"We're just sitting here in shock," said Carol Carroll as she and he husband Roger sat on a bench outside His House Children's Center in this Miami suburb as their new 8-year-old daughter Mia munched nonchalantly on a granola bar. "It's real but it's not real at the same time . . . I don't have to give her back ever."
That sentiment played out all day as adoptive parents from Utah and other states trickled in to unite with their children. The nondenominational Christian children's home served as a processing center for the 50 who arrived from Haiti on Friday, ending a touch-and-go ordeal that began after the Jan. 12 earthquake scrambled the island nation's adoption protocol.
Children spent Friday night in cottages at His House's campus and were given new clothes, baths — standing up Haitian style — and fed rice and beans to ease the transition.
"We're the welcome party," said Iris Marrero, His House development director.
But the party, to the adoptive parents' relief, didn't last long. Some came anticipating a two-day wait.
The federal Administration of Children and Families expected most, if not all, of the kids to be released to their parents by the end of Saturday, said spokesman Jesse Moore. Families were scheduled to take commercial flights home Saturday and Sunday. The Carrolls, of Smithfield, will miss their son's LDS Church missionary farewell Sunday to allow their daughter a good night's rest before traveling.
Others were trying to arrange a charter due to the high cost of airfare.
"You did it. You did it," Lori Rosenlof said in a crying embrace with Chareyl Moyes, without whom the adoptions wouldn't have been possible. "Thank you."
Moyes, Wasatch International Adoptions program director for Haiti, spent the last week at the crowded Foyer de Sion orphanage changing diapers and dogging Haitian and U.S. government officials to grant the children humanitarian parole. With intervention on several government fronts, the Haitian prime minister signed the order Friday afternoon.
The signature effectively made Rosenlof and her husband, Brent, parents for the first time after 12 years of marriage.
"It's amazing how God can allow something so horrible (the earthquake) and pull something so beautiful out of it. These kids are special," Lori Rosenlof said. "Look at that little boy with head on his daddy's shoulder on American soil."
Two-and-half-year old Nathan makes the Rosenlofs a family of three. They're still waiting on a daughter as well.
For David and Candice Aitken, two out of three isn't good enough. Not when you're talking about children.
David Aitken could hardly contain himself while waiting at His House Children's Home to see his adoptive son and daughter who arrived from Haiti less than 24 hours earlier
Aitken and his wife Candice winged their way from Eagle Mountain to south Florida just a few hours after the airplane carrying their children landed, arriving Saturday morning with great anticipation
"I feel like my heart's going to beat out of my chest," he said.
Five-year-old Nerlande, chewing on a granola bar, arrived in a van. A little later, Aitken retrieved Yonelson, 4, on a golf cart.
But all is not complete in the Aitken family. Eight-year-old Fabrice was left sobbing uncontrollably at the Port-au-Prince airport because though granted humanitarian parole, his name was left off the approval list.
"Hopefully, it's something they can solve pretty quickly and get home," David Aitken said.
If not, he said he's prepared to wait in Florida or even fly to Haiti if he has to bring his son home.
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