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Russell said Awa's mother soon followed and asked if they'd keep her for good. The Russells offered her excuses in the broken tribal language: We're too young. The Togo government will never let us take her back to America. Wouldn't she miss her family?

The mother disappeared.

The Russells asked themselves if it was possible. They tried to block images of Awa working in brothels as a young teenager, a certain fate, they feared, if she stayed in Togo.

Lori Russell had fallen in love with Awa, then a lanky 5-year-old who cracked jokes and had taught herself French. Already, Lori Russell had started to feel like a mother. Lori taught her ballet and asked women in the village to teach her how to wind Awa's hair into thick braids. Lori ordered matching dresses for Awa and herself from a local seamstress. Lori cuddled with Awa at night. She marveled at Awa's capacity to love despite her troubled life.

In 2007, a trio of Togolese men in black robes grilled Awa's mother and father about their desires to give their daughter to the Americans. Her parents insisted she'd be better off.

Within hours, the judges announced their approval of the adoption, making the Russell family three.

Struggling for a visa

Lori Russell boarded a plane in July 2007 and told herself again and again she'd see Awa and Michael soon.

She had earned a spot in Duke's law school. Orientation started in two weeks.

She would set up their apartment and start applying for Awa's visa. Michael would stay behind with Awa until he had to come to America for an interview and home inspection by a child services organization -- part of evaluating families for adopted children. The director of the Togolese Peace Corps program offered to keep Awa with her until they could get it sorted out.

Michael Russell came home in October and found a job working with Duke undergraduates at the university's Global Health Institute.

They decorated a room for Awa in their apartment. Lori Russell spread a pink lace comforter on a twin bed and perched a Hello Kitty doll on top.

The Russells figured they'd have the visa application squared away in a month. One month became five; Awa settled in for a long stay with the Peace Corp director in Togo's capital city.

Lori Russell tried to focus on contract law and exams. She tried to tell herself that she was doing all she could and that navigating immigration law could be tough. As a mother, she was heartsick. She stopped walking into Awa's room, unable to look at the stack of little girl's outfits her family helped assemble. She has found herself staring at other little black girls, trying to figure out how she'll fix Awa's hair when she comes to Durham. At restaurants, she would study the menus to try and figure out what she'd order for Awa.

"I wanted to walk away from law school so many times," Lori Russell said. "My child is a world away."

Finding a way

The United States grants visas to children in nations without formal adoption regulations when the child has been forfeited to an orphanage or the native country's government. Or, visas can be earned when the Americans have been the legal and physical guardians of the child for two years in her native country. The Russells had spent but one year in Togo after the courts granted them legal custody.

They applied for a visa anyway, convinced immigration officials would see their case as unique and find an exception to grant one. In October, an ominous letter from immigration officials warned them they were mistaken. Her visa would be denied.

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