Utah family's dreams come true: Their kids are home from Haiti

By Lana Groves

Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — Family members with balloons and 'Welcome Home' signs strained their eyes for a glimpse Wednesday night.

Then, in a green baseball cap and white t-shirt, one little 8-year-old boy sprinted—a huge grin on his face—into the arms of 12-year-old Kaleb Aitkin, his brother.

Following Fabrice, his weary and overjoyed family members—5-year-ol Nelande and their youngest brother, Yonelson, 4, walked amid parents David and Candice Aitken—who were finally home.

The Aitkens hadn't slept much since 1 a.m. on Wednesday, the time when their eldest boy to have been adopted and brought home from Haiti was returned to them. The family had spent grueling hours fearful since the 8-year-old was forced to stay behind in Haiti over misplaced paperwork while his siblings flew to Florida to meet up with their parents.

"There are no words," said Chareyl Moyes, Haiti program manager for Ogden-based Wasatch International Adoptions, who said she was heartbroken to leave behind the 8-year-old boy as she boarded the plane with his siblings last week.

But now, with Nelande's hand securely holding fast onto hers, only letting go to be given a Red Fish candy or piece of gum from her new siblings, Moyes said the extensive paperwork and time it took to bring 68 children over to the U.S. was "definitely worth it."

"We just cried when we saw Fabrice," said his father, David Aitken, an Eagle Mountain businessman.

The boy raced to unbuckle his seatbelt and nearly tripped out of the car when his foot caught on the troublesome seatbelt to get to his family even faster when they were reunited in Florida.

The children were so excited they began singing, "When you're happy and you know it, clap your hands," grandmother Ann Aitken said about when the children were finally together again early Wednesday morning.
And the trip to be together has been an arduous one.

First, when the earthquake hit, the 68 orphans were in the process of moving from Carrefour to Port-au-Prince and were split into two groups. Half, including Nelande and Yonelson, were taken to an Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church in Petion-ville, but the remainder, including Fabrice, were still in Carrefour.

The three Aitken children, who along with seven other children adopted by Utah residents, were supposed to fly to Florida later this week to be brought home. On Monday the Haitian government stopped any more children leaving the country for adoption.

But Moyes, who has 15 more children in the Foyer de Sion orphanage still in Haiti, said she won't give up.

For Fabrice and his brother and sister, after another hour-long car ride, they will arrive in their new home to find monster toy trucks on their beds, and sunglasses and deodorant on Fabrice's bed—"cool things" his 14-year-old brother Kolby said he adores.

The Aitken parents, who expanded their broad from 6 to 9 kids, couldn't be happier, and said they'll start homeschooling the children and just "let them enjoy being kids."

"They haven't had that chance till now," David Aitken said.

Aitken's business partner of the Provo-based company HIT Web Design that supports the Hope for Little Angels of Haiti orphanage, said within the next 30 days, the company plans to start raising money to help rebuild the orphanage there.

Until then, the kids, who played on escalators with their siblings and marveled over candy machines and the treats coming out of them, are just happy to be home.

"We're just overjoyed," mother Candace Aitken said.