'You did it. You did it!' Haitian orphans heading to Utah soon

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. — An odyssey that began in Haiti for a group of orphans ended Saturday in the arms of their new parents who are free, finally, to take them home.

"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.