Another Malawian baby goes to Canada

CBC News

A couple who struggled to adopt in Malawi when pop star Madonna whisked a boy out of the African country have finally brought their new daughter home to Alberta.

Kate and Joshua Pozzolo returned last weekend to their home in Barrhead, northeast of Edmonton, with Alice, a 2½-year-old girl they met while volunteering at an orphanage.

"She's happy with her bed and her bedroom and playing with her toys. She goes back and forth and wants to bring people back there, so I think she has a sense of ownership to that," Kate Pozzolo said.

In October, Pozzolo told CBC News she was shocked to learn that Madonna had taken a one-year-old Malawi boy to London in hopes of adopting him.

The Pozzolos had understood that adoptions were only granted to residents of the country. They had been living in Malawi for a year and a half, going through the court process they were told was necessary to bring Alice home.

Child advocacy groups also claim Madonna was given preferential treatment because Malawian law requires a period of residency for prospective parents.

But the judge who granted an interim order for Madonna and her husband, Guy Ritchie, to take custody of the child has said there is no law spelling out residency requirements.

While the Pozzolos were frustrated by Madonna's case, the couple said Alice, whose birth name means patience, inspired them to hang in.

"She was pretty much dead when we got her out of the village. She couldn't really sit well, she couldn't stand, couldn't really move around," Josh Pozzolo said.

As part of the adoption-court order, Alice will have to return to Malawi every four years to meet her birth family. The Pozzolos say it will be a chance for Alice to experience her culture and they plan learned the native language and teach it to her. - CBC News