Phillips family completes long journey from Brazil to Minnesota to bring baby Greyson home
Loved ones of the Phillips family waited at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport on Tuesday afternoon for the couple and baby boy Greyson to return after four months stuck in Brazil.
“We get to share him, we have our village, we have our home,” said Cheri Phillips, Greyson’s mother. “I can’t even describe it doesn’t seem real, I get to go home, I get to bring my baby home.”
Chris and Cheri Phillips traveled to Florianopolis, Brazil, back in mid-February to celebrate a family member’s birthday.
The couple had no idea they’d be having their baby while on the trip.
The Phillips family, from Cambridge, Minnesota, welcomed baby Greyson — who weighed 2 pounds, 2 ounces — three months before his due date.
The path home required Greyson to obtain crucial travel documents, which had become an ordeal involving the United States and Brazilian governments, according to the family.
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The family says thanks to eventual help from Senator Tina Smith, they were able to get Greyson’s U.S. passport without having to jump through traditional hoops.
He was so tiny, they couldn’t make a visit hundreds of miles away to a U.S. Consulate, which is normally required.
After the family’s story about trying to get key documents went ‘viral,’ Brazil lifted previous requirements to allow Greyson to get a birth certificate and passport so he could leave the country.
After weeks of trying to get paperwork approved, Brazilian government officials came to the family’s short-term rental home to provide the necessary documents.
At the airport in Brazil, the family presented both of Greyson’s passports and officials let the family on the plane back home.
“To summarize the last four months, it was an ordeal,“ said Chris Phillips. “Getting back home it’s a mixture of relief, for Cheri and Greyson to be here, to be home”
While in Brazil, loved ones moved the Phillips family from their condo to a new home.