After hours of waiting at the Orlando airport, Pat and Jaime Richard were finally able to hold their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Shae.

Shae finally made it to her adoptive home in Suamico, Wis., after a long journey from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The tragedy in Haiti has brought people together.

Hollywood stars have come together with pop artists to hold telethons, church congregations have worked together to hold bake sales or turkey dinners, and cell phone owners all over the United States have texted together.

But in Suamico, Wis., and Pine River, the tragedy in Haiti has acted as a catalyst to bring a family together after a two-and-a-half year struggle.

The struggle began when Pat and Jaime Richard, of Suamico, began exploring an international adoption.

Jaime is originally from the Brainerd lakes area and graduated from Brainerd High School in 1995. Her parents, Jim and Colleen Adrian, live in Pine River, where Jim has owned and operated Grinning Bear Roll Offs for many years.

Colleen said Jaime was looking all over the world to adopt a child until she started looking at Haiti.

"She saw the poverty and the state of the children in that county, and so Jaime and Pat decided that they wanted to adopt a baby from Haiti," Colleen said.

The Richards began working with the For His Glory organization, and two-and-a-half years ago they received two photos of babies for adoption at an orphanage in Haiti.

They chose Shae and started the long struggle with the Haitian bureaucracy to get Shae to the United States.

"When they started this journey, they thought they were going to be able to have Shae before her first birthday. But there was so much bureaucracy that they had to push through that they didn't expect," Colleen said.

Before the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, the Richards had planned to meet with a Haitian judge potentially to finalize the paperwork they needed. Then it would have taken a number of months for the United States to complete its part of the process.

The earthquake in Port-au-Prince shook up all of their well-laid plans.

The orphanage where Shae was living in Port-au-Prince had an outer wall fall, and in the process crush a nanny who worked there.

The nanny consequently died, and there was no way to extract the body. So the other nannies put toothpaste under the noses of the children and themselves to keep from smelling the putrid stenches.

Because the outer wall fell, the orphanage was opened to looters. People stole all of the food and water supplies that the orphans had, so soon they were without these basic essentials.

Also, Colleen said that because they were afraid of aftershocks, the nannies and all 130 orphans slept outside.

To make already dire matters worse, the building where all of the adoption papers were stored was completely destroyed and the papers lost.

Jaime and Pat started a letter-writing campaign to have these orphans be considered for humanitarian parole visas, which would immediately get them out of Haiti.

The visas came through, but the hitch was that the nannies had to bring all of the children to the United States Embassy through the unruly and dangerous streets of Port-au-Prince.

CNN Reporter Soledad O'Brien was with the group of 130 orphans as they were packed into a van and one bus.

She reported that the vehicles were unbearable hot, and after many hours and being within a few blocks of the embassy, they were told to turn around.

"The embassy ended up processing the children off-site, but I know it was agonizing for those kids and the nannies. They had nothing to go back to at the orphanage," Colleen said.

Finally, on Jan. 22, Jaime and Pat heard that the embassy was going to issue the visas, and they had to fly at a moment's notice to where the kids were being flown.

Soon after, they heard the orphans were being flown into Orlando Sanford International Airport. Jaime and Pat immediately got on a flight to pick up their girl.

Colleen made her way to Suamico to take care of the Richards' two other children, Franklin, 3, and Grady, 1.

When the Richards made it the Orlando airport, they thought their struggles were over. But a 36-hour struggle was about to begin.

The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department had already approved the orphans being considered for humanitarian parole visas, but then the Health and Human Services Department got involved.

"The man in charge said that he didn't agree with the State Department, and he was pushing to do something different with those kids. He even said he was going to put them in foster care," Colleen said.

For 36 hours, Jaime and Pat, along with many other adoptive parents, weren't allowed to leave the airport or see their children.

After a few hours, the parents started to get their congressmen along with the media involved in the struggle.

Late Sunday night, the Richards finally were given custody of Shae and brought her home to Suamico that day.

According to Colleen, Shae still seems to be very traumatized, and hasn't tried to talk yet. The first day, she wouldn't even let Jaime put her down.

The are expecting that it will take some time for Shae to acclimate, so Colleen says that the family is staying pretty isolated for a few months to bond with Shae.

Colleen recently returned home to Pine River after being on an emotional roller coaster ride for the past few weeks as the family fought to get Shae home.

The Richards are now considered Shae's immigration sponsors, and the adoption still might take a few years to become finalized.

"It was very nerve-racking. I am so happy that it's all over. It's bittersweet. This tragedy created a way to get her home," Colleen said.

CUTLINES

Pat-Jaime-and Shae.JPG

After hours of waiting at the Orlando Sanford International Airport, Pat and Jaime Richard were finally able to hold their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Shae.

2010_0126Shaehome.JPG

Shae finally made it to her adoptive home in Suamico, Wis., after a long journey from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.