“We have coats and clothes ready to go. We just need a little boy to fill them.”
Ruby Faith Cleveland’s new room in Georgia is ready for her. On one side of the wall is a board with her name in pink letters. Another board reads, “Sweet girl, you are so loved.” The corner of her little bed is heaped with baby dolls and toys.
The 3-year-old girl from China was set to be welcomed into her new home on Feb. 21, ending an arduous two-year adoption process for parents Ivy and Noah Cleveland. Then the deadly coronavirus outbreak put a sudden stop to the family’s plan to travel to China and bring Ruby home.
The Cleveland family, like many others in the US who had planned to fly to China and complete the adoption process in January and February, are now grappling with the heartbreak of not knowing how long it will be until they meet their new sons and daughters and bring them home.
“Just knowing that you have a child out in the world that you can’t get to,” Ivy Cleveland, 30, told BuzzFeed News. “It’s devastating,”
Newsletter on Children & Families Journalism 