"The kids are doing well," said Sister Linda Yankoski, president of Holy Family Institute. "We feel like they're being fortified for the next step. They're living in a very nurturing environment."
The next step, however, remains unscheduled and uncertain, according to Yankoski, who said the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Haitian government will determine whether the children will be adopted in the United States or returned to Haiti.
"I understand that communication in Haiti is still very challenging," she said.
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The earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12.
On Jan. 20, a team that included Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-4, McCandless Township, helped evacuate 54 children from a Port-au-Prince orphanage managed by Ben Avon sisters Jamie and Ali McMurtrie.
Families who made pre-earthquake arrangements to adopt the Haitian children were allowed to take 42 of the children home soon after their arrival. The 12 remaining children were living in the orphanage, but were not yet involved in adoption process, when the earthquake struck the island.
"It could take some time, but that's not unexpected," Altmire said. "There is still some paperwork and some bureaucratic hurdles ... for some, the paperwork was destroyed in the earthquake. Holy Family is a place for the children to stay while the process continues."
Yancoski said the bureaucratic process includes trying to find family members in Haiti who could resubmit some of the missing paperwork.
The Haitian children are housed in a single cottage on the Holy Family campus and, according to federal guidelines, kept apart from the other children at the institute.
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SOURCE: Times Online
