Monroe Chat

This is a news report published by the Daily Mail online.

I simply cannot get my head around this particular story... Why would you adopt another Child when the 3 you already have are being raised primarily by Nannies and aids

I fully appreciate the need to assist and provide a better quality of life and medical care, so why not donate your money to do just that in the Child's own environment and culture.

When you see Brad and Angelina and their Children you are aware that they are Parents, they may well have 'help' but at the same time devote themselves to the Children..... maybe it is just a media representation, but I don't see Madonna doing that .

Maybe it's me and I simply don't understand her intentions
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The family of Mercy James, the four-year-old Malawian girl who pop star Madonna wants to adopt, revealed yesterday that they did not want to let her go.
Her uncles, who live in a remote rural area and who are her closest relatives, said they had no idea who Madonna was.
The singer has an appointment with a judge in Malawi tomorrow in the hope that the adoption papers will be signed.

But the uncles claimed they would agree only if Mercy would be returned to them once she had completed her education and had a career.
They have been persuaded over a period of two years - ever since Madonna first fell in love with the girl at the Kondanani children’s village near the city of Blantyre - that giving Mercy up for adoption will be in her best interests.

But the child’s family, who are among the poorest of the poor in the tiny African country, yesterday said they had been given no clear idea of what the future would hold for Mercy, whose mother died aged 18, five days after giving birth to her and whose father cannot be traced.
Mercy’s uncles, Peter Baneti and John Ngalande, live in mud-brick shacks that have grass thatch roofs.

There is no electricity and their water is collected from a standpipe

They cannot read or write but will attend the court hearing in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, which is a five-hour trip away from their home.

It is their first visit to a city.
Yesterday Peter, a subsistence fisherman, said: ‘We never wanted to let Mercy go. She is part of our extended family and our culture.
‘My mother, my brother and I all said no three times to the orphanage, which was pressing us on Madonna’s behalf.

'Now we have been persuaded that Mercy can have a better, healthier life somewhere else in the world with this rich white woman.

'We never heard of Madonna before. We don’t have a radio or TV because we live without electricity.

'We just heard today that she is a singer.
‘I feel that we need more advice but everything is going so fast. They have taken Mercy from the orphanage and she is already in Lilongwe waiting for this new mother to arrive.

‘We were told there is an important meeting where we must sign papers on Monday, and now we hear it is a court hearing in front of a judge. We have no experience of this sort of thing. We are not sure if we should be saying goodbye to Mercy like this.
‘We cannot afford a lawyer to represent us but my brother and I are going to insist there is an agreement that our niece will come back to us one day. We really need that.’

He said the director of the orphanage had told them that Mercy would have a good education and come back to Malawi to support her family once she was a doctor
or lawyer.
Peter said: ‘That is a very nice idea but we don’t know if it is true that we can ever see her again. We could never afford to go to America or England. We would have to believe the promises of this white woman.’
Mercy would be the second child Madonna, 50, has adopted from Malawi after David Banda became part of her family in 2006.
Yesterday, his father Yohane Banda complained that he has not seen his son since the day he signed the adoption papers, despite an agreement that he would be able to stay in touch.
He said: ‘I said goodbye to David as Madonna took him away in her arms. I comforted myself then that I would be seeing him regularly and getting news of him.

'But even though Madonna visited Malawi with him last year she did not contact me or bring my son to me. I was very shocked by that.
‘We had a verbal agreement and she promised me that David would stay close to his roots and to me, his nearest relative. She broke that promise and I have heard nothing for two years.
‘Now, suddenly, I have been contacted to say she is coming over again and would like me to meet her and David.’

On Friday Mr Banda arrived at the luxury Kumbali Lodge hotel in Lilongwe, where Madonna was due to arrive with David today.
If the adoption cannot be completed tomorrow, Madonna hopes that a temporary custody order will allow her to take Mercy home to New York with her to join David, three, and her biological children Lourdes, 12, and Rocco, eight.
Recently divorced from film director Guy Ritchie, Madonna last week also split from Brazilian boyfriend Jesus Luz who was 22 years her junior.
Yesterday Mercy was playing in the lush gardens surrounding Kumbali Lodge where Madonna has had all 13 rooms booked for several weeks.

Mercy and a nanny from the orphanage are sharing a bedroom with a balcony overlooking the nearby forest and hills.
The little girl has made friends with the Malawian gardeners and waiters who call her Chifundo, which means Mercy.