- Via WEAR-TV 3/Pensacola, Florida -

HAITI - A local pilot was recently faced with a dilemma about whether to return a Haitian child to her mother in Pensacola.

Rachelle and Lester got married on Christmas Day. They were in the process of bringing over Rachelle's daughter Rosey when the earthquake hit. In the chaos that followed, Rosey fell into the care of her estranged father's brothers.

Rachelle thought all hope was lost, until they heard about Gene Schmidt.

Rachelle Vilmeney Boyd/Rosey's Mother: "My husband was watching TV, and we saw Gene Schmidt on TV."

We first told you about Schmidt a few days after the earthquake. He's a volunteer pilot for BahamasHabitat.org, airlifting life saving supplies to Haiti and occasionally flying people out.

Gene Schmidt/BahamasHabitat.org Pilot: "After I got back, I got a call at work from Mr. Boyd."

Boyd wondered if it was possible for Schmidt to pick up Rosey.

After a number of phone calls to numerous politicians, the short answer was no. Rosey had her passport, but no visa, and it didn't matter that the agency issuing visas no longer existed, after their building collapsed.

Schmidt: "I think that was all, it was over at that point."

Gene didn't think much about it until he landed in Les Cayes.

Schmidt: "These two fellows walked up and they had the little girl, and they said 'Rosey,' and I looked down and I thought, 'well, there you go. What do we do now?'"

This is really a typical road here in Haiti. This is how Rosey would have gotten her to Les Cayes from Port-Au-Prince. It's only about 100 miles away, but they say on something like this, you can average about 10 miles an hour, so it would have taken her about 10 hours."

Schmidt explained that it was illegal to take Rosey to her mother in the U.S.

Schmidt: "Her mother has to get her through customs. I can't get her through customs without a visa."

- Dan Thomas/Reporter: "Are you going to take her back to Port Au Prince?"
- Jolanie Lano/Rose's Guardian: "No."
- Thomas: "What will happen to her if she doesn't go back to America?"
- Lano: "What?"
- Thomas: "What will happen to her if she doesn't go back to the United States?"
- Lano: "What? I don't get it."
- Thomas: "What will happen to her if she doesn't go back to the United States?"
- Lano: "Her? Well, I don't know."

Schmidt: "It was okay with them to just leave her at the airport unattended."

Schmidt felt he had no choice.

Schmidt: "She got in the back of the plane, I got in the front, and off we went."

While Gene was in the air, Lester was on the phone, calling everyone he could think of. Finally, word got back to State Representative Dave Murzin, who called State Senator Ellen Bogdanoff, who met Schmidt at customs in Fort Lauderdale.

Schmidt: "They didn't say a word to us for 45 minutes. Both Ellen and I are on the phone to different people thinking we're going to apply some political pressure to these fellows, but they're immune to political pressure.

"After 45 minutes, they asked me to put her hands on the fingerprint machine and then they took her picture, and I thought, 'well, we've either made it in or we're being arrested.'"

Rosey was given 24 months probation.

Boyd: "I said, 'Oh my God, is it true? Am I dreaming? Without a visa?' How she got here? I said, 'God you're so big, you're so strong, you give me my baby alive.'

"Oh Gene! I don't think I have a word. The biggest word to say is like thank you, without him I think I wasn't going to have my baby here with me."

Something she got a chance to tell him in person when they met for the first time on Wednesday.

- Lester Boyd/Rosey's Step Father: "You know who this is? You better give that man a hug. I'm going to give you a hug too!"
- Lester: "Gene, I appreciate everything you did."Haitian Girl Returns to Her Family, Thanks to a Volunteer