Haitian children airlifted from Port-au-Prince by their U.S. families amid adoption crisis

Six adopted children, once trapped, are now safely home with their American parents through private rescue efforts—while many others remain stranded in Haiti amid worsening violence and a lack of support from government authorities.

Grey Bull Rescue’s staff members and two American adoptive families pictured after landing at the Tampa International Airport with two 6-year-old adopted girls from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 30, 2025. Photo Credit: Adoptive families.

Overview:

Six adopted Haitian children have been successfully evacuated from Port-au-Prince and united with their American families thanks to the efforts of Hero Client Rescue and Grey Bull Rescue. Many others remain in danger as violence worsens and support from either the U.S. or the Haitian government falls short.

MIAMI — For Michelle Reed and her family in Fort Myers, Florida, watching her adopted son Esai step off a plane from Cap-Haïtien and reunite with his brothers on Feb. 23 felt like a miracle. The 7-year-old had been one of six adopted Haitian children trapped in a Port-au-Prince orphanage and airlifted to safety as gang violence engulfed the capital. The rescue efforts were coordinated by two American-based nonprofits, Hero Client Rescue and Grey Bull Rescue, and funded entirely by the adoptive families themselves without government assistance.

“We are overjoyed that he is home and he is thriving!” Reed, who already adopted Esai’s two older brothers— 10-year-old Vidal and 8-year-old Jiberson —told The Haitian Times. “He has been reunited with his biological brothers, my other sons.”

In front, Esai welcomed by adoptive mother Michelle Reed and brothers, Jiberson on the left and Vidal on the right, at Miami International Airport on Feb 23, 2025. Photo Credit: Michelle Reed.

The joyful reunion masks a troubling truth: these rescues were made without assistance from the U.S. government, despite the children’s legal status as adoptees and the urgent danger they faced in a city dominated by criminal armed groups.

The children’s evacuation faced life-threatening delays, bureaucratic backlogs and last-minute rescue efforts.

First, Reed and three other families from Texas, California and Georgia chartered a Hero Client Rescue’s helicopter to transport their four children and escorts from Port-au-Prince to Cap-Haïtien, where they then boarded a commercial flight to Miami on Sunday,  Feb. 23. Then, weeks later, on Sunday, March 30, two more orphan girls, including 6-year-old Roselande “Rosie” Edgerly adopted by Angela Howell-Edgerly from Tampa, Florida, were rescued by helicopter to Turks and Caicos, then flown by private jet to Fort Lauderdale and finally toTampa.

“My son Esai joined his biological brothers here in Fort Myers, FL, while the other children went to their families in Texas, California and Georgia. We are overjoyed that he is home and he is thriving! These children deserve to be in the safety of their legal families.”

 Michelle Reed, adoptive mother
 

Howell-Edgerly recounted her nearly eight-year adoption ordeal, stating this was her daughter Rosie’s fifth evacuation due to insecurity. Rosie experienced significant trauma during this time, including a gang attack involving tear gas at her orphanage, where threats were made to kill all the children. According to Howell-Edgerly, the U.S. government offered no assistance, and Grey Bull Rescue was responsible for saving her daughter’s life.

Smiling Angela Howell-Edgerly front receives her adopted daughter Roselande “Rosie” from the Grey Bull Rescue’s special mission squad at the Tampa International Airport on March 30, 2025. Photo Credit: Adoptive U.S. families.

According to Bryan Stern, Grey Bull Rescue’s team leader, the rescue mission was complicated, long and perilous. It involved high-risk landings, including one on the rooftop of a Port-au-Prince hotel as gangs roamed the streets below. 

“Even after escaping the Haitian capital, the children were held for nine hours in Turks and Caicos due to paperwork errors attributed to the U.S. Embassy in Haiti, nearly causing them to be placed in an orphanage overnight,” Howell-Edgerly said.

“The adopted children were trapped in a gang-infested Port-au-Prince with zero options to escape,” Stern said in a phone interview with The Haitian Times. “ The adoptive families prayed for a miracle. Then, they called Grey Bull Rescue, which became that miracle. Our team of seasoned operations and intelligence community veterans rapidly deployed within 24 hours, executing the rescue that others deemed impossible.”

Rescuers navigated gang-controlled streets and executed a complex rooftop helicopter extraction.

Bryan Stern recounts how his team executed the high-risk mission to rescue the two 6-year-old girls, Roselande and Christina, and united them with their U.S. adoptive families safely. Video via Grey Bull Rescue’s YouTube.

Families frustrated by U.S. inaction

Starting in Spring 2024, the evacuation of adopted children from Haiti became a more pressing concern. In the face of Haiti’s deepening crisis, a protracted bureaucracy and a financially and emotionally draining process, 55 U.S. adoptive families implored the Department of State (DOS) to intervene and help these at-risk children leave the country. The appeals from these families to facilitate the departure of over 70 endangered children intensified in Fall 2024, yet yielded no action.

U.S. adoptive families urge immediate evacuation of endangered Haitian children

A group of 55 U.S. families asks the Department of State to allow emergency evacuation of 70 Haitian children at risk

Despite repeated pleas from adoptive families and bipartisan letters from U.S. lawmakers urging the DOS to intervene, no federal assistance was offered. An April 14 travel advisory from the DOS explicitly encourages prospective adoptive parents to reconsider adoptions from Haiti and warns them not to travel within the country. The advisory states that “U.S. government employees are prohibited from traveling to certain areas of Port-au-Prince.”

Yet, adoptive families say they’ve been instructed to bring children through those very zones to apply for passports, undergo visa medical exams and visit the U.S. Embassy before being authorized to leave—requirements the families call “dangerous and inhumane.”

“They demand our children risk their lives for paperwork while their own employees are barred from going to the same places,” Reed said. “It’s inconceivable. These are legal U.S. adoptions.”

The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, to which the U.S. is a signatory, obligates signatory countries to ensure the protection and best interests of adopted children.

U.S. evacuates embassy staff amid gang violence in Haiti; families plead for evacuation of adopted children

As gang violence surges in Port-au-Prince, U.S. families renew calls to rescue adopted Haitian children

Nearly 65 more legally adopted Haitian children remain trapped in orphanages or foster facilities across the capital. Among these children, eight are adopted by Haitian American families—mostly relatives. Sources inside UNICEF and Haiti’s Institute of Social Welfare (IBESR) cite widespread gang control, lack of fuel, U.S. extended commercial flights ban on Port-au-Prince and embassy processing delays as continuing blockade on their path to safety. 

While the U.S. government is slow to provide any assistance, nonprofits Hero Client Rescue and Grey Bull Rescue, founded by humanitarian professionals and veterans, have answered the calls. They have taken the lead on high-risk evacuations in Haiti since early 2024. Their goal is to evacuate all remaining fully- adopted children currently stuck in Port-au-Prince, but rising costs and logistical challenges make each mission increasingly difficult.

“It’s becoming more dire by the day,” said Stern. “We’re committed to getting these kids home. But we need help.”

A call for policy change and compassion

Families are now urging the U.S. government to offer immediate humanitarian assistance, including:

• Allowing adopted children to board U.S. military evacuation flights.
   
• Streamlining the visa process from safer locations like Cap-Haïtien.
   
• Waiving in-person requirements that endanger children.

Over 70 adopted Haitian children remain stranded as gang violence traps Port-au-Prince

A coalition of 55 U.S. adoptive parents continues to urge action in favor of the Haitian children’s departure amidst rampant gang violence in Haiti

“These children deserve safety,” Reed added. “The government had the power to act to bring all these children to safety.”

As the humanitarian and security crises in Haiti deepen—with hundreds of thousands of people displaced since January—advocates warn that intercountry adoption in Haiti risks collapsing unless systemic changes are made.

Esai and his biological brothers, Vidal and Jiberson on their way to school. Photo Credit: Michelle Reed.

For now, the children rescued are settling into new lives—safe, loved and home. But their parents say they won’t stop speaking out until every child left behind in Port-au-Prince has that same chance.