Mother Fights for 12 Years to Get Her Daughter Out of Egypt

May 19, 2009 — -- Janet Greer can remember with devastating clarity the day that her 3-year-old daughter, Sarah "Dawsha" Elgohary, was supposed to return from a weekend visit with her father. And when Sarah didn't show, she remembers the exact moment when she realized the child's father, Greer's Egyptian ex-boyfriend, had stolen the child away from her.

"Right then, I knew my life was over. I knew he had her. I fell down on the ground. I fell down, because I knew she was gone," Greer told "Good Morning America" before beginning to cry uncontrollably, just as she had that day. Greer's ex-boyfriend, Magdy Elgohary, had, without a word, taken the girl to live in Egypt.

That terrifying day was March 23, 1997. In the 12 years since Sarah was taken, Greer has been fighting doggedly to be reunited with her little girl who, aside from a grainy cell phone video, she has not seen since she was a toddler.

To get her daughter back, Greer has spent all her money. She has taken multiple trips to Egypt, including a teasing visit to outside the apartment where she believed Dowsha lived. An Egyptian court even agreed that Greer should have custody of the child.

But still, she can't get to her daughter and has weathered for more than a decade a frustrated fury few can understand.

"It's a huge void in my life. My heart has been ripped out, and it's walking around in Africa somewhere, and I want to see my daughter," Greer told "Good Morning America," breaking down in tears once again.

In her latest bid for compassion and international cooperation, Greer said she is pleading to first lady Michelle Obama and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's wife, Suzanne, to help resolve her struggle.

"Can you help me see my daughter? I have to, before I die, I have to see my daughter," Greer said of her planned plea. "They're both mothers, and I need to see my daughter before I die."

To Greer, daughter Sarah's birth was nothing short of a miracle.

"That was the best day of my life, when I heard I was pregnant with her," she said. "I just couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it."

At 40 years old, Greer didn't believe she could get pregnant, but then Sarah was born in Honolulu to Greer and then-boyfriend, Egyptian cabdriver Magdy Elgohary.

Soon, however, Greer said things started to take a troubling turn.