A Malawi judge has finally approved Madonna’s application to adopt three-year-old David Banda from Malawi.

The pop singer and her husband, Guy Ritchie, began proceedings for David more than a year and a half ago, when they picked the boy at an orphanage in the South African nation. David has been living with Madonna and her husband since 2006, when the couple filed adoption papers.
"We are very happy with what the judge has ruled," Madonna's lawyer, Alan Chinula, said, after hearing the court’s decision. “Finally the court has granted Madonna full adoption rights of the boy...It's all over, thank God.

Chinula considers the judgment would have an impact on Malawi’s adoption laws.

Madonna was not present in the court for the ruling.

The adoption issue was very controversial, with critics protesting against Malawi’s laws that banned non-residents from adopting children in Malawi, which has been hit by an AIDS epidemic that has caused more than one million children to lose their parents.

Madonna, who has recently presented at Cannes her documentary about AIDS orphans in South Africa, said she was surprised to see people so eager to criticize her and accuse her of kidnapping “or whatever you want to call it.” The 49-year-old singer wrote, narrated and produced the film, which focuses on the impoverished orphans of Malawi and the efforts of Raising Malawi.

Madonna has two other children: 11-year-old Lourdes and 7-year-old Rocco.