News
Angelina Jolie Opts for Ethiopian Girl Instead of Russian Boy
Angelina Jolie's adoption of an Ethiopian orphan has not gone unnoticed at Moscow's Baby House Number 13. Just nine months ago the Hollywood star was set to adopt seven-month-old Gleb from the home.
As one of 170,000 unwanted Russian children, little Gleb's only chance of finding a mum is on the Kremlin's website of unwanted babies, Britain's Mirror newspaper reports.
After weeks of speculation that she might be pregnant by her lover Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, 29, has announced that another child is on the way. The Hollywood star is adopting a child from an Ethiopian orphanage, who will be called Zahara Marley Jolie.
Zahara will be a sister to three-year-old Maddox, who was adopted from Cambodia after Angelina visited landmine victims there in 2002. At the time, she said, “I think that if I simply gave birth to a child then it would be a torture for me to think that I had not helped one more orphan instead.”
Yet just nine months ago, Angelina had set her sights on another baby — seven-month-old Gleb. In October, Angelina had swept into the Moscow orphanage which he still calls home, with officials from Moscow's state education department. He was just one of several orphans she cuddled during her two-day visit to find a brother for Maddox. But when she spotted Gleb she seemed to have a special connection with the tot.
Windows at the rundown children's home had been cleaned prior to her visit. The director had her hair styled and the staff wore their best clothes — one recalls, “She stunned us all with her looks and charisma.”
But there was also dismay and bemusement that a rich American film star's longing for a child should be pandered to by a laborious international adoption system which usually frowns on lone parents, the Mirror writes.
”It is very important for orphans and children whose parents don't take care of them to be able to find new families,“ said Russia's education minister, Andrei Fursenko, launching a new adoption website.
Last year, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his wife Doris collected an orphan girl from a home near St. Petersburg.
Although Kremlin officials say they are not against foreign adoptions, they recently closed a dozen agencies dealing in international adoption.
July 05, 2005
http://www.mosnews.com
