Malawi Boy finds a New Mum in Madonna

The Queen of pop had flown to Malawi last week to adopt a little boy from a shortlist of 12 impoverished children. On Thursday, Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie took the custody of a motherless 1 year old boy after filing adoption papers and receiving a judge's interim approval.

Madonna, who already has two children, supports a charity called Raising Malawi, which seeks to help children without parents in the Aids-ridden East African state.

According to government spokeswoman Adrina Michiela, Madonna had originally wanted to adopt a girl but changed her mind two weeks before her visit.

The Italian-American pop singer was given legal consent to adopt one year old David Banda, nicknamed Davie, after filing for an interim adoption order at the Lilongwe High Court yesterday.

The custody of the child will be shared by Madonna and Guy Ritchie, who whisked David home to meet his siblings on the private jet today.

David’s biological father, Yohame Banda, claimed to be extremely felicitous and pleased with the couple who want to take his son home.

Yohame Banda, who met Madonna and her filmmaker husband at the court as part of the formalities, said ''They are a lovely couple. She asked me many questions. She and her husband seem happy with David. I am happy for him. Madonna promised me that as the child grows she will bring him back to visit.''

David’s mother had died just a week after his birth and Madonna fell in love with him, during a visit to the orphanage where he lived last week.

The child is now living with the couple since Monday at the luxury Kumbali Country Lodge.

Last week, Madonna's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, had snubbed the reports that the pop star is set to welcome an underprivileged child into her family.

Rosenberg had said, "I can confirm Madonna is in Malawi on a private visit. She is building an orphanage and child care centre and is involved in other initiatives geared toward helping children orphaned by AIDS through the Raising Malawi organisation.

"She has not adopted a baby, despite reports that she has."

However, Kingston Kilembe, director of child welfare services at the Ministry of Gender, Child Welfare and Community Services, confirmed that Madonna and her husband had began the adoption processes and intended to adopt the baby boy.

He said that they followed the normal adoption processes and since the judge has granted them the adoption of the boy, they can take David home.

The singer is allowed to take David out of the country for one year. After this, the court will rule on whether the child has settled well in the family and decide if the 48 year old singer can be granted adoption or not.

On December 22, 2000, Madonna married British director Guy Ritchie, whom she had met in 1999 through mutual friends, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler. Madonna gave birth to a son, Rocco John Ritchie, on August 11, 2000. She currently resides in Wiltshire, England with Ritchie and her children.

She even has a daughter Lourdes, 9, from her relationship with Carlos Leon.