Not Without My Baby - 16

November 17, 2020·45 min·4 clips

An embassy official warns Susan that taking her baby out of Egypt could lead to kidnapping charges.

Susan is sure she is not a criminal. She has come back to Egypt, fallen for Medhat again, remarried him, and let the dream of being Marco's mother run ahead of the missing adoption paperwork. Marco changes the room the second he is in it. Medhat looks different once he is a father, and for a while, especially on a beach day, the family almost feels protected from the mess waiting outside. Then her sister's email arrives. Her mother has cancer, and Susan can already see herself getting to New York with Marco beside her. He needs a visa. At the American Embassy, the ask sounds simple until the official says Marco has to travel on an American passport. The form asks for a lie. To sign it, Susan has to say she is his birth mother, and the promise she made to herself gives way right there at the window. She cries. She panics. Later, she thinks walking out might have saved her, but fear has its hand on the door too. People notice. The official calls her back. Susan signs because she needs to reach her mother and cannot imagine leaving Marco behind. The paper does not pass quietly. The Embassy calls the next morning, and suddenly the lie feels less like a desperate shortcut than a door closing. Later, Marco knows another mama. Susan still remembers his little English words and says the nine months she had with him were worth what came after.

As heard by us

A family reunion turns into an embassy panic and a prison sentence.

Not Without My Baby follows Susan Hagloff from Florida, where she is a professional golfer, to a reunion with her first husband in Egypt and the remarriage that follows. The story then narrows onto the signed paperwork and the lie that turns into a prison case.

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Why you'd press play

One small lie around a visa turns a family trip into an Egyptian prison story.

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