Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have talked quite a bit about their desired to make sure their adopted children feel really integrated and connected with their family, while understanding their own cultural heritages. Angelina has always seemed especially worried that their only natural child, Shiloh, has unfair advantages, both within the family and life in general. As a result, she and Brad have said they would like to “even out” their family racially and culturally. According to the Daily Mail the pair are planning to adopt again, likely from Ethiopia.

“Amid ongoing rumours of an irreparable rift with her partner Brad Pitt, the 32-year-old Oscar-winning star is preparing to travel with him to Ethiopia in three months to adopt another baby – their fourth non-biological child.

“According to sources close to the pair, they hope that another adoption will shore up their relationship as well as helping Zahara, the Ethiopian girl they adopted two years ago, feel more connected to the rest of the family.

“Miss Jolie adopted her eldest son Maddox, from Cambodia, five years ago prior to the start of her relationship with Pitt.

“Earlier this year the couple adopted Pax Thien, three, from Vietnam.

“’Brad and Angie have made no secret of the fact that they are keen to extend their rainbow family,’” said a source close to the couple.

“’But they’ve always been very careful to ensure that they leave enough time between kids so that that each child fully integrates into the family and feels truly settled.’”

[From the Daily Mail]

I really hope they aren’t adopting a kid to save their relationship; that would be just as bad as getting pregnant when there’s trouble, hoping it’ll fix things. That’s a completely unfair burden to put on a child, So let’s hope that’s just ridiculous speculation. I think Angelina’s constant worry about Shiloh having too many advantages is kind of bizarre. She’s talked about it quite a bit, and there was that whole, “blob” incident where Angelina said, “’Shiloh seemed so privileged from the moment she was born. I have less inclination to feel for her… A newborn really is this…Yes, a blob! But now she’s starting to have a personality…I’m conscious that I have to make sure I don’t ignore her needs, just because I think the others are more vulnerable.’” While she kind of backed away from those statements, she still seems to have this guilt or passive-aggressive resentment towards Shiloh that I just don’t understand.

“Angie in particular feels very strongly that while Shiloh will grow up seeing the family resemblance between herself and her natural parents, and Maddox and Pax will feel a connection through their birthplaces, Zahara has no such close-knit bond.”

[From the Daily Mail]

It’s awesome that they’re looking out for Zahara and making sure she doesn’t feel like the odd girl out, but I can’t help but worry that, in the end, it’ll be Shiloh that gets the short end of the stick. You hardly ever see her out with Angelina when compared to the other kids. I can’t imagine any kid getting luckier, genetically, than Shiloh. It’ll be interesting to see how she turns out. If Brad and Angie are so big on making sure all their kids are represented, theoretically they should have another biological kid to give Shiloh a similar-looking sibling. However at that point, it would seem more like they had teams rather than kids. My favorite quote from the article has Angelina talking about how pricey it is to have kids. “”Brad and I want to continue to adopt, but keeping a big family is expensive.” Hey, if it’s that expensive, how about not spending $18,000 a night on your hotel? Just a thought.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Brad and Angie at the Ocean’s 13 Los Angeles Movie Premiere on June 5th. Header image at the Mighty Heart NYC premiere on June 13th. Images thanks to PR Photos.