Dying Army veteran (survivor of 60 Vietnam combat missions) races against time to adopt baby girl

[Amerigo Vespucci]

A dying man's race to adopt — and a small miracle
Community moves heaven and earth to grant Vietnam vet's final wish



In this Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011 photo, a print of Marshall McClain holding Alyssa, the girl he and his wife brought in to live with them in Jan. 2011, sits on arm of a sofa in the McClains' Sharon, S.C. home as Alyssa plays on the floor in the background.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44597789/ns/health-health_care/

SHARON, S.C. — With everything she had to do that morning, Marshall McClain could not believe his wife was wasting time making the bed.

"What are you doing?" he gasped from the brown recliner where he spent his nights.

Tracey McClain was killing time, waiting for the lawyer's call, waiting to hear whether the adoption was a go and 11-month-old Alyssa would finally be theirs.

Alyssa's mother had long since given her consent, but attorney Dale Dove hadn't been in a particular hurry to locate the biological father. In the case of absentee fathers, he told the McClains, the longer the child can bond with the prospective parents before an adoption notice is filed, the better.