Minnesota
Stuck in Brazil with premature baby, Minnesota family fights bureaucracy to return home
This week, Greyson Leo Phillips turned nine weeks old. He’s finally out of neonatal intensive care after 51 days, and he has more than doubled his birth weight of 2 pounds, 2.6 ounces.
But he’s not home, unless an Airbnb in the Brazilian coastal city of Florianópolis counts at home. Instead, Greyson is stuck in a Brazilian bureaucratic nightmare, unable to leave Brazil and go to his real home in Minnesota.
Greyson and his parents, Chris and Cheri Phillips of Cambridge, have been battling a maddening bureaucratic Catch-22 after his premature birth during a winter trip to Brazil. Because of a technicality, Brazilian authorities haven’t issued his birth certificate; the office said it cannot issue a birth certificate because Chris and Cheri’s passports, like all American passports, don’t have their parents’ names.
Without a birth certificate, Greyson can’t get a U.S. passport.
Without a U.S. passport, Greyson can’t go home to Minnesota.
“We’ve been working on this since day one, and we have nothing yet,” Chris said.
Their odyssey began in mid-February. Chris, who used to live in Brazil, has a daughter from a previous relationship who lives with her mother in Florianópolis, about 700 miles southwest of Rio de Janeiro. He and Cheri traveled there to celebrate his daughter’s eighth birthday. Cheri’s doctors encouraged her to make the trip; she’d had zero complications and was yet to enter her third trimester. This was the time to do it, they told her.
A couple days before their scheduled return in March, Cheri felt back pain, then contractions. Early the next morning, Cheri was bleeding. They went to a hospital at 4 a.m. For days, doctors tried to stop labor.
“That was our hope — just calm down her body and get on planes and go home,” said Chris, who works in marketing and communications at Children’s Minnesota. “It soon became apparent that was not going to happen. This baby was go to be born in Brazil.”
Greyson was born March 12 with a hole in his heart, struggling with apnea. As Chris and Cheri huddled over their son in an incubator, their Realtor and mortgage broker completed the sale of their St. Louis Park condo and purchase of their Cambridge house. Friends and family moved their stuff into their new home.
The main holdup seems mundane. Brazilian hospitals give parents a certificate of live birth, then parents must visit a local registry office for an official birth certificate. But officials refused to issue the birth certificate, Chris said, since Chris and Cheri’s passports don’t have their parents’ names. (American passports don’t include parents’ names, but Brazilian passports do.)
Chris’ uncle shipped the couple’s birth certificates and marriage license, which have their parents’ names. Those were deemed unacceptable because they don’t have an apostille stamp, which authenticates a public official’s signature for use in a foreign country. They hired a lawyer to secure Greyson’s documentation. A month later, their case hasn’t gone anywhere.
After the Brazilian birth certificate, the couple will need a consular report of birth abroad and a U.S. passport from an embassy or consulate in Brazil. But according to U.S. State Department policy, applicants must physically go to the appointment.
This presents multiple problems: The nearest consulate is 300 miles away in a region that’s experiencing severe flooding. Greyson can’t fly without documentation. And Greyson is too small for his car seat, so they can’t drive.
The family received a bit of good news this week: After pressure from U.S. Sen. Tina Smith’s office, the embassy agreed to send a representative to Florianópolis to process Greyson’s American documentation.
But only after they secure a Brazilian birth certificate.
“Mentally, we are not doing well,” Chris said Wednesday as he drove to a federal office in Florianópolis to extend their tourist visas. In their “first piece of bureaucratic good news yet,” Chris said, Brazilian authorities extended their visas until Aug. 21.
“It’s mentally exhausting,” said Cheri, who works as a philanthropy services manager at Saint Therese Senior Living. “Now that he’s quote-unquote ‘home’ in an Airbnb, it’s honestly even harder on me. The only reason we’re here now is because of all the bureaucracy. I’m either on the verge of crying or I’m mad or I’m just sitting on couch with Greyson, cuddling or nursing him.”
There’s been only one blessing from this experience, Chris said: Spending more time with his 8-year-old daughter, Melory, who he typically only sees three times a year.
“And she’s had the opportunity to bond with Greyson,” Chris said. “That’s the only silver lining.”
The Minnesota Timberwolves have one of the brightest futures in the entire NBA with an exciting young core led by Anthony Edwards who looked like the best shooting guard in the league this past season. The Wolves were very aggressive in this year’s draft as they traded up to the eight pick without giving away any key player.
Let’s dive into each selection they made and the summary of their draft.
The Timberwolves traded into the top ten to land Rob Dillingham out of Kentucky. The 6-foot-2 point guard is arguably the best pure shot-creator and shot-maker in the entire draft. He is wired to score as he plays with unlimited confidence and can score it at all three levels. Dillingham’s pull-up jumper is elite as he has deep range and he is also a tough mid-range scorer.
What makes him an easy fit next to fellow stars is due to his elite spot-up shooting. He’s great at converting shots off the catch due to his great shot preparation, quick shot release and elite shooting ability. Dillingham is more than just a scorer as the Kentucky star is a very good playmaker who plays with a ton of flash.
His scoring gravity opens up the floor for his teammates mixed in with his good court vision which allows him to be one of the top playmakers in the draft. His elite handle combined with his quickness allows him to create space from defenders with ease. On the downside of things, he’s very limited as a defender and will likely be a negative defender in the NBA.
With their other pick in the first round, the Timberwolves added more offensive firepower as they selected Terrence Shannon Jr. out of Illinois. The 6-foot-7 wing was one of the most explosive players in all of college basketball last season.
The smooth lefty is extremely dominant in the open floor as he’s too fast and athletic for opposing players to handle him. He was able to score over 20 points per game while being one of the top scorers in the entire country.
Shannon improved as a shooter each year he was in college which opened up the floor for the rest of his teammates. At the next level, he will be able to bring microwave scoring off the bench while also having the tools to be a versatile perimeter defender. The main question for Shannon is the limited handle as he struggles to create space off the dribble if it’s not a straight-line drive.
The Timberwolves arguably had one of the best drafts of any team this year. They landed an elite point guard in Dillingham who has elite star potential. The talented lead guard will be playing behind Mike Conley who is one of the top veterans in the NBA so that will go a long way in Dillingham’s career.
There’s not a better fit in the NBA for Dillingham. Shannon could be a valuable piece to their rotation down the line as he offers three-level scoring while being able to make high-level athletic plays. The Timberwolves added more youth and elite talent to an already well-established roster. Minnesota fans should be extremely excited for the future.
Want to join the discussion? Like Draft Digest on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest NBA Draft news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.
Minnesota
Texas man swindled northern Minnesota woman out of $100K in gold bars, $36K in cash, charges say
MARSHALL COUNTY, Minn. — A 23-year-old Texas man faces charges for his role in swindling $36,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bars from a northern Minnesota woman.
Charges filed in Marshall County say that a 66-year-old woman said she sent the money to a man in Texas because he had told her he had access to her Social Security number. She said she’d sent the cash in $100 bills and tucked the money into books, which she sent to two different CVS stores in Texas.
She added that he had also bought $100,000 worth of gold bars online in August of last year. The man told her he would pick the gold bars up outside her home on Sept. 1, charges say.
That day, she received a phone call and the man told her to bring the gold bars outside and put them in the backseat of a white car sitting outside her home. Once she did so, the car drove off and she couldn’t see who was driving.
Documents say the suspect was apprehended in McKinney, Texas. He was seen on video footage picking up the packages from the CVS stores.
He admitted to collecting the packages and delivering them to an unknown individual, charges say. He said he knew what was in the pacakges, and had picked up roughly 40 of them between August and September of 2023.
He said he had been coerced into picking up the packages, and he was being compensated for his work, according to documents.
The suspect was charged with two counts of theft. The theft charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.
Last week, Jabez Reeves, a sprinter at Minnesota State University – Mankato, stretched by himself on the end of the school’s track. He then ran three full-speed sprints, as his coach at Mankato watched on.
Three days later, Reeves was on a flight to Paris, where he’ll compete on the Liberian Olympic men’s 4×100 meter relay team.
While the team members are clearly tied to Liberia, they also share a strong connection to Minnesota.
“I have a lot of family toward the Coon Rapids, Brooklyn Park area. So for them, just having people that are from Minnesota, putting on and trying to take our name internationally is pretty huge for them,” Reeves said. “It’s just more like an honor thing, just being grateful that I’m allowed to be in this position now.”
Gifts from individuals keep MPR News accessible to all – free of paywalls and barriers.
Reeves grew up in Woodbridge, Va., but transferred to MSU when another Liberian sprinter — Emmanuel Matadi — recruited him.
Matadi is also the veteran of the Liberian relay team. He ran at Johnson High School in St. Paul. Akeem Sirleaf was a sprinter at North St. Paul High School and now runs for North Carolina A&T State University. And then there’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, who ran for Hopkins High School in Minnetonka and then raced for the University of Florida.
Jabez Reeves in Mankato before heading to Paris for the Olympic Games.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
All three of them have state high school championships under their belts.
“When we all talk, we’re all like ‘Yeah, I’m from this part of Minnesota, I’m gonna do what I gotta do to represent this part of Minnesota,’” Sirleaf said. “But when we all come together on that relay, none of that matters. We just focus on the goal, which is to make it to the final and get a medal.”
While the team has a strong Minnesota connection, they rarely get to run together. Getting timing down and baton passes right will be something they’ll work on in Paris before their first race.
But at Olympic Qualifiers in May in the Bahamas, the team looked like a well-oiled machine.
The top two teams in each heat get automatic bids. Liberia was in fifth place as the last leg of the race came, but Fahnbulleh exploded in the anchor leg, pulling his team into second, edging out Switzerland by a hundredth of a second.
The ecstatic team ran to each other on the track, hugging each other.
“That whole relay was just amazing,” Sirleaf said. “I feel like it was a steppingstone for us to put our name out there to the world, to let the world know that, yeah, we’re a small country, but we’re coming.”
Gallery
3 of 3
1 of 3
2 of 3
Sirleaf is nursing an injury and will be an alternate in Paris. John Sherman, a 19-year-old from Middle Tennessee State University, will run in place of Sirleaf.
As the Olympic ceremonies open Friday in Paris, the team will come out waving the Liberian flag, a celebration both of their journey and Liberia’s Independence Day, which is the same day.
In 1991, the U.S., and specifically Minnesota, began resettling refugees from Liberia, who were fleeing civil war. Today, Minnesota is home to one of the largest Liberian populations in the U.S., estimated at around 30,000 people.
“The Minnesota connection is really strong,” said Momodou N’Jie, Joseph Fahnbulleh’s cousin and manager. N’Jie grew up with him in the Hopkins area. He says the community is excited to watch the Liberian-Minnesotans compete in Paris.
“There’s a lot of different watch parties, not only obviously here in Minnesota … Rhode Island’s another big place and obviously in Liberia,” he said. “I think it’ll be very cool to see all these different watch parties.”
As of Thursday, the exact location of those watch parties hasn’t been announced.
Many families will also be traveling to Paris, which wasn’t a possibility at the Tokyo Olympics because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.
“I feel like it’s big, because my mom is going to be there. Because [Liberia’s] her native country. So for her seeing me there in Liberia gear, and us on the stage and being the flag bearer and things like that. It’s kind of just huge for her.”
He said racing for the team, representing the country his mother grew up in, will be an honor.
“I grew up around so many Liberians that it almost feels like a duty,” Reeves said. “I kind of felt like I had to run for Liberia just because of where I’m from. And it’s kind of like my birthright, kind of like something that I feel had to be done.”
Jabez Reeves warms up at Myer’s Field House in Mankato.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
He said it’s not only his family that’s excited, but the broader Liberian-American community.
“The very first time we qualified, I had almost 1,000 messages, just about ‘Congratulations. We’re so proud of you,’” he said. “I’ve had a couple of run-ins at the airport, like MSP, where people are like, ‘Oh, you’re the Liberian guy!’ It’s super cool to see people happy and excited that we’re doing something for not just ourselves, but for them as well.”
The first race for the relay team will be on Thursday Aug. 8. Fahnbulleh will run the first round of the 200 meters on Aug. 5. Matadi will run the first round of the 100 meters on Aug. 3.
These Alabama airports are sharing $22 million in federal grants
Weekend rain and sun for Alaska
Consumer Reports: Weatherproofing your home for Arizona heat and storms
Camden mourning loss of Arkansas’ oldest police officer L.C. ‘Buckshot’ Smith, remembering him as the officer who ‘took more people home than to jail’
California residents flee massive wildfire sparked by burning car
See it: Tesla crashes into Columbus convention center at 70 mph
Fox News Politics: Georgia the whole day through
Colorado Rockies game no. 116 thread: Zac Gallen vs José Ureña
Death of missing Oregon girl found in stream ruled homicide
At least 2 dead as tornadoes hit Alabama, damage homes across Southeast
Park Police union says officers ‘did everything they could’ during DC anti-Israel riot
Passengers face long, uncertain wait at stations amid rail disruption
Boar's Head recalls 200,000 pounds of deli meat linked to a Listeria outbreak
Texas sues Biden administration over program giving birth control to teens without parents' knowledge
South Africa police say 95 Libyans detained at suspected military camp
-
World1 week agoOne dead after car crashes into restaurant in Paris
-
Midwest1 week agoMichigan rep posts video response to Stephen Colbert's joke about his RNC speech: 'Touché'
-
News1 week agoVideo: Young Republicans on Why Their Party Isn’t Reaching Gen Z (And What They Can Do About It)
-
Movie Reviews1 week agoMovie Review: A new generation drives into the storm in rousing ‘Twisters’
-
News1 week agoIn Milwaukee, Black Voters Struggle to Find a Home With Either Party
-
Politics1 week agoFox News Politics: The Call is Coming from Inside the House
-
News1 week agoVideo: J.D. Vance Accepts Vice-Presidential Nomination
-
World1 week agoTrump to take RNC stage for first speech since assassination attempt