A Christmas Story

David Goldman put it best when he called his reunion with 9-year-old son Sean a Christmas miracle. And he put it best again Tuesday on the Today show when he said, “We did it. We did it.”
My husband and I have been following this international child abduction for the last year or more, long before things finally came to a head in the weeks leading up to Christmas and this became the news story of the hour.
As a new mother, this tragedy grieved me like no other, crying every time I saw Goldman on the news. My heart, as I’m sure the hearts of everyone who followed this story, ached for this man. I am glad it came to an end because I couldn’t take too much more. My husband, who does not tear- up easily at news stories, himself working in TV news, would even get misty eyed watching Goldman in interviews — a new father feeling this man’s pain. As parents, we wondered how in the world Goldman was holding it together these last five years. How could one survive the hours of the days that made up the years without their precious and only child?
And then finally it happened: The Christmas miracle.
The highest court in Brazil ruled in Goldman’s favor, upholding a lower court’s order to return Sean to his father. Finally, Goldman lucked into a judge, Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes, who had a heart and a brain.
But it wasn’t until things got political in recent months that Brazil woke up and realized it had plenty to lose if it continued thumbing its nose at international child abduction laws. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the U.S. House and Senate called on Brazil to permit the boy’s return. New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D) who, citing the Goldman case, really applied the pressure by delaying the renewal of a $2.75 billion trade deal that would lift tariffs on some Brazilian exports. New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith (R) also got in on the action by accompanying Goldman to Brazil, speaking out on his behalf. Political pressure was on and the entire world was watching.
So the Brazilian government now looks like a hero, returning Sean to his father just in the nick of time for Christmas, after putting this American father through hell by allowing this case to drag on for years.
But no matter. Because father and son were united Christmas Eve and “all was right with the world,” to quote one of the ending lines to “A Christmas Story.”

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