Haitian Orphans Get New Chance At Life

PHILADELPHIA - A group of orphans has made it out of Haiti despite some tough odds, landing in Pennsylvania on Tuesday morning.

Those children might have died waiting for help had it not been for two American sisters who refused to abandon them.

It was always supposed to happen, just not this way for the Haitian orphans destined to live in the United States with new families.

Before the adoptions could be finalized, the earthquake struck, destroying their orphanage and their dreams.

With no food or water, their new destiny seemed all but certain. But two sisters from the Pittsburgh area would not let them perish.

Alison McMutrie and her sister, Jamie, were working with the Bresma Orphanage in Haiti when the earthquake struck.

"I don't have any biological children, so I know a lot of people think that I don't understand, but those are all like my children," Alison McMutrie said.

One week after the disaster struck, 53 orphans ranging in age from 11-months-old to 12-years-old finally got out of Haiti, thanks to Facebook, a governor and that stubborn pair of sisters.

"We had gotten to the point where we could've gotten a vast majority, about 85, 90 percent out. But the sisters hung in there and said, everybody goes or nobody goes," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said.

"My sister and I are their moms, and it's just, we have a family," Alison McMutrie said. "We don't have a group of kids who just get fed. We have a family who all love each other and care about each other. And to be asked to leave without a single one of them was just not an option."

Rendell got involved after the sisters' family and friends back in the states launched a campaign on Facebook and Twitter to get them help. But even after the governor landed in Haiti, the outcome still was not guaranteed.

"After being told no, we were told no most of the time we were on the ground in Port-au-Prince. But, thanks to Congressman Altmeyer, all of a sudden the seas parted, and you couldn't believe it when we told you everyone was going," Rendell said.

"Oh, I couldn't," Alison McMutrie said.

"Congratulations to Ally and her sister – just an incredible American effort," Rendell said.

The kids were all getting checked out at a Pittsburgh hospital on Tuesday, and then Catholic Charities will place them in group homes until their adoptions are complete.

Seven of the children still don't have adoptive parents, but we're told that many, many people are already lining up for that privilege.