FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)-- A Fayetteville family fights to bring their adopted children, Rose and Joseph, home from Uganda after they were denied by the US government.
Doug and Brooke Waller have adopted internationally before.
Their sons Henry and Teddy are originally from Ethiopia.
They said the adoption of Rose and Joseph went fine, but when it came time to get them to Arkansas, things became difficult.
Brooke said in order for a child to be allowed in an orphanage in Uganda, one of their parents must be dead.
The Wallers learned that in both of their children's families a death had been faked.
This is why US Immigration will not allow their children to come to the country.
“People make mistakes," Brooke said. "You know if you are desperate and you want to surrender your child, we can understand that. We’ve corrected the record and now it’s time to get those kids home. We really don’t want them to be punished for the mistakes their parents made.”
Once they found this out, they hired private investigators, conducted DNA tests and many other things to right this wrong.
They said they have talked with the children's birth parents who have surrendered their rights.
Doug explained there is an urgency to bringing them home.
He said Joseph currently has sickle cell anemia and needs medical help in America.
“That is part of the reason his birth family surrendered him because they could not care for him and feared he would die," Doug said. "So they went to these great lengths, even great lengths of faking a death in order to surrender him to the orphanage in hopes that he would live.”
The Wallers first volunteered with orphanages in Africa while serving in the Navy.
Their love for these kids grew there and they decided to grow their family through adoption.
Another thing they learned while serving is to leave no man behind.
That's exactly what they plan to do even if the government denies them again.
“Eventually if they say they can’t come to us, then we’ll go to them," Doug said. "They’re our kids and we will not leave our family behind.”
The Wallers have one more appeal they can make before they have to make this decision.
They ask for help from the public to share their story of their fight.
For more information on what they are doing, you can to to their Facebook Page Bring Rose and Joseph Home.