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Madonna Adopts: The Confirmation

While visiting projects she funds for AIDS orphans in the southern African nation of Malawi this week, Madonna has supposedly adopted a Malawian boy, who goes by the name of David Banda, or Davie, now that he has an Anglo Mother. Madonna left with husband Guy Ritchie but without young Davie, because final legal arrangements were still being made. Malawian officials also said the child`s departure had been delayed for procedural reasons, and that he was being cared for in the meantime by members of Madonna`s entourage who stayed behind.

Since Monday, Davie - whose mother died a week after his birth - has been living with Madonna and Guy at the luxury Kumbali Country Lodge, after the pop star fell in love with him during a visit to the orphanage where he lived last week in Malawi, one of the world`s poorest countries, devastated by AIDS and periodic drought.

According to Malawi law, a child must live with the parents for a year, and only following this period would a court grant permission to adopt, depending on good reviews provided by social welfare workers who investigate the parents` ability to care for a child.