By Heidi Toth
Published in The Daily Herald
For the first time in months, Lori Rosenlof of Lehi is on the same continent as her soon-to-be-adopted son.
As of Friday night, they are not in the same time zone; 2-year-old Nathan was in Miami with Brent Rosenlof and a plane full of adoptive children from Haiti. But even getting to Miami was a victory.
Lori Rosenlof's blog, which she uses to update the other families who have been trying to adopt Haitian children for months and into years, was updated more than a dozen times Friday, as the story changed from the prime minister not letting the children leave the country to a pilot from the Utah Hospital Task Force who refused to leave without the children loaded into his plane.
The children will have to stay in Miami until they finish an immigration process, Rosenlof wrote on her blog late Friday.
There was good news for another Utah County family, the Aitkens of Eagle Mountain, and some bad news, too. They are adopting three children from Haiti, and only two of them were allowed to leave the country on Friday. Candice Aitken said Friday night that they're hoping their oldest son will be able to come to the U.S. within a few weeks.
Aitken said she was leaving Salt Lake City on Friday night and would arrive in Miami to see her two children by Saturday morning. It probably will be two to three days until the children are through the immigration process, but they will be able to visit them.
About 60 children were airlifted out of Haiti, less than the 100 or so that were initially scheduled to go. Many parents are using their blogs to post updates about what's going on with their adopted children in Haiti.
Tia Simpson, another mother waiting for 2-year-old Collin, wrote on her blog just before 6 p.m. Friday that customs agents had taken custody of the children in Miami and parents needed to go there.
And even with the rush of people leaving Haiti, there still are others trying to get in: Kathy Headlee-Miner, the founder of Mothers Without Borders, and five men who have spent time in Africa and other Third World countries helping the people. The American Fork woman is hoping the team can do the same now.
"We're just going to help out wherever we can," she said.
All of them have good survival skills and have been in scary situations before. She said they can erect tents, work through collapsed buildings or do other tasks to help the rescue workers already in place.
"They've also worked with kids in different programs, so they can pitch in and keep kids busy and happy and stuff like that," she said.
They leave at 5 p.m. Saturday.
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