Updates and Thoughts

These last few days have just been a constant influx of information for me. Watching images on tv. Getting updates about people we know in Haiti. Starting the process of figuring out where our adoption is headed. My head has just been full of information. It's been overwhelming. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was just in shock trying to comprehend what the people of Haiti would do next. 2.5 million people in a city that most are saying needs to be completely leveled. Bodies piled into dump trucks and dumped in mass graves. People on the streets with major wounds but no medical treatment available. And seeing my children's faces both literally and figuratively in the faces being cast out from the television. Another adoptive mom described it as that and it is so true. Generally speaking Haitians have flat broad noses, almondy eyes, and deep chocolate toned skin. In many ways, the features of my children are those same features we've been watching on tv. And then by Wednesday evening the reality of it started to set in. I had felt relieved that Conleigh wasn't in PAP and that she had some measure of protection from the fall out of destroyed shelters and lack of access to food, water, and medical care. But then I started to realize that this isn't necessarily true. That they are sleeping outside because they don't know if the orphanage is safe. That the millions of people who will be leaving PAP will soon flood the outlying areas looking for food, water, shelter, and medical care. That we have no idea if they will be able to continue to receive adequate supplies. The entire country of Haiti will be effected. And then Kenson's orphanage started reporting about the damage they sustained and in all seriousness wrote about a possible option being creating a tent city inside the walls of their orphanage. A tent city? For 130 children? In a city full of anxious, scared people who will probably resort to looting? In a tropical climate with heat and bugs and heavy rains? That's not a place for children.

So where does it leave me? With some definate praise and some heavy requests. I am so thankful that Kenson is here. I cannot imagine having a child in PAP. We are also thankful that we have not heard of anyone we know being killed. I am also so thankful for the dedicated ministries already on the ground in Haiti, ministries that have loved the Haitian people for years and will continue to love on them as they struggle to recover from this. And praise the Lord, that God is still God. From Psalms 46 "I will not fear. Though the mountains give way and fall into the heart of the sea...Be still and know that I am God."

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti. I promise you what you are seeing on tv is just a sliver of the horror that is going on in PAP right now. There were 3 doctors for every 10, 000 people before the earthquake. Imagine it now. Pray specifically for the orphanages and ministries that are in Haiti. They will need access to food, water, and shelter as well as protection from looters or violent criminals. I also ask you to pray specifically for Haitian adoptions. It looks as if those families who were issued adoption decrees in Haiti prior to the earthquake will be able to obtain visas to bring their children home. This has not yet been substantiated and no one knows exactly how this will look. It also leaves out many families, such as ours, who were not that far along in the process. We are hoping that child advocacy groups and the different governments will be able to help Haiti establish some type of procedure for processing these adoptions and then bringing these children home.