Boy born abroad prematurely finally home in Minnesota 3 months later: "We're here. We did it."
ST. PAUL, Minn. — It was an embrace more than three months in the making. At 93 years old, Bill Halverson was finally holding the youngest member of his family.
"How do I put that into words? It's just an incredibly wonderful moment," Halverson said Tuesday.
In Halverson's arms is a baby whose birth caught his parents entirely off guard, and whose life has transcended bureaucratic systems in multiple nations. Simply put, Greyson Phillips had arrived long before he made it home to Minnesota.
Yet, on Tuesday, he was finally home.
Greyson Phillips' story was first told on WCCO in mid-May. His parents, Chris and Cheri, were caught in bureaucratic limbo after Greyson arrived on a family trip to Brazil. Weighing in at just over 2lbs when he was born, Greyson spent 51 days in a Brazilian NICU before finally getting the all-clear for discharge.
Yet to get home, he still needed proper documentation. The process to get it was complex, dangerous for the young family, and would consume more time than they had.
The primary obstacle was the local registry office, called a cartório, which refused to issue Greyson's birth certificate simply because the Phillips' U.S. passports do not have their parents' names on them, Chris Phillips wrote in an appeal for help to family and friends in May.
From there, the couple the next major hurdle was getting Greyson's U.S. documentation. Doing so required his birth certificate and required a trip to a consulate or the United States Embassy in Brasilia. The couple would need to do so in person, they were told. The nearest consulate was 300 miles away from them, in an area heavily impacted by flooding. Greyson, at the time, still didn't fit in a car seat.
"It's just this massive checklist of things, it's frightening and overwhelming, to be honest," Chris Phillips said at the time. "Basically, we are caught in bureaucratic limbo."
Shortly after the Phillips' story aired on WCCO, they got a call. First, they learned the U.S. Embassy would be willing to process Greyson's passport remotely. Then, another call – the Embassy would be willing to accept a declaration of live birth in lieu of a birth certificate.
"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the media. I want that to be very clear," Chris Phillips said Tuesday. "It had a ripple effect, and it was immediate."
Shortly after, Greyson had a passport. Moreso, he was healthy, and finally big enough to travel internationally to make it home.
"We made it. We're here. We did it," Cheri Phillips said. "Every hurdle, time after time, after time, we did it. Finally."
