A year after traveling to El Salvador so Mercedes Casanella could give birth in her home country, Casanella and her husband Richard Cushworth are back home in Texas to stay—with the right baby. The couple initially returned to the US after the birth, only to discover, after getting suspicious about the infant's looks, that their son had been switched at birth with another baby boy. Back in El Salvador, the two infants were switched back at four months old. But it took more than eight months for Casanella and Cushworth to be given a birth certificate and passport for little Moses, they tell the BBC, and getting all the paperwork together to be allowed to bring the boy home has nearly bankrupted them. "It has forced our family to be separated, it's been awful," says Cushworth, originally from the UK. "I thought it would be a matter of days, maybe weeks, but not nine months. It has been dreadful."
Technically, Moses only has a three-week visa, but the family's attorney is confident he'll be allowed to stay in the US. The couple tells the BBC that, though it's "wonderful" to have the whole family home, it was heartbreaking to give up Jacob, "the baby I had been nursing, taken care of, loving him, bathing," a tearful Casanella says. "We were rushed in and we had to go really quickly and we barely had time to say goodbye. ... That was the most difficult part of all the situation. ... I think we were in love with the baby." Charges against the delivery doctor were dropped two weeks ago. But, Cushworth tells WFAA, he and his wife are "very thankful, very happy" to be home. "I can't believe we have this beautiful miracle boy here in Dallas." They say that getting to know Moses went smoothly: "It was beautiful, it was a blessing of God. I got to nurse him, too, without any problems," Casanella says. "He adjusted, he never cried." (More switched at birth stories.)
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