Have Mercy -- Madonna Adoption Approved

46. One, of, you, jealous, haters, better, call, the, comma, police, because, someone's, out-of-control, with, their, comma, usage.

I'm happy Vadge got what she wanted. I'm sure Mercy will get a great education and be given everything she needs. It looks like she'll be arriving just in time to go on Vadge's Sticky and Sweet Tour with her.

Posted at 7:28PM on Jun 12th 2009 by justmyimagination

47. having met her i realize what a good person she is..mercy is one lucky little gal...

Posted at 10:53AM on Jun 13th 2009 by alan brickman

48. Has she put in adoption papers for Jesus yet?

Posted at 8:58PM on Jun 12th 2009 by cosmo in texas

49. Let's think for a second here...maybe Madonna should share some of her wealth with Mercy's family so THEY can keep her with them, instead of Madonna taking her from them. Just a thought.

Posted at 9:01PM on Jun 12th 2009 by Liz

50. Not a fan of Madonna, but I think she's probably a really good mum, lucky little girl.

Posted at 9:11PM on Jun 12th 2009 by t

51. HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

Posted at 9:34PM on Jun 12th 2009 by uncle craisin

52. Such a shame.

She will have paid for it and the higher court has basically said that you can now where you live all depends on where you say you live at the time you pop the papers in the slot, From what I've read she has only stayed 3 weeks in the country all up, that includes last time.

There's no way that she would stay in that country for 2 years straight.

The biggest shame will be when these kids/people are 20 and they will either like it or hate it, doing this stuff screws up peoples lives.

Posted at 9:47PM on Jun 12th 2009 by Zig

53. Why is it better for this little girl to grow up with a pig like Madonna than to stay with her own people and have Madonna PAY for her living expenses and medical care? Madonna is the ultimate hypocrite keeping TV away from her kids, having them eat healthy and go to kabbala centers. Is she for real? She breaks every living commandment, blasphemes the Catholic church, and is 51 years old! Who is going to take care of this little 3 (?) year old child when she croaks? Does she think she can pay God so that she can live forever? And perhaps her money can recall and buy up all her SEX books that she made prior to having kids. The woman is disgraceful trying to copy Angelina Jolie (she never cared about these kids before Angelina started the trend)...she has no husband - at least Angie has Brad and the kids will have 2 parents....it is utterly ridiculous.

Posted at 10:42AM on Sep 27th 2009 by Gina

54. Funny How the Malawian Judgement has suddenly changed their laws when they learned that she was searching for adopting another baby in Nigeria!

Posted at 1:20AM on Jun 13th 2009 by Shirlaine D.

55. Yay! That little girl is the luckiest girl in the world (so is Madonna). That precious little child will be everything she never dreamed of. I can't believe people are hating her for this. It's totally absurd to fault a woman for taking a child out of one of the poorest countries in the world. Some of you people need a hug and let go of all your resentment and realize that celebrities are humans with emotion too. Madonna was holding Mercy in a photo dated 2006 when she picked up david banda. So she didn't just pick the child randomly. You people are so mean spirited and I hope all of you find love one day. i understand that Americans think that this country is the only country on earth as all ignorant americans do, but there are countries worse off than America and Malawi is one of them. Madonna is doing this to set an example and change the rules (which she definitely did). Now more people can take a child out of poverty much easier. Go Madonna, always challenging the system. Forever hated, but equally loved. God Bless You my beautiful goddess and Queen. May you forever set an example for all of us women to follow. We can be anything we want and do anything we want.

Posted at 3:02AM on Jun 13th 2009 by Brittany

56. Terrible!

This is the only way she could adopt-not in USA!!

the plastic surgeries just don't help her!

Posted at 1:59PM on Jun 13th 2009 by JANE DOE

57. More likely she adopted children from Malawi because it would be much more difficult to adopt here in the United States for many reasons - including the fact that many children in foster care here are not actually family-less and haven't been released for adoption. The criteria for adoption via government routes also rule out many people who would make good parents and provide permanent families. (Age is one of those criteria - Madonna would be too old here.) That's why people who can manage the finances will arrange for private adoptions of babies or just go to other countries for children of various ages. Cross-country adoptions are usually most successful when the children are younger.

When the prospective parents know about conditions in certain countries (particularly the very low chance of in-country adoption in many cultures and orphanage conditions - there's a reason we abandoned the orphanage model long ago and went to a foster care system) and feel some connection to a country, it's also natural to want a child from that country as a way to reinforce that sense of connection. That can be beneficial for both parents and children. I think that happened here - Madonna, for whatever reason, feels a connection with Malawi and also felt a bond with these particular two children when she met them. Angelina Jolie likewise felt an instant connection with her oldest son when she met him in a Cambodian orphanage, while there for other reasons. Sometimes it's just destiny. Rich people travel more and so are more likely to meet their destiny far, far away.

It's always a difficult decision about whether it's best for the child to remain in their native culture or move to a new one, although when they are very young, they are also very flexible. In both cases for Madonna, the original families of the children put them in an orphanage and showed no real interest in pooling their resources to raise them in the family (until foreign reporters started asking questions...). Those children were not taken away from their families, as often occurs for American foster children - they were voluntarily placed by their families in the orphanage with no real plans to retrieve them. If they survived to adulthood, their families would have welcomed them back into the fold as productive members. But they did not try to actually raise them as children and did not try to maintain real connections.

I don't know about Mercy's case, but David was a very sickly kid. His father had every reason to believe that he wouldn't survive for long. None of the father's (or deceased mother's) relatives offered to help with him after David's mother and older brothers died. When David's father was engaged to another woman, he made no attempt to retrieve David from the orphanage - that didn't seem to be anywhere in the picture even though his fiancée had a child herself and they were planning to have other children together. I can certainly sympathize with his father's decision to just give him to an orphanage where he might be kept comfortable and given a decent burial. But he really was abandoned. The orphanage said his father didn't visit (understandable if he was emotionally distancing himself from a child expected to die soon). His father's later claims of frequent visits (which would have taken two hours each way...) at least twice a week seemed unlikely to me under the circumstances, as well as a direct contradiction of statements by others. I have to suspect that once the family realized a rich foreigner was interested in David, the prospect of making a bit of cash from the situation suggested itself rather quickly. Which is another reason celebrities might be reluctant to adopt locally - relatives might be coming out of the woodwork frequently to get a piece of the action in such a famous case.

Madonna may be, um, eccentric, but her kids do seem happy. I doubt there is any abuse or neglect. No family is perfect or entirely sane and quirky mothers abound, but absence of abuse and neglect is a good thing for anybody. Plus she can afford to feed them well and keep them monitored for any medical conditions and give them access to good educations. David and Mercy will have very different lives (and a much longer one in David's case) than if they never met Madonna, but we won't know until they write their tell-all book 25 years from now if they wish they had stayed in a Malawi orphanage ...

Posted at 2:09AM on Jun 15th 2009 by jwoolman

58. This is wrong, wrong, wrong !! She would have been better sponsoring the child and leaving the baby with it's biological father. To think that some rich person can wander around a third world country and pick up babies randomly from orphanages is disgusting. Sure, hey, why not just put the kids on e-bay. She has the money to do well by the child and if she wishes to do so she should do so by supporting the child and father. I'll be placing any music I own by this arrogant woman in the recycle bin and deleting any mp3's I have. I'm sick to my stomach.

Posted at 7:37AM on Jun 15th 2009 by John Gallen

59. Aren't there any children that need to be adopted here in the United States? If she wants all her children from another country maybe she should move her A** over there... Talk about "BUY AMERICAN"

Posted at 7:51PM on Jun 16th 2009 by Lynn

60. I admire & have lots, of respect for Madonna.
What she has done, will bless her, in life.

Posted at 1:54PM on Jun 21st 2009 by Mistress DuPree