Abbotsford, a mother with multiple sclerosis, returns from Africa without adoptive son

A mother from Abbotsford who spent months in Africa waiting for the processing of immigration documents from her newly adopted son was forced to return to British Columbia alone after a health alert told her worth to be hospitalized.

A moving meeting between sisters and friends took place at the Vancouver International Airport on Tuesday after Kim Moran's flight, but two of the most important people of her life have gone missing: her two-year-old son, Ayo , and her husband, Clark.

"Probably the hardest thing was that they dropped me off at the airport and they knew … I said goodbye and I went home alone," Kim said. CTV News airport. information."

Kim, whose multiple sclerosis broke out last week, had been in Ghana since the summer after her soaring with Clark for Nigeria to finalize Ayo's adoption. Thinking that the process would only take a few weeks, Clark returned to Canada, leaving Kim and Ayo in Ghana.

But more than three months later, the paperwork is still not over.

"All we're trying to do is give a little boy who does not have a family, does not have a house, a life and a house here in Canada and we feel like we have had roadblocks after the roadblocks, "Kim said. To know that you invest so much in this fragile little human … even the risk that some of these things are defeated is really heartbreaking for me. "

Last week, Kim wrote to Facebook that she was starting to feel numb and unable to walk. Her health deteriorated so much that she had to be hospitalized in Accra. This week, Clark returned to Ghana to take care of Ayo so that she could go home and receive needed medical care.

"She can not take care of herself right now … it's so out of her character too," Kim's sister Lindsay Jeans told CTV. "She is so strong and it is devastating."

"She went there in good health, she had no symptoms at the time, she was in remission," added a family friend, Barb Pichette.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told CTV that under ideal circumstances, the two – step adoption and immigration process can take between six and eight months, but that this delay can go up to a minimum. to two years, depending on the country of origin of the child and other factors. .

The Morans documents were received in February 2017. One year and nine months later, the family adoption process is at the top of the government's estimated time frame, but has not exceeded.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Office of the Minister of Immigration, Ahmed Hussen, said: "The mission in Accra is currently trying to process this request quickly," but added that it should use due diligence to protect the child.

"In the case of intercountry adoption, our first priority is to protect the safety and well-being of the children concerned," reads the statement. "As signatories to the Hague Convention, we have an obligation to ensure that all intercountry adoptions respect the laws of the countries of origin and hospitality."

Ayo's new grandparents also appealed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a Liberal election campaign call in Ontario on Tuesday.

"I said, it's about Ayo, a two-and-a-half year old adopted and our High Commission in Accra, Ghana, doing nothing," said Rick Moran, Clark's father.

Despite the time the process takes, Kim is hopeful that her family will be reunited soon.

"Back in Canada, I want to go home and install our stockings and get a Christmas tree, but I'm not going to celebrate Christmas alone here."

With files from Allison Hurst of CTV Vancouver