Back on November 6 of this year, Michelle Ransavage traveled to China and was united with her new daughter, a two year-old with special needs that Michelle and her husband, Andrew, named Mia.

The couple, whose adoption is being handled by Children's Home Society and Family Services, had completed numerous background checks and screenings for their homestudy, their USCIS approval and for their adoption agency. Everything came back fine and the couple proceeded on their adoption journey to Mia.

With the length of time that many adoptions from China are now taking, many adoptive parents are having to have their fingerprints for USCIS renewed, as fingerprints for USCIS expire after 15 months. When Andrew Ransavage had his fingerprints renewed, USCIS saw that he had a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving from January of this year, and denied the couple's I171H renewal, which then prohibited Mia from obtaining a visa and leaving China with her new mom.

Andrew, who works at an architecture firm,had reported the drunken driving charge to his adoption agency as soon as it happened. He was put on probation for the incident, completed classes and had a chemical dependency evaluation. On his own, he also had a psychologist conduct personality tests. Neither evaluation showed him to be chemically dependent and the agency approved the Ransavage's to continue their adoption.

The Ransavage's had no idea that they had any reason to be concerned about their adoption, and it was not until after Michelle arrived in China and was united with their daughter that the couple learned that their USCIS approval had been denied and Mia could not obtain a visa, even though she was legally the daughter of Michelle and Andrew Ransavage.

Michelle has been stuck in China with her daughter since early November, and has now spent Thanksgiving and Christmas in a foreign country away from her husband, son and other family members.

Andrew has hired a lawyer that specializes in international adoptions and several senators are advocating for USCIS to overturn their decision and to allow the Ransavage family to be reunited.

The agency is paying for the ongoing hotel bill, but the couple has run up over $10,000 in legal bills, and there is no measure of the stress of being stranded in a country far from home. Michelle's only choices are to remain in China with Mia and hope that things can be overturned, or to return home and abandon Mia, whom has been with her new mom for almost two months and who is legally the daughter of Michelle and Andrew. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! I was "stuck" in Ethiopia for just over two weeks with immigration struggles due to Belane's HIV status, and it is an incredibly hard position to be in.

You can read more details about the Ransavage family's story here and you can visit their family website (with daily journal by Michelle) here.