Mom Fights for Infant in Iraq

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A Fort Wayne woman gives birth to her son in Iraq, and eight months later she is still trying to get him home. It's been three months since Grace Al-Shemmari - who's lived in Indiana her whole life - flew home from Iraq; leaving her infant son with her husband's family. Grace sat down exclusively with Newschannel 15's Megan Stembol to explain the obstacles her family faces in getting her son back.

Both American citizens, Grace and her husband, Raad exhausted the efforts there In Iraq to get her son's paperwork to come home. Now they're in the middle of a struggle to reunite with their son and right now, there seems to be no end in sight.

The laughter of her infant son is something Grace Al-Shemmari can only enjoy over home video. The baby has an untouched crib, waiting for him in his Fort Wayne home. Teddy bears and stuffed bunnies keep his place on his changing table but there is nothing that can fill the emptiness in his mother's heart.

"I wonder if he's forgotten me," says Grace.

The Al-Shemmaris traveled to Najaf, Iraq last February to visit Raad' family. Grace was five months pregnant for her first trip ever out of the United States, and had no plans to give birth abroad. When Raad went to buy their return tickets home in April, though, he found a flight back to the United States would have to wait.

"He told me he had bad news," says Grace. "He said 'They're not going to let you on the plane because you're too far along [in your pregnancy]."

April turned to May and on the 25th, the Al-Shemmaris welcomed baby Amir into the world although, with different scenery than they'd expected. Grace and Raad immediately started work on Amir's paperwork to come home. It was slow-going though, and two months more would pass before Grace called the American Embassy in Baghdad. Officials there told her she had to come to the capitol with Amir to apply for the papers he needed, but at the same time they advised her not to do so. They told her it was too dangerous.

"He said if you were my wife I wouldn't recommend for you to do that," Grace recounts her conversation with the embassy official. "And I said, 'What are my options?', and he said 'Those are you options. You have to come here, but it's not safe.'"

Filing Amir's documents in a neighboring country could at least get the paperwork started, embassy officials told Grace. So she, Raad, and their eight-year-old daughter, Karina said goodbye to Amir and headed for Jordan.

A a four-and-a-half hour drive across the desert got them from Najaf to Basrah. From there, a costly hour-long flight brought them into Jordan. But at the airport in Jordan, the family found another road block: they would not be allowed to enter the country. At the time it was filled to capacity with it's share of Iraqi refugees.

"I told my husband 'Well, let's just go back to the U.S.,'" says Grace. "I know I can get help there."

Since she's been back in the states, Grace says she's pleaded with Immigration, the Iraqi Consulate in Washington D.C. and local politicians to help her get her baby back. But still, she has only pictures to hold.

"When I left he was learning to flip over," says Grace. "He was learning to laugh. He was discovering his hands and he looked at them all the time."

Grace can only wonder what else he's discovered since she last saw him. She wonders when she'll see him again.

"Part of me thinks he might forget me," says Grace. "But then I know the bond between a mother and a child is a very, very, deep bond and I think that, it will come back to him."

Newschannel 15 is in touch with Representative Mark Souder's office, as well as that of Senator Evan Bayh about the Al-Shemmari's situation. Both offices say they're looking into it.

We'll be following this story to see if the family can be reunited soon.