Passports secured, fees paid, plane tickets purchased, the visas came through three weeks ago. Osly and his mother began their journey to Maryland, leaving behind the one-room home without electricity or running water that they share with five of Osly's seven siblings.
At the last minute, Gashti had to wire money - neither Osly, now 13, nor his mother owned shoes, something they would need in the United States. The only pair Osly could find are a bit too small, but he can't part with the brand-new, gleaming white sneakers he can call his own.
They departed for Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where Gashti had flown to meet them. Osly held tight to Gashti's coat as he rode in his first elevator. Gashti had to grab Pierre as she was nearly torn in two when she put one foot on an escalator but not the other.
Mother and son spent their first full day in the United States at the sprawling new Ellicott City home - with its high ceilings, flat-screen televisions and granite countertops - that Gashti shares with his wife, Leida, his 12-year-old daughter, Jasmin, and Joshua. This will be Osly and Pierre's home until Osly is well enough to return to Haiti.
Language is an obstacle. Neither speaks the other's tongue. The Gashtis have a Creole phrase book. Venezuelan-born Leida knows some rudimentary French. But most importantly they have Haitian-American friends who are a phone call away. That has helped in confusing moments.
Osly and Joshua seem to speak the common language of teenage boys. They both sit slack-jawed in front of a Sylvester Stallone action movie. They spend hours on the PlayStation 2.
Pierre, 48, communicates in her own way. She did something she had never done in her life, making snow angels and rolling down hills in the Gashtis' backyard.
On Wednesday, Osly went to Union Memorial so doctors could finally see inside the tumor. There is no diagnostic equipment at the Haitian hospital, no X-ray machines or CT scans.
Osly's tumor was also inspected by Dr. Vinay K. Gupta, chief of oncologic surgery at Union Memorial. When Gupta pulled away Osly's shirt - a soccer jersey borrowed from Jasmin - Pierre had to look away. It is too hard for her to see her baby this way, she said through an interpreter.
Gupta sensed her angst. "This will be very good for him," the doctor reassured her.
