Happy Ending To A Long Journey

Thousands of Americans have left Lebanon due to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. CBS News correspondent Trish Regan tells the story of a tiny baby girl who was carried to a cruise ship evacuating Americans from Beirut to Cyprus. She was the very last passenger to make it on board.

In June, they went to Lebanon to visit relatives. Nada, his wife, was seven months pregnant, and she gave birth to a baby girl on July 7, "just five days before the war started," he says.

Alli was called back to work in the United States just as the first attacks were launched.

His wife called with the news — bombs were dropping next door. Five people died — two women and three children.

Alli's family made it to Beirut, where CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer first met them trying to board a ship to Cyprus. But there was a catch: Their tiny baby, just days old, didn't have a passport. Nada called her husband in a panic.

"Can you imagine a baby 10 days old, they say — they would tell my wife they cannot leave the country because the baby does not have a passport?" he said.

But Embassy officials scrambled to make one — and the infant, in a blue carrier, was the last piece of cargo carried on board.

Alli, armed with snacks and a cooler full of Red Bull, drove with his brother-in-law through the night all the way to Baltimore to meet his new daughter's flight.

"I want to see my girl you know, my baby girl," he says. "I miss her so much."

After a night of eternal waiting, Alli had his precious cargo at last.

But they weren't home yet. The family had to make the long drive back to Boston.

On Friday afternoon, they were welcomed home by relieved relatives…

"I hope this is the last war," he says. "I hope to see peace after that."

Little Rewan, a baby at peace, is home at last … from a country at war.