Grandma: We Wanted Mercy Back

Controversy continues to haunt Madonna’s adoption of Mercy, a 6-year-old Malawian girl. Mercy’s grandmother, Lucy Chekechiwa, says in a new documentary that, at first, her family had not agreed to permanently put Mercy up for adoption when they gave her to the orphanage when she was four. "The initial agreement was that Mercy was to be kept in the orphanage for six years. After six years Mercy was supposed to be brought back here and then I would have taken care of her.” The grandma says that Madonna first met Mercy in 2006, but that she refused to release her at that time, so Madonna adopted David Banda. After a family discussion, she says she was convinced to let Mercy go. “I still love Mercy. She is my dearest."