Family Stuck In Philly Gets Passports, Boards Flight To Ukraine

Family Stuck In Philly Gets Passports, Boards Flight To Ukraine For Adoption

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The Mountain family walks through a terminal at the Philadelphia International Airport Tuesday before boarding a flight to Ukraine. The Mountain family walks through a terminal at the Philadelphia International Airport Tuesday before boarding a flight to Ukraine.
PHILADELPHIA -

A happy ending for a North Carolina family stranded in Philadelphia on their way to adopt a 15-year-old girl from Ukraine.

Reagan Mountain and her four biological children boarded a flight for Frankfort, Germany late Tuesday afternoon, on their way to Kiev with all of the documentation they need for an all-important adoption meeting Wednesday.

"I'm relieved," Mountain told FOX 29's Bruce Gordon. "I'm still a little bit anxious. I've still got to get across the ocean with four kids. But "I am so much closer" to making my appointment and moving forward with the adoption.

Reagan, her husband Tom and their children flew from Raleigh, NC to Philly on their way to Ukraine Sunday.

Moments after landing here, Reagan realized her passport, and those for two of her kids, had been lost or stolen.

Without a passport, Reagan could not join her husband at the adoption meeting Wednesday, and their chance to adopt 15 year old "Liza" would all but disappear.

She was devastated, but when a friend emailed her dilemma to FOX 29, Gordon went to work.

A call to Philly Congressman Bob Brady did the trick.

Brady- and his chief of staff- pulled strings and cut red tape, allowing Mountain to get replacement documents in a fraction of the usual time.

Shortly before heading through the security gate at the airport late Tuesday, Reagan told our Bruce Gordon, "This was an incredibly beautiful demonstration of everybody working together. And it's humbling to be the person that they were working to help."

Reagan says "Liza" was abandoned by alcoholic parents when she was just 6, and recalls wandering her village- naked- looking for food.

Her life- so far, full of poverty and neglect- is about to get a whole lot better.

Reagan Mountain texted FOX 29s Gordon late Tuesday afternoon, with this message: "Praise God. Thank you for what you've done for us. Life changing."

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