Deployment separates family; Mother too ill to join infant here

A local family is reaching out to the community for help in reuniting a newborn and her ailing mother.
The child’s father, a soldier in the Army, headed for Iraq Saturday, and he left not knowing when his two loved ones will be together again.
His wife, Christy Harvey,  is in Texas, a thousand miles away from their five-week-old baby, Sophie-Anne.
Because Christy Harvey is too ill to care for the infant on her own, the child is living part-time in Cypress, with her aunt, and part-time in Grand Ridge, with her grandmother.
Even with other responsibilities of their own, Christy’s sister Lee Ann McDowell and her mother Annette Colson must juggle child care duties that caught them by surprise.
Harvey nearly died from complications related to child birth, and it will be at least three more weeks before she’s ready to join her daughter in Jackson County.
She’s facing another year of recovery from surgery and the tissue-destroying bacterial infection she suffered in childbirth. With her husband expected to be away that entire time, she’s moving in next door to her sister in Cypress.
But even after she’s physically able to move here, another barrier stands in the way.
Her husband is packing up their household goods for the move, but financial difficulties prevent the family from renting a truck for the long-distance relocation.
Because he is not required to make the move himself, and because his wife’s move is not a matter the military considers its responsibility, the Army will not finance the relocation of infantryman Derrick Harvey’s wife and baby.
The separation from her baby is particularly difficult for Harvey in light of her history.
She suffered one miscarriage, and after that, delivered a still-born baby at seven months.
McDowell said she is anguished over her sister’s current situation.
“It can’t get much worse than sending your child 1,000 miles away,” McDowell said. “Every day she calls and cries. We let her talk to the baby on the phone, but of course it’s not the same as being able to hold her and take care of her.”
McDowell said she stayed as long as she could with her sister in Texas, but she is out of vacation time, and she and her husband finally had to make the decision to have her bring the baby back here with her.
“There was nothing else I could have done,” she said.
McDowell said the family is setting its sights on a goal — they’re hoping the community will help them.
“We want to get Christy here as soon as she’s able, but the fact is that we’ve got an impossible situation here,” McDowell explained. “It’s been extremely hard on her, and most of all we’re asking for the prayers of everyone in the community. If anyone can help us with the expense, that would be appreciated so much. It’s an expensive thing to do, and we just don’t have the money.”
Her mother, Annette Colson, said her daughter has always wanted to be a mother, and that being away from her child is almost unbearable.
“She’s tried for a baby ever since she was old enough,” Colson said. “She lost the first two, and she was going to quit trying after this (if something had happened) because it was so emotionally hard on her. This baby is something of a miracle, and it’s just heartbreaking that she can’t be with her.”
Colson said she is bitter about the Army’s refusal to take on the financial burden of the move. She is also upset that the military would not let her son-in-law stay home this time around.
He’s been to Korea and has served a year in Iraq already, she said.
Derrick Harvey said he’s disappointed by the Army’s policy about not financing the move, and he’s exhausted all efforts to get a deferred deployment.
He said he never tried to get out of the overseas assignment and accepts it as the burden of a soldier. But he had hoped his leaving would be delayed until his wife and child were settled.
The family is hoping that the community will step up with donations to help them rent a truck and get the Harveys’ belongings to Jackson County.
To assist, an account has been set up at Wachovia’s Marianna branch for the family. The account number is 1010226142139.