ShawneeDispatch.com

Chris Dunback is happy to have his sister, along with her husband and foster children, back in the United States.

Kim and Patrick Bentrott moved to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 2008 to work for Global Ministries as a doctor and seminary teacher, respectively. Last year, they decided to try to adopt Solomon, a baby they met in an orphanage where they volunteered, taking him as their legal foster child through Haitian courts during the process of adoption.

Dunback, a teacher at Mill Valley High School, and his family have been eagerly waiting since the Jan. 12 earthquake for news that the Bentrotts were allowed to return to the United States with their son. Because they had not yet legally adopted him, they weren’t able to take him out of the country for the first two weeks following the earthquake.

“Either they stay, wait and try to fend for themselves or leave, and who would do that?” Dunback said last week. “No one would leave their kids.”

But this weekend, friends and family of the Bentrotts got their wish: The couple was able to come back to the U.S. with Solomon and others from his orphanage, and they even decided to give Solomon a sister by beginning the process to adopt a little girl named Valencia from the orphanage.

“It’s tremendous news; they’re home and safe,” Dunback said Tuesday.

After first hearing of the earthquake, it was most important for Dunback to hear that his family had survived. Once their safety was confirmed, Dunback said his family hoped to have the Bentrotts and the little boy they had been raising for a year come back to the States, but the Haitian government would not give Solomon permission to leave. Dunback said it was hard for the Bentrotts to hear they could not leave with Solomon due to technicalities.

“This is their child, they’re his legal foster parents and they’ve been loving him for a year,” Dunback said.

So for the past two weeks, Dunback and many of his friends from Mill Valley had been doing all they could to contact legislators about helping the Bentrotts.

Meanwhile, through e-mails and Skype, Dunback kept in contact with his sister. He also kept up with her through her blog at kimandpatrick.blogspot.com.

The Bentrotts were able to leave Port-au-Prince and stay with friends in the mountains of Haiti for a short time, but then came back in the city in hopes they soon could leave the country. Dunback said his sister and brother-in-law tried to help at Solomon’s orphanage, but the lack of food and supplies and the looting in the city presented challenges.

Last week, the U.S. State Department issued a new ruling on humanitarian parole to allow the orphans to come to the United States. An adoption agency that has been assisting the Bentrotts with Solomon’s adoption arranged a plane to take all 130 of the children from the orphanage, along with the Bentrotts, back to the United States.

In her blog, Kim wrote of her mixed emotions about leaving Haiti.

“Feelings of joy in the anticipation of seeing family and friends intermingled with the sick ache of abandoning our Haitian friends at their darkest hour,” she wrote. “Sure we’ll come back, but it is hard to leave regardless of homelessness and dwindling supplies.”

Dunback said the Bentrotts already had been considering adopting Valencia but made the decision over the weekend. While the government and legislators make moves to make adoption of Haitian orphans easier, it will take time to iron out the details of completing Solomon and Valencia’s adoption.

But Dunback said the Bentrotts feel confident the adoptions will move forward, so he isn’t worried about the legal issues for now.

“I was more fired up to hear their voices and the chirping (of Valencia) in the background,” he said.

Dunback said the Bentrotts plan to return to Kansas by the end of the week.

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