children. Maybe it’s just because I’m used to adoption. Two of my cousins were adopted and I don’t go around making references like “my adopted cousins and my biological cousins had a great day together”. It was just a general known fact and it didn’t need to be discussed ad nauseum because they were just my cousins and I didn’t really care how they arrived in my family. I also have some friends with adopted children and we don’t differentiate there either, there’s no discussion of “let’s have all the adopted and all the biological kids over for a playdate!” it’s just “the kids”.

So why? Why does the media do this all the time? Let’s talk!

Technorati Tags: brad pitt, angelina jolie, jolie-pitt kids, adoption, pittwatch,

So Bill O’Reilley did indeed ask the question, “Is Angelina Jolie addicted to adopting children?” on his show last night. What is interesting though is that there were two psychologists who came on and said that yes she might be (and naturally they brought up her past, because of course no one has a past, no one has ever changed themselves), but Bill O’Reilley was the one who was defending Angelina, saying that it’s intrusive and we don’t know her, and it’s not fair to judge her adoption reasons based on her past and on tabloid headlines.

Considering I’m not a Bill O’Reilley fan in any way, I was impressed with him.

I have a clip that I made for you to see it - it’s pretty short and I cut it where I did because then they stopped talking about Angelina and moved on to asking the psychologists about the current New York governor scandal. There wasn’t really much said at all, to be honest, but I thought fans would be interested just because of the way he stands up for her choices.

Personally, I think that it’s an insult to anyone who has more than two children who are relatively close in age. How is it that you can decide someone is filling a void without personally doing counselling with them? Some people like to have their children close in age - regardless of how many there are - so that they will grow up together and relate to each other. My sister and I have over five years between us and it wasn’t until we were adults that we got along. My kids have less than three years between them and I hope that helps them to be a little closer at a younger age. No one has asked Brad and Angelina if they’re working on having so many children so quickly because they want them all to enjoy each other, or if maybe they don’t want to wait until they’re both too old to have the energy to keep up with the kids.

Of course a professional psychologist knows more than your average person but I think it’s irresponsible for a professional to attempt to diagnose someone that they’ve never met just because they’re in the public eye.

Technorati Tags: brad pitt, angelina jolie, bill o’reilley, adoption, jolie-pitt family

Here’s some exciting news from TMZ.com - Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt has officially been adopted. Of course, Angelina Jolie adopted him last year, but it had to be made official in both countries. It was approved in Vietnam, where Pax was first born, but it still needed to be approved back in the U.S. Yesterday, they went to L.A. County Children’s Court in Monterey Park, California. A judge finalized everything and now it’s official.

Congratulations to the entire Jolie-Pitt family on Pax’s formal adoption being complete!

Thank you to Andrea for sending this to me because it made me laugh.

Comic “Grand Ave” by Steve Breen.

I can not thank reader Passerby enough for bringing my attention to this video. It’s a parody song written by VenetianPrincess called “Adopt Me Too”. She made an entire video out of her song and it’s absolutely hilarious. It’s a plea for Brad and Angelina to please adopt her too.

On top of being funny, her voice isn’t bad at all, the video editing is great quality, and it’s uncanny how much she actually resembles Angelina Jolie (she’s a very beautiful girl).

Please note that the song is meant in good humor, it’s not meant to make fun of Brad and Angelina. In her own description of the song she said this:

PLEASE NOTE: I am a big fan of Brad and Angelina, and have a profound respect for their charity efforts. Also, it is solely a parody of the two celebrities, and in no way makes fun of any ethnic cultures. My intention was to theme this video with the cheerful sounds and images of Africa, in a positive, uplifting way.

Technorati Tags: angelina jolie, brad pitt, video, angelina jolie brad pitt humor

The rumors have been running wild across the Internet, and for good reason because several sources have cited that Angelina Jolie’s adoption of Zahara Jolie-Pitt was not entirely legal and that Zahara’s birth mother was still alive and wanted her back.

I am so disgusted by these so called sources. Today an article came out via Reuters, explaining that this is not true.

Angelina Jolie’s adoption of an Ethiopian baby was legal, the agency involved said on Thursday, rejecting reports that the child’s relatives want her back.

Newspapers have reported this week that relatives of two-year-old Zahara, including a woman who says she is her birth mother, want the child returned to Ethiopia. Jolie adopted Zahara in July, 2005.

“The court in Addis Ababa approved the adoption after studying the document her grandmother wrote … saying her daughter, the mother of Zahara, had died and she was too poor to bring her up,” Tsegaye Berhe, the head of Wide Horizons for Children, which conducted the adoption, told Reuters.

“The grandmother brought three witnesses to court who testified that Zahara’s mother had died and that her father was unknown … The court also investigated the social status of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt before approving the adoption.”

Tsegaye said the adoption was “legal and irrevocable”, and he blamed reporters who he said had paid the relatives to raise the dispute.

“The controversy is media hype by unethical journalists exploiting the poverty of the grandmother,” he said.

In essence, what that means is that these papers and tabloids are so desperate to dig up dirt on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that they PAID people in Ethiopia to lie in order to create a story. I can’t blame the people over there who went along with it because if I was that poor I’d probably do it too for some money to keep living. But there is no excuse for the trash on this side of the world that would pay people to make up such damaging lies. I guess constantly saying “they’re splitting up/no they’re getting married/they’re expecting quintuplets/they’re adopting fifteen kids at once!” is getting old so now they’ve sunk even lower than ever before.

I admire Brad and Angelina very much for their ability to ignore most of what the tabloids “report” and I guess that’s the only way to survive it, but this sort of story could have been very harmful had it not been cleared up, and in this case I’d love to see them sue and then turn around and give whatever money they win to the Addis Ababa orphanage.

(Article source from Reuters/Africa via Soulie Jolie. Photo via Google.)

Technorati Tags: angelina jolie, angelina jolie adoption, brad pitt, brad pitt adoption, angelina jolie and brad pitt adoption, zahara, zahara jolie-pitt, adoption of zahara jolie-pitt, addis ababa, wide horizons for children

According to People magazine, a court in Santa Monica officially approved Pax Thien’s legal name change to Pax Thien Jolie-Pitt.

After Angelina adopted Pax from Vietnam in March, she went to the courts in April to legally change her new son’s last name. Vietnamese law makes it ore difficult for an unmarried couple to adopt so Angie adopted him by herself but always intended for him to be raised with Brad as his father.

This was no surprise since she made the same request for Maddox and Zahara to be legally renamed Jolie-Pitt back in January of 2006.

(Source)

Angelina Jolie has said it before, the fact that she and Brad Pitt want to create a balance within her family, so I have no doubts that they will turn to Africa again in the future for another adoption, just like when Angie adopted Zahara. However, thanks to TMZ, it seems that while this could happen down the line, it’s not in the immediate future.

TMZ spoke to Jolie’s lawyer, Robert Offer, who told us that the rumor is definitely false. He says that he’s been involved in all of Jolie’s adoptions and that he hasn’t spoken to her about adopting any children from Chad, or any other country for that matter.

That’s really good to know, because personally I would think it’s important for her to let her family adjust to the latest changes and to have some stability before bringing another child into the picture. I look forward to her future family additions, but in the meantime I’m just looking forward to more news (and respectful photos!) of her family as is!