Unknown Sources

The Wardles' Haitian daughter, Gabrielle, 7, arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Thursday. She will soon join her new family in Bountiful.

Gabrielle was days away from coming to Utah when Haiti's Jan. 12 earthquake brought everything -- including adoptions -- to a halt. But with the aid of a Utah group she was united with her adoptive father in Haiti and the pair was then flown to Florida.

Brent Rosenlof is in Port-au-Prince with the Lehi couple's soon-to-be-adopted son. But he has yet to locate their daughter. For now, they are struggling with Haitian and U.S. authorities to obtain exit visas or special status to emigrate.

In an interview Friday, Lori Rosenlof said she remains hopeful. "The Lord didn't bring us all this way to have it fall apart now."

For most Haitian orphans, even those with adoptive parents waiting in the United States and elsewhere, getting out of the quake-ravaged country requires patience and luck.

There have been bright spots, however. On Thursday, 21 orphans, including Gabrielle Wardle, were flown to Fort Lauderdale, by a loose-knit Utah group led by St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson. There, those orphans will be united with adoptive families.

Johnson's group also wants to extricate another 107 orphans camped out near the Haitian-Dominican
Republic border. There was no progress to report on their plight Friday, according to a spokesman for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who is in contact with the group.

UNICEF officials were warning against a mass exodus of children who did not have adoptive parents waiting in other countries. That may have slowed the process for orphans who were in the process of being adopted.

Chareyl Moyes, adoption coordinator at Ogden-based Wasatch International Adoptions, spent Friday at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, waiting in long lines attempting to complete the emigration process for 10 children who already had been cleared for U.S. visas.

There were 60 other children in Moyes' group who also have parents waiting, but are not far enough along in the lengthy process to have been awarded visas yet, said Lori Rosenlof.

The Rosenlofs hope their adoptive daughter and son, who are among the 60 without visas, will be able to leave Haiti under a special status.

Lori Rosenlof talked with Moyes by telephone Friday in Port-au-Prince and said things are moving slowly at the U.S. Embassy. It looked like it would take days to get clearance -- even for children with visas.

Officials in Haiti and the United States are taking pains to make sure that adoption processes are transparent and complete, said C.J. Jordan, spokeswoman for the Greater Washington Haiti Relief Committee, organized by the Haitian Embassy to streamline relief efforts.

"We all have concerns with children and lack of documentation," she said. "What if there is a parent who is still alive or a relative who is still alive? We don't want to supersede the process. That could lead to problems."