To celebrate Chris Phillips’s daughter’s birthday in Brazil in late February, Cheri and her husband, Chris, traveled there when she was six months pregnant.
The Cambridge, Minnesota, couple celebrated with the daughter from a previous marriage, Melory, on her eighth birthday on an island off the southeast coast of the nation for almost two weeks in Florianopolis.
Cheri Phillips began bleeding in the middle of the night two days before the couple’s planned flight home. After quickly locating a nearby hospital in their rental vehicle, the personnel there informed them that they should instead visit a specialist maternity facility.
On March 12, four days later, at Ilha Hospital e Maternidade in Florianopolis, their son Greyson Leo Phillips was delivered three months early by emergency C-section.
Two pounds, 12.6 ounces was his weight. His release to his parents came after 51 days in the neonatal critical care unit, which ended on May 3.
The Phillips has endured a “bureaucratic nightmare” and hopes to be allowed to leave soon.
Fighting for their son’s life wasn’t the hardest part; getting him to the United States was. They needed Greyson’s birth certificate to get him a passport so they could leave the country. Chris and Cheri Phillips’ passports allegedly do not include the parents’ names, which is a requirement in Brazil; thus, the local register office (a sartorial) declined to issue one.
Family and friends in Minnesota gave the newlyweds copies of their marriage licenses and birth certificates, which include the names of both parents. According to Chris Phillips, a court translator, the papers will still be rejected due to the absence of an apostille. This obscure clause confirms that a document may be recognized by member states of the 1961 Hague Convention.
The sartorial “had a change of heart” and provided Greyson’s birth certificate when the Brazilian media exposed their case. According to Chris Phillips over the weekend, the agency has identified a specific employee whose refusal to cooperate with the request is the cause of the holdup.
It was just as difficult to get documents from the United States. It was necessary to visit a U.S. consulate or embassy and bring Greyson’s birth certificate in order to get the required documentation. A region severely affected by floods is located about 300 miles distant from the closest facility.
It was also not possible to drive since the baby wouldn’t fit in the car seat, according to Chris Phillips. The couple hired a lawyer in the area, but the court proceedings have ground to a standstill, leaving the baby feeling like a foreigner for a while, according to them.
They hope to return soon.
