Champagne, tears and laughter flowed freely last night after the Romanian authorities said Mihaela Porumbaru could stay in Ireland with her foster mother, Ms Briege Hughes.
"It's a miracle, a miracle. I can't believe it," an emotional Briege said after being told the four-year-old could stay in Ireland. The high profile given to Mihaela's plight by the Irish media is believed to have played a role in the Romanian authorities' decision.
It ended an emotionally charged day, which began at 5 a.m. when the Romanian social worker who travelled with Mihaela and two other children to Dundalk in July, arrived to take her to Belfast Airport and begin the journey back to the orphanage she has lived in since birth.
Briege and her family cried as they bade farewell to Mihaela just after 7 a.m. yesterday, believing they would never see her again.
Luck was on their side, and a misprint on the girl's airline ticket resulted in ground staff in the airport refusing to allow her board the aircraft. A few hours later she was returned to Briege.
"Don't worry, she won't be staying," were the words Briege first heard from the Romanian social worker as she took Mihaela in her arms to welcome her back to her home in Dundalk.
She has been holidaying with the family for the past two years, and Briege had started the tedious process of applying to adopt her.
To add to her joy yesterday, she was told the adoption had been granted and all she has to do is travel to Bucharest later in the year to sign the papers.
"It is amazing, absolutely amazing. This is just fantastic news," she said.
The crisis unfolded over the weekend after the social worker informed the family that Mihaela was in Ireland on a tourist visa, which had run out.
Until then they had believed she was here on a medical visa, which is open-ended and allows children stay here until they receive adequate medical care.
The family has appointments with four different specialists to examine and assess her medical condition. She is paralysed from the waist down and is incontinent.
She has no opportunity for such care in Romania, where in Bucharest alone there are tens of thousands of abandoned children.
Briege was bountiful in her praise for her many friends and neighbours, particularly Niamh and Ciaran Phillips and Mary Louet-Feisser who "left no stoneunturned and were on the phone all day today trying to sort things out".
Mary, who first contacted the press to highlight Mihaela's situation, said: "I am thrilled to bits and so happy. I thought we were facing into another night of crying around the table because we knew she was going back to rot in an institution".
The Louth TD, Mr Seamus Kirk, who intervened with the Romanian embassy and liaised with its senior representative in Ireland, Mr Bogdan Bocue, thanked the embassy for its input.
"Once the embassy got a grasp of the what was involved the staff played a pivotal role. We are all delighted Mihaela is staying, but perhaps if the embassy could have been contacted on Sunday much of the trauma of the last few days could have been avoided," he added.
Clare Murphy writes: The girl arrived at Belfast International Airport shortly after 8.30 a.m. yesterday in a group of up to six, which included a child aged about 10. The four-year-old was carried to a BMI ticket desk and sat on the counter.
It is understood the group intended to board the 9 a.m. flight to London Heathrow.
A male in the group questioned a waiting cameramen on whether he had permission to film.
An Irish woman in the group was then overheard commenting: "It's all gone wrong. One of the tickets is missing".
The group was shepherded through a security area and subsequently failed to board the flight.
A spokeswoman for BMI said the airline would not comment on the details of the event.
According to the airline's ticket sales division, the next two flights were fully booked yesterday, with four seats remaining on a flight at 5.05 p.m.