Haiti orphans come home to Utah

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) Orphans who left Haiti Friday arrived in Utah today with their new parents. They were met at Salt Lake International airport by new brothers, sisters, and grandparents. Some families waited as long as five years for that moment.

The Carroll family waited for eight year old Mia for four years. Her four year old sister, also adopted from Haiti, today said with a grin “my sister, she is coming home today.”

Kate Carroll, Mia’s new big sister says “I love her so much she is going to be the most spoiled little girl ever!”

The Crepo family says it was also a long journey for them. They adopted five children from Haiti ranging in age from one to sixteen. Today they said the best part about being home, is being together. Lindsay Crepo says “I get to have my entire family on one continent is pretty phenomenal right now.” Lindsay and her husband spent days in the embassy trying to complete needed paperwork after the quake. “There were moments when we thought it was done. It was good to go. Then the bottom would drop out. It was one of those roller coasters that you never want to get on again, but it was worth it.”

Other family’s experienced a faster adoption process because of the earthquake. They were told to meet up with their children in Miami where they were processed as refugees. Sherry Evans says “I was so nervous; I just couldn’t wait to see them. I felt like it took forever but it was wonderful.” Evans said she was looking forward to spending some quiet time with her new daughter and son. “They are just such a blessing. They are so sweet, so much love.”

Meanwhile, a few feet away, near baggage claim, little Mia Carroll was being smothered with kisses by her new sisters. Her mother Carol says everything that could go wrong with her adoption had. “We just ran into every possible snag, every dark hole, and every bottomless pit that we could come across. We did it with this one.” She says the dark days are now over. She uses the same word used by the other families to describe what has happened in the past few weeks, miracle. “I think we will kneel down to pray tonight to get Mia home, because we have been so used to praying that for so many years, and then we will have to stop and say, oh, wait, she’s really here. She’s really here.”