UK NEWSMADONNA: ‘I WANT TO BRING UP MERCY SO SHE CAN HELP MALAWI’

UK NEWSMADONNA: ‘I WANT TO BRING UP MERCY SO SHE CAN HELP MALAWI’ 

Madonna
 Tuesday April 14,2009 By Natalie Chalk  Have your say(0)
MADONNA has spoken for the first time since a judge blocked her bid to adopt the four-year-old.
Madonna has vowed to fight for Mercy despite residency rules that any potential adopting parent must have resided in the country for at least 18 months.
The 50-year-old star told Malawi’s Nation newspaper she hoped to raise Mercy in a loving home so she would return to help the country when she was older. Madonna said: “I want to provide Mercy with a home, a loving family environment and the best education and health care possible. And it’s my hope that she, like David, will one day return to Malawi and help the people of their country.”
Madonna spotted both David and Mercy in an orphanage in 2006. She was able to adopt David, three, who joined the star and her biological children – Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, eight – but her plans to take Mercy were denied.
The singer was said to be heartbroken after her request was rejected and lodged an appeal hours after the judge’s decision. No date has been set for the appeal hearing.
Madonna said she could say nothing more before the ruling but thanked her friends in Malawi and around the world for their support over her bid to adopt.
Judge Esmie Chombo, who made the ruling against the adoption, had said the little girl should be cared for in her country of birth. Allowing Madonna to take Mercy away could “set a dangerous precedent” for child trafficking, she said.
The judge is said to have told lawyers: “Ms Madonna may not be the only international person interested in adopting the so-called poor children of Malawi.”