Haiti

Dear Everyone,

I do apologize for my lack of blog posts - I have many ideas in que that need to be blogged. But I do want to put everything on the back burner for just a moment so that we can shed some attention on the situation in Haiti. I want everyone to know that everyone in St. Thomas is safe & sound - Haiti is far enough away from us that we couldn't have felt the earthquake. But Haiti is still a sister nation to us, a part of the Caribbean and a country that I have much compassion for. I wanted to share my post from my personal blog here today to further spread awareness of an organization that is very dear to me. I'm sorry to be such a downer, as a wedding blog should be anything but depressing! But as I was telling my husband some of the information I had heard on the news this morning, he jokingly called me Ms. Sunshine, as in maybe I shouldn't be talking about such depressing items so early in the morning. But I reminded him, it's much easier to turn a blind eye than to offer a helping hand but it is not the right thing to do. Spreading the news and asking for help for this impoverished nation is important. So here is my post and I do hope that everyone will do their part to send aide to Haiti, either though the organization that I am mentioning below, the Red Cross (www.redcross.org) or to Wyclef Jean's foundation, Yele Haiti (www.yele.org), please do what you can to help.

Haiti

When I heard about the earthquake in Haiti last night, my mind immediately flew to God's Littlest Angels, a Haitian orphanage (http://www.glahaiti.org). I first leaned about this orphanage while watching Adoption Stories on TV - I'm captivated by these shows, I would love nothing more than to adopt a child one day. Ever since learning about this organization, I've been doing what I can to send them donations. This particular orphanage in Haiti really held onto my heart, as it is close to "home". Haiti is a Caribbean nation that has been hit hard in so many ways - natural disasters, infrastructure both architecturally and politically...Haiti needs help.

I went to their website as soon as I heard the news, not expecting to see much but was surprised to see an update:

NOTICE: WE ARE FINE AFTER THE 7.0 EARTHQUAKE. THE HOUSE SWAYED AND SHOOK. KNOCKED DOWN PEOPLE, KIDS, THE FOOD OFF THE STOVE FOR SUPPER, ALL OF MY GLASS WARE OUT OF THE CABINET, BUT WE ARE ALL OK! SHOOK UP A LITTLE, BUT OK! WILL POST MORE LATER! STILL HAVING AFTERSHOCKS AN HOUR AFTER THE MAIN EARTHQUAKE! PLEASE PRAY FOR US AND FOR HAITI!

And an update from this morning:

2:30 AM on Wednesday We continue to have strong aftershocks every 10 minutes or so. the children are sleeping outside in the drive. Even our little babies are outside tonight!

I'm sure you can imagine the relief I felt when I saw this. The thought of their structure collapsing wrenched my stomach. I spent some more time on their site and also saw this:

Times are difficult financially for many of us throughout the world. GLA has seen a decline in donations to our general funds. The general funds account is what buys food, diapers, formula, and pays our Haitian staff. Due to this decrease in general funds, we are now asking all of our donors to only give to the general funds account until March of 2010. After March, we will start taking designated funds for our building project and education again. Hopefully, this will help provide the food and childcare supplies that we need to keep the orphanage running smoothly.

Haiti is in need of so much help right now and I hope that we are all planning to do our part in the relief efforts. I just wanted to share this special piece of Haiti with the rest of you - please keep these children & this home in your hearts & minds. There is a Paypal button on their website if you have a Paypal account and can afford to send them some funding - the next few months I'm sure are going to be tough on them. I'm also keeping in my heart the families that are in the midst of their adoption process...with the country's capitol in such chaos and ruins, I can only imagine the emotions they are going through as all they want to do is bring their child (or children) home.