'Absolutely Amazing': Iowa Couple Learns Adopted Haitian Daughter Survived Quake

Jan. 15, 2010— -- An Iowa couple anxiously awaiting news about its adopted Haitian daughter after this week's earthquake was overwhelmed to learn that ABC News, and Robin Roberts and her crew had located the child at her orphanage outside Port-au-Prince.

Matt and Amanda Poulter of Pella, Iowa, believed they were less than a month away from bringing home their 4-year-old adopted daughter, Maya Ester Poulter, from a Haitian orphanage. They were just waiting for her passport when the earthquake struck.

On "Good Morning America" today, Amanda Poulter said that "we're doing great. It was absolutely amazing. We, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for finding her."

As soon as the Poulters saw her picture, they knew it was their daughter.

"That's our little girl," Matt Poulter said.

"Maya is now legally our daughter," Poulter told "Nightline" Thursday. "If we were in Haiti, we'd be able to bring her home. But we're in the final stages now where we need to get the authorization to get a passport and then we can bring her home."

"Nightline" profiled the Poulters on Wednesday and Thursday's broadcasts.

When the Poulters decided to expand their family, they decided to adopt a child from Haiti. They "immediately bonded" with Maya Ester, Matt Poulter said today.

The Poulters have watched the little girl grow up since she was 19 months old, and for three years they have shuttled back and forth to Haiti to visit her at the Central Texas Orphan Mission Alliance in Port-au-Prince, the country's stricken capital.

Maya Ester knows the Poulters as her "hoped for family."

Like so many others waiting to hear news about the relatives and loved ones, the Poulters waited and prayed for Maya Ester's safety -- and the safety of nine other children from the orphanage.

Upon hearing news of the earthquake, the Poulters' excitement immediately turned to grave concern for their daughter and the others at the orphanage.

"Immediately, we were thinking, 'Is she safe?'" said Matt Poulter. "'Where was she when this happened? Who was she with? Did she have somebody that could be there for her?'"

But for three excruciating days, they had been unable to reach the orphanage via phone or the Internet. They were desperate for information on Maya Ester.