More setbacks for Utahns waiting to adopt Haitian orphans (birth Father)
More setbacks for Utahns waiting to adopt Haitian orphans
Relief ยป Devastated country's government delays children from leaving
By Kirsten Stewart
The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 01/25/2010 06:46:32 PM MST
Utah families awaiting a planeload of Haitian orphans received more bad news Monday.
A group of 70 children affiliated with the Hope for Little Angels of Haiti orphanage arrived at the U.S. Embassy expecting to be cleared to exit the earthquake-ravaged country, but were told to try again tomorrow.
As many as 36 of the orphans are being adopted by families in Utah and Idaho who have reportedly raised $7,000 for jet fuel to airlift the children to America.
"But the Haitian government has put a freeze on everything," said Lori Rosenlof, a Lehi woman adopting two children, 2-year-old Nathan and 3-year-old Jessica. "The embassy is turning away all people for appointments and telling them to come back tomorrow."
U.S. authorities say the bottleneck is temporary and blame it on new safeguards imposed by the Haitian government, which must now approve the release of every child.
Negotiations are under way to "establish an appropriate, efficient and expeditious process" for moving ahead with the adoptions, said U.S. State Department spokesman Fred Lash.
But for expectant parents, the delay is another in a seemingly endless string of setbacks.
Rosenlof and her husband Brent have waited 24 months to bring their children home, visiting them on six separate occasions.
Brent is in Haiti, orchestrating his children's rescue with Ogden-based Wasatch International Adoptions.
Photos posted on the family blog
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show Brent sleeping with little Nathan sprawled on his chest. Jessica, too, is safe, the Rosenlofs confirmed Monday. But she is with her birth father, who lives somewhere outside Port-au-Prince.
Jessica's birth parents are separated. In December, after an argument with Jessica's birth mother, her father retrieved Jessica from the orphanage "as a form of retaliation," said Lori Rosenlof. "We've been through this before. The police won't help. There's nothing the orphanage can do. And we, who have loved and prayed and been with this girl since she was 18 months old have no rights in Haiti."
At the urging of several international aid groups, the Haitian government has cracked down on hasty adoptions, hoping to keep smuggling rings in check and ensure children aren't taken from living relatives.
But Lori Rosenlof said the flip side is orphans being held hostage by a country that relies heavily on foreign aid.
"Initially, Jessica's birth father told the orphanage that he wanted us to pay him for Jessica's return. In every country I'm aware of that's called child trafficking or kidnapping and we don't play that game," Rosenlof posted on her blog.
The Rosenlofs have been told Jessica's birth father no longer demands money, but wants time with his daughter before she goes to America forever.
"You can get mad. You can cry. And you can pray," said Lori Rosenlof, who found comfort Monday in one "small miracle" -- a charter plane scheduled to bring the orphans to America was also delayed, giving families 24 hours of wiggle room.
Wasatch International has appealed to several groups for help in transporting the children, including Scientologists and Jeremy Johnson, a wealthy Utah pilot who assisted another evacuation effort last week.
But their fate could rest in the hands of another maverick Utah businessman, Stephen Studdert.
A former LDS Church mission president and advisor to the first President Bush, Studdert is organizing a 21-day relief mission of 135 volunteers vowing to rebuild Haiti, who call themselves "Utah hospital task force."
On board a flight departing Salt Lake sometime between Thursday and Saturday will be engineers, contractors, medical personnel and chaperones who plan to return with the orphans.
According to the "Utah hospital task force" blog (utahhospitaltaskforce.org), another group of 70 orphans affiliated with the American Fork adoption agency For Every Child have been cleared to leave Haiti.
Studdert's entire operation, estimated to cost $150,000, is bankrolled by private donors but sanctioned by U.S. authorities, said Studdert.
The LDS Church also is equipping each team member with a duffle bag containing a blanket, sleeping pad, hygiene kit, hand-crank flashlight, water purification bottle and ready-to-eat military rations, a church spokesman confirmed.
The group's primary objective will be to rebuild a medical compound in the foothills of Port-au-Prince operated by a 12-year-old Utah nonprofit, Healing Hands for Haiti. The charity rehabilitates Haitians with disabilities.
"We're just good Utah people saying we want to step up and help," Studdert said.
kstewart@sltrib.com
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