After Madonna's bid to adopt a baby from the country was initially rejected by a lower court, the Supreme Court in the African nation of Malawi has ruled in the singer's favor on Friday (June 12). According to a Reuters report, the court overturned the earlier ruling, allowing Madonna to adopt 3-year-old Chifundo "Mercy" James.

In reading the three-judge panel's ruling, Chief Justice Lovemore Munlo said the singer's commitment to helping disadvantaged children should have been taken into account when deciding the matter. In addition to producing and narrating 2008's "I Am Because We Are," a documentary film about the orphan crisis in Malawi, the singer has founded a charity, Raising Malawi, which helps to feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi's more than 1 million orphans, half of whom have lost a parent to AIDS.

"It's the wee hours of morning in New York, but she is excited at the news," Madonna's lawyer, Alan Chinula said of the ruling, according to Reuters. "As her lawyer, I am happy that this has settled this contentious issue." Chinula said Madonna will now turn her attention to arranging a passport and travel for Mercy, which could take several days.

The court's action on Friday reversed an earlier ruling by a lower court, which had initially blocked the adoption bid because the singer had not spent the required amount of time in the country — up to 18 months — before attempting to adopt the child. The lower court said that those residency rules had been bent when Madonna adopted her son, David Banda, from Malawi last year.

But the Supreme Court ruling said that earlier decision was based on outdated interpretations of old laws.

"In this global village a man can have more than one place at which he resides," Munlo said in the ruling, which took more than an hour to read in court Friday, Reuters reported. "The matter of residence should be determined at the time of application of the adoption. In this case, Madonna was in Malawi not by chance but by intention. She is looking after several orphans whose welfare depends on her. She can therefore not be described as a sojourner. ... Every child has the right to love."

The ruling said the judges saw only two options for the girl: either stay in the orphanage without the love of a family and live with the possibility of poverty or be with Madonna, where she is assured love.

But, as they have in the past, some children's welfare groups worried that the rules meant to protect children from child traffickers and those with ill intentions were being disregarded due to Madonna's fame and perhaps out of gratitude for what she has done for Malawi.

According to People magazine, preparations have already begun to fly Mercy to the U.S. on a private jet.