Earthquake survivors line up for food being distributed by the World Food Program in Port-au-Prince on Saturday. (Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press)

A couple from Kamloops, B.C., is rejoicing over news their adopted twins in Haiti survived the devastating earthquake that hit the country on Tuesday.

Deanna Hik said it's a miracle the orphanage the four-year-olds were in remained standing while most of the surrounding buildings collapsed.

Hik and her husband were at the end of a three-year adoption process when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck.

"My knees buckled. It was just awful," she said. "I felt sick. It was the worst feeling ever."

The Hiks had planned to go back to Haiti soon to bring the twins, a boy and a girl, home to Canada. They were just waiting on passports for the children.

Hik said they were sick with concern until they got word on Friday that the twins, along with 120 other children at the orphanage, were safe.

"None of the buildings that the kids were at collapsed," she said.

"Most two-storey buildings did not survive. For our kids to survive, that is just unbelievable to us. It was so hard to have any hope and then to get that email — I can take a breath."

Hik said now they're worried about food, water and aid for the children.

They are hoping to secure a humanitarian refugee visa for the twins so they can get to Canada soon.

Hik said even if it's temporary, they would be more than prepared to take the twins back to Haiti to complete the paperwork once the country's infrastructure is restored.

Company offers to fly B.C. students out of Haiti

Meanwhile, a B.C. father says he's willing to pay $100,000 to get his son and 16 other high school students home from Haiti if the Canadian government can't get them out of the devastated country in the next few days.

Norm Ouellet said a private U.S. company has offered to fly the group home, and he and other parents are willing to pay the cost.

He said seven chaperones are with the students, who arrived in Haiti for a mission trip from Slocan, B.C., just before Tuesday's earthquake hit.

Ouellet said a pastor who is with the group emailed him to say the kids slept in a field Friday night instead of in a tin-roofed structure because they fear another quake is coming.

He said other Canadians have joined the students, including two couples with small children, and that a school secretary with the group needs medical attention for broken ribs.

On Friday, school superintendent Pat Dooley said B.C.'s solicitor general informed her that United Nations' military helicopters were preparing to rescue the group, but it's not clear when that might happen.

With files from The Canadian Press