This was the case for 20-year-old Dada Merritt, who was adopted along with three other Haitian children by a Canberra couple two years ago.

The children had grown up in one of the world's poorest and most deforested countries, and now found themselves in the leafy suburbs of the Australian capital.

Canberrans Cay and Max Merritt took a sabbatical from their full-time jobs and set off on a volunteer journey around the world.

"We thought we would go over for a year to paint some walls and teach some kids," Mrs Merritt said.

"We never thought the end result would be children."

The two were nearing the end of their trip in 2010 when a devastating earthquake hit Haiti and killed more than 160,000 people.

Having spent 12 weeks volunteering in the country just six months earlier, they knew they had to return and help with recovery efforts.

The moment Mrs Meritt arrived at a small, poor orphanage in a remote area in Northern Haiti, she knew her life had changed. There were 24 children living in a floorless shack with two rooms, "which couldn't be called a house".

"Lots of them had the little extended bellies, they had scabies and breathing issues from breathing in the smoke from the outdoor kitchen," Mrs Merritt said.

"The children physically could not fit to lay down and sleep, so they had to overspill into the balcony area."

The children had not eaten for a week as most of the country's resources had been sent to the capital Port-au-Prince, where the earthquake had hit hard.

She called her husband to send over the little money left in their bank, and promised the children she would give them all food, a home and an education. Incredibly, she kept these promises.

Over the next six years, Mrs and Mr Merritt travelled between Haiti and Australia, working when possible. They raised enough money to lease the children a safer home and found sponsors to get them all to school.

In the midst of this all, a teenage girl asked them to adopt her. It was the last but seemingly impossible promise they desperately wanted to make, having tried unsuccessfully to adopt even in Australia due to their age.

However, after four years of sifting through paperwork, they were finally given the green light and took the plunge to adopt not one, but four children.

Gaining an "instant family" and helping their children adjust to Australian culture has been an exciting, rewarding and at times terrifying rollercoaster ride.

But they're extremely proud of the progress Dada (20), Philo (14), DJ (12) and Lussa (11) have made.

Mrs Merritt also owed their great strides to the ACT government and the teachers at the Introductory English Centre at Wanniassa Hills Primary School, the Secondary IEC at Dickson College, and other schools they'd attended.

"I am amazed at their language skills, they pretty much operate in English," she said.

The kids love Australia but still miss some things about their birth country, despite its poverty. They now eat Weet-Bix for breakfast instead of boiled spaghetti, the only meal they'd eat in Haiti on the days they had food.

Although admitting their journey was not for the lighthearted, Mrs Merritt said she wouldn't trade any of it in for the world.

"We are still going through challenges, but we have a lot of support," Mrs Merritt said.

"We fight, we laugh, we cry … in many ways we're like any other family."