Kim and Patrick Bentrott of Denver left for Haiti to do humanitarian work 1 1/2 years ago.
Along the way, they decided to adopt a newborn from a Haitian orphanage. Solomon, now 14 months, survived this week’s devastating earthquake, as did his would-be parents.
That’s the good news.
But now they can’t get out of the ravaged and unsafe Caribbean country as a family because their adoption has not been finalized. They want to return to Colorado as soon as possible.
“They are not going to leave the country without their son,” said family friend Travis Luther of Denver. “They will die in Haiti before they come back without him.”
The Bentrotts, like hundreds of other couples who have or are in the process of adopting Haitian children, are scrambling to get emergency visas, humanitarian parole and other measures that would allow them to bring home the Haitian children — even if the adoptions are not final.
That will be a difficult process to sort out as adoption records are buried amid the tons of concrete and rubble and the government has basically disappeared. Foreign adoptions can take several years before being finalized.
Joshua Zhong, who facilitates Haitian orphan adoption as president of Chinese Children Adoption International in Centennial, said about 20 Colorado parents have found out the children they are trying to adopt are safe.
Rich and Lisa Harris of Bow Mar learned the two children they are adopting were playing outside the Maison Des Enfants de Dieu orphanage in Port-au-Prince when the quake hit and are OK.
They were devastated when they heard of the earthquake but relieved that the girl, Guimara, who will be 2 next week, and the boy, Davinson, 15 months, were all right.
They were planning to fly there later this month to take care of more paperwork concerning the adoptions.
Now, they don’t know what is going to happen. But they remain positive the two children will one day call Colorado home.
“We have to be hopeful. There’s no alternative,” Rich Harris said.
About 40 other families have called Chinese Children Adoption International offering to adopt orphans from the earthquake. For information about that, go to .
Luther said he has informed Colorado’s contingent in Congress about the Bentrotts’ situation. He hopes for a quick decision by government officials here.
Kim Bentrott, a 34-year-old doctor, served her residency at the University of Colorado Hospital. She opened a school to train Haitian nurses in Port-au-Prince.
Her husband, Patrick, 31, is a graduate of the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He is teaching children to speak English.
The couple had planned to stay in Haiti for four years and wait until after that to start a family. But they decided to adopt Solomon a little over a year ago.
Now everything has changed.
A website — — was created Friday with information about the Bentrotts’ situation.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
