International adoptions draw attention ... good, bad, rarely indifferent. Who hasn’t heard about Angelina Jolie’s kids? And while there are many who applaud her decision to bring her family together from far-flung corners of the world, others line up to criticize choice of country, second guess process and question motives. Publications specializing in slimy sensationalism regurgitate conjecture and innuendo and sell a lot of papers in the process.

Slamming the idea of adopting from struggling and/or developing nations is very popular these days. Some international organizations, many agencies of the United Nations included, take a "last resort" stance when it comes to children leaving tragically poor countries for families elsewhere. Internet groups discuss ad nauseam pros and cons of a "Western" (although this term alone can generate hot responses and scalding posts) upbringing opposed to a life steeped in the culture of the birth country, however short that life might be.

I don’t get it.

No one in my family lives anywhere near the town of their birth, some, not in the same state. And then there’s me, twelve time zones …that’s half the world … away from where I began.

My household, living in Seychelles, consists of my husband, Mark, born in England, California-born me, and Sam and Cj with their Cambodian roots. My best friend here started out in Canada, another in India. Our closest neighbor was born in Uganda, and just down the hill we have a husband and wife team that came from Germany and Czech Republic, respectively.

I’m in contact with an American family living in Mongolia and considering adoption from Liberia, a South African in Israel looking at the Ethiopia program and a Swede in Brazil about ready to travel to Vietnam.

Being in a position of power and deciding that the circumstances of a person’s birth dictate the range of that life is contrary to everything I believe about freedom. Imposing a life sentence where there has been no crime but the act of being born is contrary to everything I believe about rightness. Thinking that everyone should grow up in their own neighborhood and live there until they die is contrary to everything I know about life.