"As any parent who has had trouble having a child knows, the gift of him was just unbelievable to us," Scot Gabriel said, breaking into tears. "He immediately changed our life."

But getting their young son back to the United States is proving to be an international nightmare for the Gabriel family. While Scot, 36, a Salem, N.H., native who is now a Methuen lawyer, returned to the states weeks ago, his wife, Laura, 31, and their son, Logan, who is just a few months old, are trapped in the basement of a hotel just north of war-torn Beirut.

As if that weren't enough to worry about, Laura is accompanied in Lebanon by her mother, Susan Collins of Westford, and Scot's father, Ken Gabriel of Salem, N.H.

The family is among 25,000 American citizens hoping to evacuate Lebanon as conflict in the Middle East intensifies.

"Bombs are going off all over the place. ... The government is completely disbanded. And the baby doesn't have his final passport," Scot Gabriel said during an interview yesterday morning at his 369 Merrimack St. law office.

A cruise ship hired by the United States, along with U.S. Marines, was sent to the country's coast, and officials are hoping 1,000 Americans per day will be evacuated.

Here in the Merrimack Valley, the Gabriel family and their friends are pressing Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy and Congressman Martin Meehan, hoping they can help get the family out of Lebanon.

"I just want my family to get into a safe place," Scot Gabriel said. "I don't want them in danger anymore."

Kennedy's office yesterday was working with the Lebanese ambassador to the United States, hoping to persuade leaders in that government to speed up the adoption process for the Gabriel family.

"We're hoping we can help finalize the adoption so Laura and Logan can be evacuated to the United States," said Melissa Wagoner, a Kennedy spokeswoman.

An aide to Meehan said he also is in close contact with Scot Gabriel and is doing everything he can to bring the family home.

As chance would have it, the Gabriels met eight years ago while working on a political campaign for Tom Keane, who unsuccessfully challenged Kennedy. They married four years ago and decided to adopt a child from Lebanon, where Scot's family originated. He now has extended family living throughout Southern New Hampshire and the Merrimack Valley. His uncle, Ed Gabriel, runs Gabe's restaurant in South Lawrence.

After years of planning and paperwork, the couple visited Lebanon in May, and they met the young baby boy they would name Logan. Scot Gabriel returned to America, and Laura stayed overseas until the adoption could be completed. But violence erupted in the country before the adoption process was finished. And "every method of egress" out of Beirut is now blocked, Scot said.

He said he's been trying to stay in touch with his wife by phone and e-mail. In one frantic message, she told him about bombings outside her hotel, in areas where just days before she walked the baby.

"It was just a few hundred feet from the hotel," he said nervously.

While he awaits help, Scot Gabriel said he's received tremendous support from family and friends, many who called or visited his office yesterday. Fellow parishioners from St. Anthony's in Lawrence have also been extremely helpful.

"The Lebanese community in Lawrence is very tight," he said.

He is reaching out to the media, hoping to get the family's story as much exposure as possible. He hopes the coverage will help bring his family home.

"She's willing to go anywhere with him (Logan)," he said. "She just needs to get out of there."

His wife has made one thing very clear to him, though. She has no intention of leaving the baby behind in Lebanon.

"She said, 'I'll die with him,'" he said.