Ugandan baby welcomed home after months of waiting
July 21, 2010
By Laura Geggel
A long and frustrating ordeal with unorganized embassies, unanswered phone calls and problematic paperwork has finally ended, bringing a new happy family together in Snoqualmie.
Sarah Stratton and her 9-month-old Ugandan baby, Jeremiah, arrived at Sea-Tac on July 3, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday.
“We were thrilled to get Independence Day with our newly independent daughter and grandson,” Katharine Warmerdam, Sarah’s mother, said.
- Sarah and Mike Stratton take one of their first family pictures with their son, Jeremiah, on a trip to Jinja Nile Resort in Uganda before the visa was awarded.
Contributed
Mike and Sarah Stratton have waited for months to bring their adopted son home, but the process was not an easy one. While Mike had to stay home and work, Sarah stayed in Uganda for 108 days waiting for the U.S. Embassy to grant Jeremiah a visa.
“The frustrating part was just being there and waiting while they didn’t answer my calls,” Sarah said.
Sometimes, embassy staff would even hang up on her after she identified herself, she said.
After the two-month wait to set up the visa appointment, the process was finished within a week and a half. The hassle was convincing the embassy to make the appointment.
“They were unprofessional and that is not the way that United States citizens should be treated at a U.S. embassy overseas,” Warmerdam said.
The Strattons were not the only family stuck, Sarah Stratton said. She was there with 17 other people trying to bring adopted children home, but believes that there are only four left waiting. She said she remains frustrated for them, and intends to continue her outreach so that no more families are treated in the same manner.
The family is very thankful for the help that they received from the state department, as senators and representatives did their best to make phone calls and write letters on the Strattons’ behalf, according to Warmerdam.
Now, the family is just thrilled to be together and to watch Jeremiah become accustomed to his new home.
“We’re just so happy to introduce him to everything here,” Sarah Stratton said. “He just loves car rides.”
The couple was separated for so long that their reunion at the airport brought huge smiles to everyone, Warmerdam said.
“It was a really difficult time, but to have it pay off in the end erases the difficulty,” she said. “Now, it’s the beginning of a new journey of Sarah, Mike, Jeremiah and their family.”
Paige Collins: 392-6434 or isspress@isspress.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.
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