BABIESMadonna Headed Back to Malawi for Adoption
April 1 2008, Published 1:09 p.m. ET
Madonna is expected to return to the African nation of Malawi next week for a final court hearing to decide whether she can adopt David Banda.
Madonna and her film director hubby, Guy Ritchie, are in the process of adopting the toddler. He has been living in London with the couple and their two children, Lourdes,11, and Rocco, 7, since 2006, after Madonna met David at an Malawian orphanage.
Reuters is reporting the material girl will arrive sometime on April 8. In February, Malawian Information Minister Patricia Kaliati praised Madonna's efforts to rally support for orphans in the impoverished country and said it would be wrong for the government to deny the pop singer's adoption of David.
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The process has been riddled with controversy from the start. Critics accused the government of skirting the laws that ban non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been badly hit by the AIDS epidemic and is one of the poorest countries in the world.
There are an estimated one million orphans in the country, many of whom are infected with the HIV virus. Malawi's government is now ammending its adoption laws.
