That was certainly true for Rosie O'Donnell, 38, who between 1995 and 2000 adopted three infants—Parker, now 5½, Chelsea, 3, and Blake, 1—and last summer became foster mother to Mia, 3½. "Being a celebrity in America makes everything happen easier—except for going to the mall," she says. "But anybody who has the money to go to a variety of agencies has a better chance of adopting quickly than someone who has a limited budget." As an outspoken champion of adoption, O'Donnell speaks with unusual candor. To locate birth mothers, she says, "I retained five lawyers and paid them anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000 each." Some had their own network of birth mothers; others worked closely with private agencies. "It was a broad spectrum of ways to go."
