When Hamburg Township couple Kent and Cathleen Haglund got wind of last week's magnitude-7.0 earthquake in Haiti, the first image in their head was that of their 14-month-old, soon-to-be-adopted son, Anri Jacob.

At the time of the massive earthquake, Anri, a Haitian native, had been living at God's Littlest Angels Orphanage in the mountains above Petionville, seven miles outside Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.

He still is, but much like Haiti's devastated landscape, the lives of Anri and his future family have been turned upside down.

Originally scheduled to be united with his future parents by mid-2010, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with the U.S. Department of State, announced Tuesday a humanitarian policy allowing orphaned children from Haiti to enter the United States temporarily on a case-by-case basis -- possibly in Miami or New York -- to ensure they receive the care they need.

According to Jean Bell, who runs the God's Littlest Angels U.S. office in Colorado Springs, Colo., Haitian children who've gone through the adoption process -- like Anri -- will be permitted into the United States. Adopted children with parents in waiting would be allowed to "go home," Bell said, though she admits there is "no timeline."

Spurred by the decision, at least one U.S. military transport airlifted 53 Haitian orphans to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, with similar efforts expected to follow suit.

Subsequently, Haitian President Rene Preval has given permission for all children in the adoption process to leave Haiti and join their "forever families" in their home countries.

"Things are happening hour by hour. It's been so stressful, but there is a huge sense of urgency," said Cathleen Haglund, who feared the earthquake might put a hold on her family.

Now, she and her husband are prepared to board a plane at a moment's notice if it means they'll be able to take Anri home.

"Anri could be home by the end of the week. I can tell you, we're ready right now," she said.

The Haglunds were in the final stages of adoption, a process they began two years ago after extensive research. Cathleen Haglund said they were looking to adopt from a place in the world where children most needed families, and Haiti was that place.

After languishing through months of paperwork, background checks and learning about Anri through pictures, the couple's bond with Anri culminated during a three-day visit to the Haitian orphanage in August. There, the couple fell in love with their son; he had been scheduled to come to America midway through this year.

Things changed last week.

"When we first heard about the earthquake, oh, my God, I freaked out, checked the news, and I learned all I could about what had happened and what was happening," said Cathleen Haglund, a Spanish teacher at Hartland High School. "Our first concern after (the earthquake) was for his safety, for the short term. When we learned he was OK, we were obviously relieved, but we started to wonder how it would affect when we'd be a family together."

Anri's original adoption records, and those of hundreds of other Haitian orphans, were either destroyed or buried beneath piles of rubble, initially leading the Haglunds to believe it might be "a long time" before the orphans would be allowed to leave. However, Bell said, copies of those records are being duplicated as quickly as possible, as the U.S. Embassy will accept duplicate copies of the records for paperwork. Bell said God's Littlest Angels Orphanage alone has 160 orphaned children in the same precarious position as Anri, with prospective parents from the United States, Canada and Europe. Across Haiti, more than 400 children like Anri were going through the adoption process with families in the United States when the earthquake struck.

Bell hopes children who've gone through the adoption process and have been approved for intercountry adoption by the government of Haiti are all allowed to be united with their new families.

She said children who leave the orphanage free up beds for countless incoming children orphaned by the earthquake. In addition to the estimated 200,000 dead, aid groups have estimated the quake led to "tens of thousands" of new orphans, while the number is believed to be so high that government officials won't even venture estimates yet.

Orphanages, Bell said, are in high demand.

As of Tuesday, God's Littlest Angels Orphanage was low on water, food rations and propane fuel. The orphanage building itself is structurally intact, but for the first night after the earthquake, the 160 children and nannies who occupy the orphanage slept outside on concrete.

In a country that can now conceivably claim to have hundreds of thousands of orphans, Anri is no longer one. His family anxiously waits for him, thousands of miles away, hoping and praying that he'll soon be here.

Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Frank Konkel at (517) 552-2835 or at fkonkel@gannett.com.

HAITI: BEFORE AND AFTER

The average Haitian earns less than $300 per year. Haitians are the fourth-most-undernourished people in the world, behind Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.

It is estimated that 42 percent of children under the age of 5 are severely or moderately stunted in growth due to malnutrition.

Eighty out of every 1,000 Haitian children born will not live to see their first birthdays; 60 percent of those who die will die before they are 1 month old.

Prior to the earthquake, there were an estimated 163,000 orphans. That estimate may have doubled after the earthquake left as many as 200,000 dead.

Only about 40 percent of the 1.3 million eligible children attend school -- 50 percent of the population is illiterate.

Seventy-five percent of the population lives in poverty.

According to Jean Bell, who runs the God's Littlest Angels U.S. office in Colorado Springs, Colo., Haitian children who've gone through the adoption process -- like Anri -- will be permitted into the United States.