LILONGWE – US pop star Madonna will not be allowed to adopt a second child from Malawi, a 4-year-old girl named Mercy James, the African country’s High Court ruled on Friday.

“She came in a convoy of four vehicles and used the cargo terminal to take-off in her jet,” the official at Lilongwe’s international airport told AFP.

The ruling will please campaigners who say authorities have given the singer special treatment. Malawi’s government, which came under fire after Madonna adopted a 13-month-old Malawian boy, had said on Thursday it would support a second adoption.

Court registrar Ken Manda told reporters Madonna’s bid to adopt Mercy had been rejected because the star was not a resident of Malawi.

An AIDS epidemic in the impoverished southern African state has produced more than one million orphans.

In her ruling, Judge Esimie Chombo warned against celebrity adoptions, saying they could lead to child trafficking.

“Anyone could come to Malawi and quickly arrange for an adoption that might have grave consequences on the very children that the law seeks to protect,” she said.

Madonna’s lawyer, Alan Chinula, said she would lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court on Friday. Her London spokeswoman was not immediately available for comment.

Madonna has entertained millions around the world with sexy high-energy performances and songs like “Material Girl” and “Papa Don’t Preach,” and created controversies along the way.

In 1989, the video for “Like A Prayer,” with its links between religion and eroticism, was condemned by the Vatican and caused Pepsi-Cola to cancel a sponsorship deal with the star.

Madonna surprised fans in February by dedicating another of her hits, “Like a Virgin,” to the pope at a concert in Rome.

Malawian rights groups, who accused the government of skirting residency laws when Madonna adopted David Banda in 2006, opposed the latest adoption attempt as well.

Malawian Information Minister Patricia Kaliati told Reuters on Thursday that Madonna had helped in the country and was a worthy mother who was supporting over 25,000 orphans here.

Madonna, accompanied by David, arrived in Malawi on Sunday ahead of the court examination of her application.

The star, who was divorced last year from British film director Guy Ritchie, is one of the most successful singers of all time, with album sales of more than 200 million.

Children with special needs are always on the waiting list for adoption. Like all children, they need the nurturing, support and advocacy to help them realize their hopes and dreams.

A special needs child is one who has one or more physical and/or emotional disabilities. These children have often endured abuse and neglect in their lives and require lots of attention and reassurance. Their disabilities have hindered them in their quests to be adopted, and they may have spent years in foster care as a result. The decision to adopt a special needs child can be a rewarding one, as these children have a lot of love to give. However, bringing one into your home requires some advance preparation.

Am I qualified to adopt a “special needs” child?

Almost any prospective adoptive parent who has the commitment, skills, and preparation to parent may adopt a child. Agencies differ in their specific requirements for adoptive parents. Requirements for adopting a child with special needs tend to be less restrictive than requirements for adopting a healthy infant. Agencies will consider both single and married applicants, ranging in age from 18 to 50 or sometimes even older. The consideration of an adoptive parent’s age may depend on the individual’s situation, or on the age of the child, if the state has age restrictions. Most agencies require couples to be married a minimum of one to three years. Divorce, physical challenges, or a history of personal counseling do not necessarily disqualify an applicant from adopting. Applicants need not be wealthy or own a home.

Parents who adopt children with special needs will need to take the time to decide if they have the emotional, physical, mental, and financial resources to be a successful parent. It will be helpful to make a self-assessment before deciding to adopt.

Is there a financial support?

Usually, parents who adopt a child with special needs are charged no fee or only a small one. Parents who adopt a child with special needs may be reimbursed for certain adoption-related expenses. Federal and state programs offer financial assistance to adoptive parents for special care and services that the child needs. Financial assistance is offered to help families overcome barriers to adopting that exist due to the costs of adoption so that waiting children have permanent families.

Don’t expect things to go smoothly at first. It is going to take some time for your special needs child to adjust to her new life with you. She is going to have trauma to overcome, and she’ll need reassurance from you that you won’t abandon her. Be patient, give all the love you can and never give up on your child. Eventually, it will seem like she has always been a part of your family.

In some places, authorities does not only discourage overweight people from pregnancy, in some places, they discriminate them in adoption too.

A fat man in Leeds, England, has been denied the right to adopt a child because he is “morbidly obese,” He has been told to lose weight and get his BMI under 40 and then demonstrate the ability to maintain that loss over time, which as we know, is very unlikely. She tried to adopt a child a number of years ago and was told she had to lose weight first. She lost weight on a crash diet, they adopted the child, and then, as she stopped dieting, slowly regained the weight.

Furthermore, some countries (like Korea and China) have put official weight limits on adults wanting to adopt children from their countries. Here in the United States, weight limits on adoption seem to be much less common, although there are some stories that do exist.

Unfortunately, in other countries, obesity seems to be seen as a “legitimate” reason for denying adoption.

Why Restrict Fat People From Adoption?

Oftentimes, size bias in adoption is disguised under the dubious cover of being concerned “about the future of the child.” Authorities are afraid that:

* Fat people won’t live long enough to raise the adopted child to adulthood
* Fat parents will teach bad habits and make the adopted child fat and unhealthy too
* Fat parents are emotionally unhealthy and will make the child unhappy or emotionally unstable too

The authorities in these cases no doubt mean well, but the reasoning behind these mistaken policies is faulty at best. Bottom line, they reflect common prejudices about obesity rather than realistic problems.

First and foremost, adoption weight restrictions are based on the assumption that fat people are about to keel over at any moment and so will not live long enough to raise a child to adulthood, further scarring a child who has already suffered the loss of biological parents.

Sandy from Junkfood Science addresses the fallacies in this argument well; most fat people live plenty long enough to raise a child. Look around you; there are plenty of adults who have fat parents, and there are plenty of middle-aged and older fat people in our society. That alone should tell you that fat people live plenty long enough to raise a child to adulthood.

Children who are permanently or temporarily deprived of their family environment for various reasons such as poverty, armed conflict, labor exploitation, child abduction and trafficking, are entitled to special protection and assistance from the state. But what are the measures for special protection for these children and what are the measures of assistance provided by the legislators or the judges for them to be placed with nurturing environments away from the domestic abuse and neglect to which the children had been most seriously exposed and have traumatizingly experienced on a daily basis? What really is the governmental approach to the street­children phenomenon—well, the criminal justice approach, meaning children are put behind bars, in secure centers or in dilapidated shelters unfit for human habitation, where they are conveniently forgotten, without their personal documents being cleared for adoption purposes. Oftentimes, whenever there are international conferences and beauty contests held in the country, there are corollary round-ups of children and street vagrants who are imprisoned in city jails and shelters as they are traditionally looked upon as eyesores.

In promoting the adoption of children, promoting a higher level of assistance to and protection of children, which means that the child who has been abandoned and abused should be permanently placed in loving and nurturing families. When families experience the tedious, inconvenient and expensive procedures that child adoption entails, no matter how encouraging the Social Welfare Secretary can be in this regard, the prospective adoptive parents are often discouraged from pursuing their plans to adopt a child.

The United Nations Country Report has emphasized the “double standard” involved in the adoption system. It appears that intercountry adoption, which is administrative in complexion through an Intercountry Adoption Board (ICAB) endowed with quasi-judicial powers, is faster and easier than domestic adoption, which is judicial in nature, thus litigious and adversarial with traumatizing cross-examinations conducted by prosecutors, over-solicitous solicitors, and over-enthusiastic and power-craven Family Court judges. Adoption should be a single continuum, meaning that a child need not wait a minute longer for a permanent placement because of the divisive procedure. When one single Adoption Authority endowed with quasi-judicial powers, such as an expansive ICAB, is legally provided to assume jurisdiction over all adoption and family placement cases, whether intercountry or domestic adoption, guardianship or foster parenting, then the placement of a child with a suitable and nurturing family can be expedited and enhanced. Family dossiers and social case study reports need not get lost in the transmission from one agency or office to another or to a court when the creation of one Adoption Authority would no longer require transmittal of records because it becomes a central repository of all adoption records, and not the various Offices of the Local Civil Registrars or the National Statistics Office.

Foster care is a system by which a certified, stand-in “parent(s)” cares for minor children or young people who have been removed from their birth parents or other custodial adults by state authority.

In most cases, children placed in foster care have been subjected to some form of abuse or neglect, and being removed from familiar surroundings is, in itself, usually highly traumatic. Children in foster care may have nightmares, problems sleeping or eating, and may be depressed, angry, and confused. Many young children in foster care are unable to understand why they have been taken from their parents. Even if a child is in some sense relieved to be out of a home that was dangerous, the child may still miss the parents or legal guardians, and may imagine that there is something he or she must do to get back to them. There is evidence that children from abusive and neglectful homes start to feel better in foster care; however, separation is almost always difficult for children, regardless of the circumstances.

The primary goal of foster care is family reunification. If this is not possible, then an alternative permanent plan is followed.

Reunification with a biological parent is when the child was temporarily removed from the home then reunited back with the biological parent when the state decides the conditions are suitable. This generally includes some older foster children who may be strongly bonded to their family of origin and unwilling to pursue adoption. It also may include cases where children are placed with grandparents or other relatives, where the placement is likely to be permanent but those relatives don’t want to fight the birth parents in court.

Foster parents have the responsibility of helping children and their parents achieve this goal. Foster parenting then, is not a lifetime commitment to a child/adolescent, but a commitment to be meaningful to a child’s lifetime. Foster care often means “families helping families.”

There are two kinds of foster care, the voluntary foster care and the involuntary foster care. Voluntary foster care may be utilized in circumstances where a parent is unable or unwilling to care for a child. For instance, a child may have behavioral problems requiring specialized treatment or the parent might have a problem which results in a temporary or permanent inability to care for the child(ren). Involuntary foster care may be implemented when a child is removed from their caregiver because it is believed such removal is necessary for his/her own safety. A foster parent receives monetary reimbursement from the placement agency for each child while the child is in his/her home to help cover the cost of meeting the child’s needs. The amount of financial assistance typically varies from state to state and even city to city.

The basic requirements for becoming a foster parent generally include that you:
• are 21 years of age, or older;
• are in good physical and emotional health;
• meet state and local requirements for housing safety, space and equipment;
• have the skills, attitude and stamina to effectively deal with the many behaviors and feelings displayed by children and youth;
• have a non-punitive attitude and can demonstrate some level of acceptance toward the birth parents of the children in care;
• can work cooperatively with the representatives of the Department of Human Services and other team members;
• are accepting of the temporary nature of foster care and can help a child transition back to his family or move on to a permanent or adoptive placement.
Children and youth may need foster care placements for a variety of reasons:
• they have been emotionally, physically or sexually abused;
• the physical or mental incapacity of their parents;
• they are abandoned;
• the drug, alcohol or other chemical abuse by their parent;
• the child’s behavioral or emotional problems; or,
• the separation, divorce or death of their parent(s).

Children and youth needing foster care placement come from a variety of social and economic backgrounds; from every race, religion and nationality – and every age from birth to young adulthood.
Half of all foster children spend as much as two years in foster care and are moved from placement to placement at least three times. This leads not only to uncertainty and lack of stability in the child’s life, but some of these placements may be inappropriate for the child’s specific circumstances. This often is due to the lack of qualified, licensed foster caregivers, but it can also occur as a result of inexperienced or overloaded caseworkers trying to get through their caseloads.
Foster care can be difficult for foster parents as well. A child who has been neglected or abused suffers psychological damage that may make him or her withdrawn, immature, aggressive, or otherwise difficult to reach. Children with severe medical and mental problems can tax caregivers. Foster placements sometimes fail because these surrogate parents simply cannot handle the demands of a troubled foster child.

THE ROLE OF THE FOSTER PARENT
How is foster parenting similar to parenting your own children?
• Provide daily care and supervision of a child
• Provide for child’s basic physical needs
• Work with schools, medical personnel, and other professionals
• Guide child’s development in all areas: physical, emotional, social, spiritual, etc.
• Provide structure, rules, and discipline
• Teach values and self-direction
• Model appropriate family relationships

How is foster parenting different from natural parenting?
• Must accept child at a variety of developmental levels which may not match his/her chronological age
• Must accept having only limited time working with the child
• Must accept agency/department involvement and responsibilities
• Must comply with certification standards
• Must keep records
• Must work with birth parents or family (if appropriate)
• Will be able to make only limited decisions
• Must respect confidentiality
• Must respect and nurture the child’s cultural, social and religious background
• Must report changes in family household to the agency
• Must be able to offer flexibility and follow though in caring out the objectives of the case plan (transportation, visitation, therapy, etc.)

How is foster parenting similar to a job?
• Have distinct duties and responsibilities
• Negotiates with “employer” (Department of Human Services)
• Held accountable
• Works with other professionals
• Keeps records
• Maintains confidentiality

How is foster parenting different from a job?
• Involves the entire family
• Requires warm environment, involving love and commitment
• “On duty” 24 hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year
• Requires high level of job interpretation and autonomy

Unfortunately, the number of foster caregivers has been declining since the mid-1980s as the demand for placements has increased. States have responded by licensing responsible adults who were not married (even divorced men and women) and reaching out to seniors and children’s relatives. In some areas, single mothers make up a large proportion of foster parents.