"Madonna has identified David Banda who comes from Ripunga village and we hope to officially hand over him this week," said Thomson John Chipeta, a cleric with the Protestant Church of Central Africa.
Mr Chipeta, who runs the Home of Hope orphanage in Mchinji district, said the boy was placed in the orphanage when his mother Marita died a week after his birth.
He said the father, Yohane Banda, an illiterate 32-year-old farmer, "could not afford to raise him since he is poor."
"He lives in a mud hut and grows some crops to survive. David is the only surviving child, two others born before him died in their infancy. His father has not married again," the priest said.
African odyssey
Madonna, who lives in London with her own two children, has been caring for the boy at the Kumbali country lodge in a wealthy part of Malawi's capital Lilongwe, according to British tabloid The Sun.
The former "Material Girl" is currently touring the impoverished and
AIDS-ravaged southern African nation to assess humanitarian projects she has helped fund for AIDS orphans.
"Madonna was shown a number of pictures of boys at the orphanage, but fell for David. She played with him on the floor and took him to the church," a source at the orphanage told the newspaper.
"She also carried him on her back, which was very symbolic as that is the way Malawian mothers carry their children," the source was quoted as saying.
"They were both so natural in each other's company. They were laughing and smiling with each other. You could just tell by the look on Madonna's face that she felt it was right to choose him."
Officials keep mum
Malawian officials meanwhile have remained tight-lipped.
"We have not been told officially Madonna has adopted a child," Penston Kilembe, director of social welfare in the ministry of gender, child welfare and community services said.
Under Malawian law, foreigners adopting a Malawian child have to live in the country for 18 months and are monitored by social workers before they get full adoption rights.
However, a government official has previously said that the condition might be waived "because it is Malawi which will benefit, if it is for the betterment of the child."
In an interview with Time magazine in August, Madonna -- a past master at re-invention -- explained her new socially aware avatar.
"Now that I have children and now that I have what I consider to be a better perspective on life, I have felt responsible for the children of the world," Madonna has said.
"I've been doing bits and bobs about it and I suppose I was looking for a big, big project I could sink my teeth into," she said, referring to the project in Malawi.