KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A decade ago, a massive earthquake devastated Haiti and a mission to save six orphans brought East Tennessee together.
On Jan. 12, 2010, a 7-magnitude earthquake rattled the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, followed by eight large aftershocks. The death toll was horrific and still not fully known; estimates were between 40,000 and more than 300,000 people were killed.
Tens of thousands of buildings were destroyed. Roads were impassable. Infrastructure broke down.
Among the rubble lay a small all-girls orphanage in a tiny mountain village that was connected to White Stone Church in Knoxville. Several church members were in the process of adopting some of those children.
"It was horror for about six hours until I actually got a hold of the orphanage and heard her voice," church member Kevin Rudd told us in 2010. "The first thing she asked me was, 'papa when are you coming to get me?'"
The building was destroyed and the youngest child was killed. The others survived, but their difficult lives were made even tougher by the conditions after the earthquake.
The parents, so far away, were desperate to help their children.
First, the church rallied the East Tennessee community to donate supplies--- food, water, medicine, tents, clothing. Church members delivered the donations and were able to see for themselves that the children were okay. But what they really wanted to do was bring them home.
The adoption process was complicated. Some of them had already been waiting for two years to finalize the adoptions. Now, with much of the Haitian government destroyed, the paperwork was just gone.
They were in limbo for days, fearing they might never get their children, until finally, the U.S. government stepped in to help facilitate the process, to make it possible for the adoptions to be finalized in the United States. The kids were coming home.
Then the church faced a second problem. How do they get the children all the way home?
Reaching the Globe Mission Flights agreed to pick up the orphans--- five girls and one boy, and bring them to Fort Lauderdale, where a parent could meet them. But then how would they all get back to Knoxville?
That's when Pilot Corporation, based in Knoxville, stepped in. They would send their corporate jet to Florida to pick up the kids and bring them to East Tennessee.
So on January 23, 2010, a small plane landed on a narrow, dangerous runway in the mountains of Haiti and picked up six small children on their way to a new life.
WBIR's Russell Biven was waiting with the families in Fort Lauderdale and was there for all the joyful hugs and hellos. Then, the families boarded both planes for the trip to Knoxville.
"We would have walked home if that's what it took," one dad told us back then.
The kids, on this grand adventure so unlike anything they'd ever experienced before, took it all in stride. They played games, cuddled in laps and took naps during the flight.
Their parents, meanwhile, reflected on how it all came together.
"How God has worked through all this, supplying people and planes," one dad said. "Working miracle upon miracle. God is good."
The excitement and anticipation rose as the planes neared Knoxville, but not just in the air. On the ground, hundreds of people, the rest of the families and friends anxiously awaited the new arrivals.
"It's like waiting in the waiting room for a newborn to be born, but we're about to get an 11-year-old girl from Haiti," one dad said.
There was laughter and tears, signs and banners, and lots of hugs as the children found their families in the waiting crowd.
One dad said it was like a dream, finally seeing his daughter standing in front of him in Knoxville.
Six beautiful children, finally at home with their families in East Tennessee.