Couple Fights To Bring Grandson Home From Pakistan
OKLAHOMA BOROUGH (KDKA) - For years, a Westmoreland County couple have been searching for their grandson whose mother left the country with him in 2003.
Now, they've finally found him living in an orphanage in Pakistan. They say he has been abandoned by his mother and they have begun a fight to bring him home.
Bill and Kathy Gregg, of Oklahoma Borough, have been looking for their grandson, Nathan, for seven years.
Kathy practically raised Nathan since the boy's mother, who is Kathy's daughter, wasn't around much.
"It was difficult," said Kathy. "She would leave the house for days and leave him with me - which I took care of him for the first three years of his life."
One day while on Facebook, one of the Gregg's daughters found out from a relative stranger that the boy's mother had moved to Lahore, located in eastern Pakistan, with a new husband. They had put Nathan in a religious school called a "madrassa," where his stepfather wanted the boy to study to become a Muslim holy man.
A Pakistani attorney hired by the Greggs found out that when Nathan would visit his mother and stepfather, it apparently didn't go well.
"He would come home, come back to the madrassa, and he would be bruised and beaten," said Kathy.
"No kid deserves that kind of treatment," added Bill.
Somehow, Nathan has ended up in an orphanage.
"It is my understanding, he was abandoned there by his mother," Kathy says. "She left the country and left him there without family."
The Pakistani attorney who found him showed Nathan pictures of his relatives and took some pictures of him.
It's the first pictures his family has seen of him in seven years.
"I think he's beautiful," said Kathy of the photos. "He looks like us and he looks like his baby pictures. I know it's him."
Nathan doesn't understand much English, but the Greggs are hoping to talk to him via the internet soon.
The couple's attorney will file for custody this week and likes their chances for the boy to come home.
"It would be wonderful. I think about it all the time," Kathy added. "I'm sure he'll remember me when he comes back; once I hug him."
Nathan's mother and her Pakistani husband moved to London with their children, all except for Nathan, who they put in an orphanage.
Since this custody fight could be months long and expensive, the Gregg family is holding a fundraiser. The spaghetti dinner is set for next Sunday in Vandergrift.
The family is hoping the boy will be back by summer.
For more information on the fundraiser, click on the following link and log onto Facebook: Nathan/Imran Benefit Spaghetti Dinner
