Anxious parents may soon be reunited with their adopted children from Haiti

Haitian children who have been paired with American families for adoption may be allowed into the United States quite quickly under "humanitarian parole," according to a Salt Lake attorney working on the issue with attorneys from Pennsylvania.

The State Department Monday issued a press release announcing conditions under which orphans throughout devastated regions of Haiti can be united with their prospective adopted parents in America, said Greg Constantino.

That includes children who had been through most of the adoption process prior to the earthquake and also those previously identified by adoption service providers as eligible for international adoption and matched with prospective American families, a much broader group. Cases are being reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Constantino volunteers with the Maison Des Enfantes De Dieu orphanage in Port-au-Prince, where his wife, Dr. Tawnya Constantino, a neurologist at Intermountain Medical Center, is medical director. She has been camped out at the Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday waiting for word that the orphans will be allowed into the United States.

The Constantinos and others have been working with the May Law Group and the State Department to facilitate the evacuation of the children.

There are logistical issues, since most of the roads, the ports and the airport itself have been overwhelmed by the earthquake. They think the U.S. military will help move the children, but that's only tentatively confirmed. It's dangerous to leave them where they are. At the Maison des Enfantes orphanage, for instance, children and staff have been staying in the courtyard, exposed to looters and the elements. They may soon run out of supplies, as well.

Children with prospective families in other countries will be subject to arrangements being worked out by their countries — a process that governments in Canada, Argentina, Spain and elsewhere are hammering out with Haitian officials.

A Philadelphia news station reported Monday night that children from the Bresma orphanage, another facility the May Law Group has been helping, could start arriving in the United States within hours.

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