Imagine a mother who loves her daughter so much that all she wants is the child’s safety, and happiness, and freedom.

All of us who are parents, family members, caregivers and guardians know those feelings exactly — we get it!

But now imagine a mother who is stuck. Trapped.

She can’t move about freely.

She can’t get to her home country — the United States — from Haiti to visit family and friends for the holidays.

Can’t go where she wants to go or do what she wants to do.

She can’t take care of her daughter the way she’d like to and needs to take care of her.

And she has no family or friends with her — or anywhere near her, to help her in any way.

Here is a giving person who has taken a little girl under her wing — and all she wants are good things.

Her family and friends have been praying for her constantly.

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She’s implored government officials to help her — but so far, as of right now, there’s been no movement.

And time is running out.

Adriane Christensen
Image Credit: Courtesy Adriane Christiansen

This is the dire situation of Adriane Christiansen (shown above and within this article), an American woman and missionary worker from Tennessee who right now is stuck in Haiti, not far from the airport — and is trying to fly out.

Yet she’s unable to get out to visit the United States for a time and be with those who are near and dear to her because her application for a travel visa has been denied — with no real explanation as to why.

Adriane is the legal guardian of the gorgeous young girl you see here in these images, named Abilene.

Adriane met little Abilene when the child was almost three years old and was living in an orphanage.

Adriane Christensen
Image Credit: Courtesy Adriane Christiansen

“I just really felt connected to her,” said Adriane.

The girl had not spoken or smiled up until that point.

“So I spent as much time as I could with her every day,” said Adriane in a video she made about her story (be sure to watch it — it’s included here within this article, near the top).

“After a few weeks of consistently doing that, she smiled for me.”

(That was a major development!)

Adriane said she didn’t move to Haiti to adopt a child.

That was never her intention.

But “I just fell in love with her and I couldn’t say no,” she said.

“It’s been so wonderful to be part of her life,” she gushed about her little girl.

She became the child’s legal guardian earlier this year and intends to adopt her as soon as she can (in Haiti a single person must be age 35 to do that — so a few years must still pass for them before that is possible).

Earlier this year, Adriane applied for a travel visa.

They were told they had a November appointment for that.

“It’s been a dream of mine to travel with her,” said Adriane — especially with the Christmas holidays coming up.

She wants to be in the States again for the first time in about five years.

She wants and needs Abilene to be with her.

“I can’t travel alone and just leave her behind” — nor would she ever want to do that, of course.

“Things in Haiti have been very intense the last year-and-a-half in Haiti, especially in our village,” she explained.

There has been tremendous political unrest in the country.

The main road from her village into town, she said, is blocked and she cannot move about freely.

All of the hospitals near their home have closed their doors. All of the others are very short on staff and supplies.

This is why her own mission compound actually has been evacuated for safety reasons — all due to the violent crimes that are being committed near there, right at this very moment.

Adriane Christensen
Image Credit: Courtesy Adriane Christiansen

There is no one else left there who can responsibly take care of little Abilene at this time if Adriane were to leave without her — which, again, she would never do.

So she’s been staying at a guest house in Port au Prince, near the airport, for the past month or so, waiting for their visa appointment.

Then came a dramatic development.

“We just had [that] appointment last week,” Adriane said.

The person at the counter reviewed their documents, which were all in order.

But for reasons unexplained — including nothing at all in writing — the clerk denied them a travel visa.

“She gave no indication that she thought we would overstay her visa,” Adriane told LifeZette, “or that I did not have the legal right to travel with her, and she provided nothing in writing to that effect.”

“It was very clear to me that she wasn’t sure what to do with our case, so she erred on the side of denying it — instead of granting even a short-term, provisional visa.”

Now, said Adriane, her next appointment for a visa is not for another 11 months.

The only option she has at this time is for her to appeal the process, appeal to the embassy — and get American senators and congresspeople to try to help her travel to the U.S. through their direct and special requests.

Adriane has no means to be able to continue to stay in Haiti at this volatile time — and continuing to do so puts both she and her child at risk.

Yet she cannot leave Haiti without Abilene.

Think about it.

She wants to spend a few weeks in the States.

Adriane Christensen
Image Credit: Courtesy Adriane Christiansen

She wants to visit with family.

She wants to get some healing, some rest, some counseling after all they’ve been through in Haiti together.

And she wants to celebrate the holidays with loved ones.

Such a simple request — such an important case.

Look at this gorgeous young legal guardian and her adorable young charge!

All they want is happiness.

Adriane Christensen
Image Credit: Courtesy Adriane Christiansen

It’s imperative, say Adriane’s friends here in the U.S., that she be granted an appeal for visa approval right away.

“We are begging all friends with any U.S. senator and congressional contacts to share this information requesting that your senators and congressman contact the U.S. Embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti, inquiring as to why Abilene’s visa was denied and appealing this decision,” said one friend, Elisabeth Reams.

Won’t you help them?

Here’s how.

Call or email your congressperson now, as time is urgent.

Ask these lawmakers to contact the U.S. embassy in Port au Prince, Haiti, on behalf of Adriane Christiansen — and urge them to reconsider the visa application for little Abilene Desilus, a minor child who is in the legal custody of American citizen Adriane Christiansen.

There is a USCIS form that all members of Congress have in their offices.

It simply needs to be filled out and sent.

Let’s help this devoted American mom as best we can!

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