Madonna took newly purchased adopted daughter Mercy to the Kabbalah Centre in London this morning, along with David, Lourdes, Rocco, and ex husband Guy Ritchie. Madonna gave Mercy a piggy back ride as the two quickly exited the center and ducked into a waiting car.

To better introduce her to Kabbalah, Madge plans to take Mercy to Jerusalem to see the Wailing Wall. The trip won’t occur until later in the year however; Madonna wants to give Mercy time to “settle in” to her new London home.

Mercy looks adorable, if not exactly happy. I’m sure she’s probably still a little bewildered.

Chifundo “Mercy” James was flown out of Malawi via private jet on Friday and was expected to meet Madonna in London on Saturday morning. Although Madge wasn’t actually present to pick the kid up, Mercy was accompanied by a nanny, a baby nurse and another children’s aide.

I almost adopted a kitten today. I agonized over it for about an hour, then finally my good sense got the better of me and I decided it wouldn’t be fair to the kitten to take sole responsibility for its tiny life when I am so busy all the time, am often out of town, and won’t be able to give it the attention and stability it needs…

And if I had adopted it, I would have at least driven it home from the shelter myself.

It’s official!  The adoption has gone through and Madonna is in the process of arranging a private jet to bring three-year-old Malawi orphan Mercy to her new home in New York.  She will join her new brother David, also a native of Malawi, as well as big brother Rocco and big, bushy-browed sister, Lourdes.

Madonna’s attorney confirmed it.  “It’s the early hours in New York now but my client has been awake all night waiting for this.  She was ecstatic when I broke the news to her. She said, ‘Thank heavens.’ ”

I suspect that Madonna probably said something more along the lines of, “Wow, that was expensive!” or “Congratulations.  You get to keep your job.”

Madonna gets whatever she wants and she’s about to receive her newest acquisition.

You’ll remember that Madge lost her original bid to adopt Malawi orphan Mercy, but The Sun is now reporting that Malawi’s Supreme Court is set to approve her appeal application this Sunday.

Madonna, 50, whose two-year application to adopt the three-year-old was blocked by a court in March, has been told the news by her lawyer Alan Chinula.

The ruling is set to be announced next Sunday at Malawi’s Supreme Court of Appeal.

A source there said yesterday: “The paperwork is being typed up now.

“All recommendations are in favour of the adoption taking place. Mercy should start packing her bags. She’s off to America.”

A close friend of Madonna said: “She’s ecstatic.

“She made a promise that she wouldn’t give up on Mercy and, believe me, she could move mountains when she’s this determined.”

Madonna’s adoption application was originally rejected because she had not lived in the east African state for 18 months, as required.

But one of the three appeal judges has said that rule was out of date.

The pal added: “No stone has been left unturned to prove that ruling was wrong.”

Congrats to Madonna and her crew!  I think it will be nice for David to have a little sister who hails from his home country.

New video for Madonna to help get us all psyched for her upcoming summer tour.

What a fun video! It’s strangely uplifting.

David Banda’s already figured out what he thinks of the paparazzi who stalk his mother. Madonna took him and Rocco to the Kabbalah Center in NYC today, and he gave them a piece of his mind. In the other pics, you can barely make out Rocco. He’s all dressed in white with a cap pulled down over his head. It’s kind of sad that these kids have already spent the entirety of their lives trying to hide from the paps.

In an upcoming interview with CBS’s The Early Show, 15 year old James Kambewa- the biological father of Mercy, the Malawian girl whom Madonna hopes to adopt- once again expresses his opposition to the adoption

“I want to take care of her and I’m capable to take care of my baby,” he says. “Mercy, she is a Malawian—so [I] need her to grow as a Malawian, as well with our culture.”

In the interview, Kambewa is wearing a necklace he made bearing his daughter’s name but says has never held or even met her in person. The little girl’s birth mother died shortly after childbirth.

Lucy Chekechiwa, Mercy’s maternal grandmother, says she, too, was initially opposed to the adoption but eventually gave in.
“I did not want my granddaughter to be adopted,” she says, “but because they have been persistent enough, I have been forced to let my granddaughter go.”

This reeks of opportunism. If his daughter was so important to him, why hasn’t he been a part of her life for the 3 years before now? I’m not claiming to be an expert on Malawian orphanages, but I’m betting that if the father of the chid at least wanted to hold his daughter, at some point in the past three years he could have accomplished that.