I think everyone (including celebrities) needs to adhere to the guidelines set by the child’s birth country when completing an IA. I have no problem with Madonna or any other celebrity adopting a child, but I don’t understand why she had to choose a country that does not allow foreign adoption (set by the 18 mo. residency rule). There are thousands of African children that are legitimately needing homes whose countries/orphanages participate in IA-choose one of them.

If she went to Malawi to provide aid to the country and fell in love with the children-then she should have funnelled how ever much money she could into the country to provide the children with a better life. The grandmother obviously was not open to adoption-so if she felt a special connection to this little girl then help the grandmother financially-she would have indirectly benefited 6 other grand children also.

These children are not souvenirs-you don’t get to see a cute one and decide you want to take them home. She could have helped this child and chosen a different country (one that has an IA program) to adopt from and none of this would be an issue right now.

I am not anti-adoption and do not think all children belong in their birth countries. I do however think it’s important for AP’s (celebrities and non-celebrities alike) to honor the host countries rules and regulations-and in this case Malawi is not a country open to IA (unless you are a super rich celebrity I guess).

“The story locally is that Lucy, the grandmother … refused to let Mercy be adopted by Madonna. And for three years – from that day in 2006 until about four weeks ago – Lucy remained implacable, resisting approaches from priests, people from the orphanage and other people she had never seen before, to persuade her to let Mercy go.

However tough Lucy has been in resisting Madonna, Madonna has been tougher. She never gave up on adopting Mercy – not least because no one tells Madonna she cannot have what she wants. And now, after years of being told that adoption was the right thing for Mercy, Lucy caved in. In Malawi, she is an old woman and she had had enough.”

It is difficult for us to understand that a family might place a child in an orphanage for temporary care, but this is common in other countries. It happened in Vietnam as well. Familes who placed their children in orphanages with the understanding that it was a temporary arrangement had those children adopted out from under them. That was the case with Mercy. The grandmother fully intended to get Mercy back. She just needed help, and the orphanage was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, but now she has lost Mercy forever.

From what I’ve read, she met Mercy at the same time she met David Banda. She was not able to complete the adoption at that time because the grandmother would not give permission, but has been working on it ever since.

I agree in that I feel it would have been “less wrong” if the child she adopted did not have family who could have cared for her. There are plenty of TRUE orphans in Malawi from among whom Madonna could have “chosen.”

Tracy