Happy 4th Birthday To Chifundo "Mercy" James!

Name: Chifundo "Mercy" James

Date of Birth: January 22, 2006

Parents: Madonna

Siblings: Lourdes Leon (10/96), Rocco (08/00) & David Banda (09/05)

Facts:
- Mercy was adopted from Malawi in June 2009
- Madonna was originally denied the ability to adopt Mercy, due to residency requirements stating that she would need to live in the country for 18 months before an adoption could be possible. This requiement was later waived, as it was with her son David - also adopted from Malawi in May 2008.

Quote from Parent:
"I was warned by my social worker that because there were no known laws in Malawi, they were more or less going to have to make them up as we went along. And she did say to me: "Pick Ethiopia. Go to Kenya. Don't go to Malawi because you're just going to get a hard time." [Malawi is in] a state of emergency. As far as I'm concerned, the adoption laws have to be changed to suit that state of emergency." - Madonna, on adopting from Malawi.