It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime.
Jehad Adwan had not seen his parents in Gaza for 13 years. The University of Minnesota student and instructor saved money to bring his wife, Lisa, and four children to the region.
It would also be a special trip for the kids. Noor, 11, Zaki 10, Hala, 8, and Zain, 6, had never met their grandparents, nor the scores of relatives living in the region.
The Adwans spent $7,000 on airline tickets in April, when Egypt was still calm. When the family left in early July, President Mohammed Morsi had just been ousted, but the Adwans didn't expect the kind of chaos that has ensued since they left.
The six Minnesotans flew into Cairo and hired a driver to take them to Rafa, Gaza. They were supposed to return so Jehad could start his job as an assistant clinical professor in the U school of nursing and the kids could return to school. Lisa is editor of the Mizna Journal, a forum for Arab-Americans.
Instead, the violence in Egypt has sealed the border, and the Adwans and their children have been stranded. Several times they were loaded onto hot, crowded buses with 40 other people and brought to the border for transport to the Cairo airport, only to be turned back because the border was still closed.
Lisa Adwan has been communicating with worried friends and family in Minnesota through social media, relaying a grim and grueling ordeal.
The Adwans knew the U.S. State Department "strongly urges" U.S. citizens to avoid Gaza because it is controlled by Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist group. The U.S. has little influence in the area. But the Adwans decided to take the chance to reunite their family.