Yesterday was a busy day for the Haitian children at the Holy Family Institute in Emsworth.

Eat, sleep and play. Oh, and lots of opening and closing doors.

"We had a very good night," said Sister Linda Yankoski, president of the institute where 17 children from a devastated Haiti orphanage are living until they can be adopted. "The children had an opportunity to sleep in their own beds in bedrooms. [They ate] meals of foods that they're used to. Plantains and chicken and rice and beans.

"Our concern right now is to minimize the fear and to provide stability and comfort. That's what we're doing, and they're happy, they're playing, they're napping and just settling in."

Eighteen of the 54 children who came to Pittsburgh this week from the Haiti orphanage were moved to the institute on Thursday. One child left yesterday with its adoptive parents, and four infants are scheduled to be picked up by their new families in the coming days.

That will leave 13 children in the care of Holy Family Institute, a social services organization that houses about 50 other children. The institute will keep the children, ranging in ages from 8 months to 10 years old, until their adoption procedures are concluded.

"Some of the children are still frightened and clinging and need to be held. And other children are just having a very good time," Sister Yankoski said. "They're very excited about doors. They seem to like the doors.

"They're children. They're playing, they're squabbling over certain toys, and they're sharing and they're helping one another out."

In accordance with federal guidelines, the Haitian children are being kept in their own cottage and are not mingling with the other children at the Institute. But they're not alone.

"They're with people they know," Sister Yankoski said, referring to Jamie and Ali McMutrie, of Ben Avon, who cared for the children at the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince. "We're trying not to introduce too many people to them."

Ali McMutrie and 53 orphans -- who survived a major earthquake in Haiti on Jan. 12 -- were airlifted late Monday out of Haiti by a Pittsburgh team of health officials, volunteers and elected officials, including Gov. Ed Rendell. Jamie McMutrie and a 2-year-old girl arrived in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

Sister Yankoski said the transition for the orphans has been made easier by the volunteers at the institute.

"Pittsburgh has opened their hearts and their arms," she said. "We have folks who are helping us to cook and clean and do laundry. Let me tell you, lots of laundry. I'm hoping my washing machine is going to make it."

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