Two years ago, Luke Nelson was an orphan living on a mattress on the lawn of a Haitian church.
He was little more than two years old. His orphanage was destroyed by the massive earthquake that devastated his homeland.
Tom and Kathy Nelson of LaSalle were already involved in a three-year process of adopting the toddler. They were still six months away from the adoption's finalization but the quake sped up the process.
"Once the earthquake hit, things changed quite dramatically. Things took quite a turn for the worse [at the orphanage]," Tom Nelson said.
Luke arrived in Canada little more than two weeks after the quake — and after first mistakenly flying to Miami with orphans heading to America.
Two years later and Kathy Nelson describes him as a regular little boy.
"I actually think Luke adjusted quite well. I think it took Tom and I longer to adjust as a family," she said.
"One of the biggest adjustments he had was the weather. He was terrified of the snow the first week he was here. Now he wants to go tobogganing," Tom Nelson said.
Kathy notes the obvious; that the quake was a natural disaster of epic and tragic proportions. But she also said some good came out of the quake.
"So many [orphaned] children got to come home early. We’re very fortunate it worked out that way. It was certainly a blessing for us," she said.
The Nelsons have not discussed the quake much with Luke. They aren't sure he remembers it.
"As he gets older we’ll talk to him about it," Kathy Nelson said.
They hope to go back and visit Haiti in the future.
Windsor's Frank Chauvin founded an orphanage for girls in Port-au-Prince. Four people died at his facility and the main building became a write-off during the quake.
Chauvin said the country is still a mess. He said workers are just now working on the foundation of a new structure at his orphanage.
"It's coming, but very slowly because lack of building material and they don't have the heavy equipment that we have here," he said. "But I'm quite pleased that we're going. I'd like to see it go faster, but you got to be patient, but the main thing, the kids. they're all okay, they're in good health. They are well taken care of."
More than 65 Haitian girls call Chauvin's orphanage home.
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