SEATTLE - A Bellingham family enjoyed a happy reunion Wednesday after a trip to Haiti to bring home two adopted children.
Carrying only a backback, satellite phone and crude map Brett Schlenbaker made his way from Bellingham to Haiti, found his two new children and brought them home to a whole new world today.
The waiting was almost too much for Kendra Schlenbaker to bear:
"I can't breathe right now. I might pass out," she said.
It had been three days since she last saw her husband, who left on his own to find the couple's two adopted children in Haiti.
The situation there is grim, but 8-year-old Djennika and her 6-year-old brother Djouvensky escaped the horrors of their homeland and found home in their mother's arms.
"These are my babies," she said. "I'm just glad they're here and I can hold them and touch them. I never thought this was going to happen. I never thought this was going to come true."
The hero of the day was dad, Brett, who said once he hit the ground in Haiti things were surprisingly smooth. He arrived there Monday, hitched a ride to the orphanage Tuesday and was home with his new children on Wednesday.
"I just did what any other parent would do. Go get your kids," he said.
But as the first official family photos were snapped, behind the smiles, there was confusion and worry.
You could see it on little Djouvensky's face - a lifetime lived in his six short years. But for the first time in their lives, these children have a family and a future.
Brett and Kendra Schlenbaker spent the past three years working on adopting Djennika and Djouvensky from the New Life Children's Home in Port-Au-Prince.
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