Utah woman grateful to have gotten her adopted Haitian children home

ST. GEORGE — Karen Jorgensen knows Port-au-Prince. She's been there seven times. The St. George woman was there just 21 days ago picking up her two newly adopted children, Mac and Marleigh, whom she had been working to get home for the past two years.

She and her husband stayed at a hotel down the street from the National Palace that was crumbled in ruins Tuesday after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Haitian capital.

"We literally just missed this disaster," Jorgensen said Wednesday. "It could've been us so easily if there had been one more issue or if it had taken just a few more days to get the visas."

This thought hit her and her husband hard last night after trying desperately to call the Foyer De Sion orphanage for any news on the condition of the building her children were living in just three weeks ago, their friends working there or the orphans.

Lindsay Crapo, from Pocatello, Idaho, works with Foyer De Sion and the 225 orphans spread out over its three buildings on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Crapo has five children there she has been working on adopting for more than three years.

"It's a nightmare," Crapo said. "If they don't get the help they need, I don't know how they will survive."

Crapo said many of the orphans already suffer from malnutrition.

Many like Crapo do not know the condition of their children there waiting to be adopted. Some couples have tried contacting anyone, including news stations, to see if their child is OK.

Angie Rasmussen, from Logan, hasn't slept since she heard the news and isn't planning on sleeping in the near future as she waits to hear if her 10-year-old daughter, Abigaelle, who she has been trying to adopt for four years, is alright.

She has contacted her younger sister, Mandi McBride, also from Logan, who flew into Port-au-Prince Monday morning. Rasmussen said her sister has tried to get to the orphanage to see if the children are OK, but damage to the city is too extensive.

"She said she has never been so scared in her life," Rasmussen said of her sister. "She's cried every time I've talked to her and Mandi doesn't cry."

One of the hardest parts for Jorgensen is imagining what the streets would've looked like at the time the earthquake hit.