In a Moment

Dear Nathan,
A year ago today, you woke up in your orphanage, like you had done for as long as you could remember.

A year ago today, you waited for food.  I wonder if you had rice twice that day or if it was just once.  You didn't always get more than a bowl of rice and beans.

I wonder if that was a day where you got two bowls full.

That day you would have been sitting in that tiny carport with the dozens and dozens of other children there.  There was so little to do - not many toys, no place to run, no place to play.  I've often wondered if all the days blended together.  When it's always warm and you only have one season (to speak of) I imagine that sometimes life seems like one big day.

And yet that day was not just another day.

At 4:53 PM the earth moved and the buildings fell and the people started screaming.  In a moment, your orphanage collapsed.  We heard later that the aunties who were in the building just start throwing the children in the building out through the door.  Somehow they knew it was coming down and that inside was the least safe place to be at that moment.  God bless them, because all of the children in your orphanage survived the building collapse.

I wonder so often how terrified you were, Little Man.

We were told that the aunties just took the children they could grab and ran for safety.  I don't know where you went or what condition you were in while you were away.  I've often wondered if you were fed in the ensuing days.

Because it was days until you were where you should be again.  It was actually 10 days later that you were brought to be with the rest of the children from your orphanage.  By that time, your Papa was there and was able to smother you with love and make sure you were fed.  And in a moment you were part of a family again and would never, ever leave them again.

Some of the older children from your orphanage have finally started to talk about what they've endured and the heartache that caused them to be orphaned in the first place.  We'll never know what you went through and in some ways it might be easier for you because of that.

For the rest of us, we can't forget Haiti.  We mustn't forget her and her people and the mess that they're still in every day of their lives.

Haiti doesn't get someone to swoop her up in their arms and smother her with love and make sure her people eat.

We mustn't forget.

I love you.
Mama

Because Running Around Like a Decapitated Fowl Never Helps Anything...

As communications are improving because the cell networks are coming back online, we are receiving more information about our friends in Haiti.

This morning, we received this word

Dear Hope Families,

I just received word from Harry early this morning on the children. Again the messages are incomplete and very short. But apparently all the children are not together. Harry has not been able to reach Abel so we don’t know if some of the children are with him, but he gave me a list of the children that are not with Nadia. Again, I am assuming the rest of the children ARE with her. He is going to try and reach Nadia today and get all the children with her and take them to the church where he can care for them. He will also try and locate the rest of the children. I know this will be hard to read if your child is on the list below, but please know that we don’t have all the information yet. However hard I want to give the information as I receive it.

As I understand it, these are the children not with Nadia:

Zambrie
Nathan
Abigaille
D'Joe
Jordan Betuel
Jean Tony
Vania
Oliver
Jessica


We need to pray hard to find these children, everyone get your friends and family to pray.
I will continue to be vigilant in getting information.

My heart is with all of you!
Chareyl
(Wasatch Adoptions)

All the children on that list are children of our American friends and family. We know them all and two of them are ours (Nathan and Jessica) and one of them is Tia's (Oliver/Collin).

What do we do when the trickles of information do not confirm what we'd been hoping for?

We pray.

This is the prime example of when we need to "Lean not unto our own understanding" but we need to "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and in all thy ways acknowledge him and He shall direct they paths".

Now is the time to avoid those mental "snowballs" where one thought leads to another thought and soon you are beside yourself with worry and grief. Now is the time to trust.

As we've prayed, many times we have felt the comfort of the Spirit telling us that our babies are going to be OK. And I mean ALL our babies at our orphanage.

In the "gospel according to Lori" (meaning, don't quote me on this), I can see how this latest information could make both the early statements we heard about the children and their location - statements that completely contradicted each other - true.

First we heard that nearly all the children had been moved to the new orphanage by the airport. Then we heard that the children where with Nadia in Carrefour. Unless you've ever tried to move a bunch of children, I don't think you can appreciate how far those 15 miles are from each other.

Perhaps the first message will turn out to be correct and we'll find that many of the children were at the new facility. Just as we've found that Nadia is alive and in Carrefour, but she's not with the children waiting to be adopted by our American families.

We have to trust. We can't be on the ground right now. They've told us that unless we speak Kreyol or are trained in medical or urban rescue we would be in the way. There is no where to sleep but the ground and nowhere to get food prepared anyway.

We trust in Harry. He is an angel among men. He is doing superhuman things to keep the many, many people going at the Petionville Chapel. We trust in Abel - that he'll make it to back to wherever our babies are and that Harry and Abel and Nadia will find a way to get us correct information.

We trust in God. And that, with prayers we really mean, is all we can do.

What can I do to help?

This is a very common question we hear spoken and I am sure it is thought much more frequently than expressed.

We have a few ideas!

1 - Contact your government representatives and implore them to encourage the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to grant Humanitarian Parole to those children in the adoption process. This may be a small amount of the impacted people but it saves lives that are generally overlooked.

2 - Donate. Any amount helps! The original goals and timeline of our organization will now have to be fast tracked and expanded. It is estimated that the number of orphans in Haiti will TRIPLE due to this catastrophe.

3 - Spread the word. Please let others know.

4 - Talk to your employer about donating.

5 - Donate blood to the Red Cross. I am sure that this emergency will seriously deplete any reserves.

6 - Donate supplies to emergency relief organizations (i.e. personal care items, medical supplies, blankets, etc.)

7 - Don't forget. The rebuilding process in Haiti will take years and unfortunately our memories tend to last only moments.

If Halloween Were Tomorrow, I'd Want to Be Anderson Cooper...

Or Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

They "get" that the secret is not just in the telling... it's in the doing as well.

So do the members of the LA Fire Department who have fearlessly and tirelessly been working in the rubble to free people. And that rescue team from Iceland... I love them.

The soliders. The urban rescue workers. They "get" it.

So do the doctors and nurses who have flown to Haiti on a moment's notice and are working around the clock in unbelievable conditions.

We seriously need prayers. The kind you mean. Not the kind you tell to someone's face when you hear that something difficult has happened to them and you say, "We'll keep you in our thoughts and prayers."

We need knee-bending, heart-changing prayers.

Please, pray for whatever miracles it's going to take to get the ports and the single-strip airport operating to full capacity. Pray for safety for all the relief workers. Pray for strength and angels to lift up those who are trapped. Pray that the dogs will be able to find what they need to find to lead people where they need to be led to save lives. People's lives.

Pray that someone will find the kids from our O and get them supplies and the funds we've sent down before terrible things happen to these babies because they're exposed in this 91 degree weather without water. Pray that God leads people to Avrie and Jessica and Wyclef. Pray that roads can be cleared and food and water and medical supplies delivered to those who need them.

THESE are the people the Lord meant when He talked about doing "Unto the least of these..." It doesn't get any more "least" than orphans in devastated Haiti. It doesn't get any easier to help than to Pray.

And mean it.

Thank You to Loralee for Posting about Us and the O

http://loraleeslooneytunes.com/2010/01/16/putting-a-face-on-the-tragedy-in-haiti-please-help-any-way-you-can/

Copied from Loralee's blog. Loralee is mostly famous. As her brother, and my dear friend, Rhett said, "She's even been invited to the White House to oogle Michelle Obama's fabulous arms."

This is her post, calling for all her blog readers to find a way to help the situation in Haiti.

Putting a face on the tragedy in Haiti. Please help ANY way you can.
January 16, 2010

Imagine if your children were a half a world away without you.

That would be horrible, wouldn’t it?

Now imagine if you learned that a devastating earthquake hit the country and the epicenter was right next to the orphanage where your much loved and wanted babies lived. What if you didn’t know if they were hurt or even alive? What if you knew that if they made it through the earth quake they would have no food. No shelter. No water. No clothing, blankets, medical supplies?

There is NOTHING worse then the desperate feeling you get as a parent on behalf of your children that are in need and if your hands are tied and you are unable to physically get to your babies to protect and shield them the feeling is devastating. Nobody knows that feeling right now more then our family friends, Lori and Brent Rosenlof.


They have been trying to adopt two precious little ones from Haiti.

Meet Jessica and Nathan:





Lori and Brent have been trying to get Nathan and Jessica home with them for a long time. They may not have the papers yet but these two are every inch their children in every way that matters. Adopting from Haiti is a very long and complicated process full of red tape and a lot of frustration and heart ache. With the recent tragedy there it is now full of more red tape and more heartbreak then any human should have to experience.

Things are CRITICAL in that country…especially for Lori and Brett’s little children and the orphanage they live in.

I am helping them try to spread the word in hopes that people looking for a more specific cause to donate to Haiti will PLEASE consider helping the orphanage my friends are adopting from. Their situation is CRITICAL.

Information has been difficult to get but this is what they know so far in an email that I received from Lori. I will quote her so that it comes straight from the horse’s mouth:

“We have heard mixed reports about where our children are and their status (I really mean “safety” but that word tears at my heart too much). We believe that they are literally living the street in Carrefour (earthquake epicenter) with Nadia (orphanage director) right now. They have no supplies at the moment. People can’t live long without water, particularly in 91 degree temps (in the shade).

We have found someone flying to Haiti tomorrow (please literally pray the FAA lets their flight leave – it’s already been delayed a day) and they are taking cash from the HLAH nonprofit to give to the people on the ground there and they are going to help us get money to Nadia. We have heard that there are supplies available “for a price” and that the costs are astronomical.

We believe the orphanage itself was leveled.

Our daughter, Jessica, we know was not at the orphanage and we’re praying that they can find her and 2 other children that were also known to be at other locations when the quake hit. Our son, Nathan should be wherever the other children are.

100% of ALL funds go directly to the children. The people that run the non profit organization all volunteer so there aren’t any administrative costs. We are sending money now (and obviously in the coming weeks) for supplies, but then we’re going to have to rebuild.”

I normally do not rally for donations, I know that there are scummy people scamming those online, but this is different. I can vouch for these people absolutely and I am just sick, sick, SICK with worry for these little children. I am worried for EVERYONE in Haiti but it is even harder when you have knowledge of a specific individual’s pain.

The plight of these little ones keeps me up at night and I worry for them so.

SO…I am asking you to help in any way you can. Donate, comment, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE spread the word on your blogs, Twitter, Facebook, ANYTHING.

PLEASE.

Here is all the information that you need. The orphanage is called HOPE FOR LITTLE ANGELS OF HAITI. They have a Facebook page and a cause page as well. There is a Facebook Causes Button on our FB Cause page. And most importantly, there is a Paypal DONATE button on the Rosenlof’s blog for supplies for the orphanage.

And if you can do nothing else, please go over and leave a comment of support on their blog and say a prayer for the safety of their children.

You are amazing and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for ANYTHING you can do.

Update on Getting Funds to Haiti from HLAH and Wasatch Adoptions

Dear Hope Families,

I wanted to share some good news with you today, I believe we need it right now to boost our spirits. First let me say that things are going well with negotiations with US and Haitian governments to bring your children home. Everyone involved wants the outcome to be good and is looking out for the best interest of the children.

As you know we have confirmation that Harry is in an LDS church in PetionVille, all the children living in the orphanage (a branch of the Foyer de Sion orphanage) with him were evacuated safely. The mounting concerns now are that PetionVille is in the mountains and it has been difficult to get aid to them. Harry said that there is food to purchase and even gas for his truck, but he has no money. And because PetionVille is in the mountains it has been difficult for rescue teams to get to them. Harry says that if he could get some gas in his car he could try to find Nadia and the foster kids. He would also be able to buy food and supplies, there is some available to purchase (although the prices are astronomical) but the banks are shut down and there is no way to get money.

I am happy to tell you that we have found a way to get money to Harry! We have a friend (via Shannon Cox, haitianroots.com) who will be traveling to Haiti tomorrow with a special medical team put together by the LDS church. Dr. Jeremy Booth has agreed to take the money to Harry. He is an ER doctor, speaks fluent Creole and loves the Haitian people. They have been trying to fly out for several days but because of flight restrictions but hope to fly out tomorrow.

The Hope for the Little Angels Team is out getting a substantial amount of cash right now to send with Dr. Booth. I know this money will be critical in helping to find and feed our children. I want to tell each of you thank you, it is because of so many of you and your contributions that the Hope organization has funds to send down.

I will keep you posted, please pray that Dr. Booth is able to reach Harry with the funds!!

Your friend,

Chareyl
(Wasatch Adoptions)

A Prayer for the Children

(by Ina J. Hughes)

We pray for the children......

…who put chocolate fingers everywhere,

…who like to be tickled,

…who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,

…who sneak Popsicles before supper,

…who erase holes in math workbooks,

…who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those…

…who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,

…who’ve never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers,

…who never had crayons to count,

…who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,

…who never go to the circus,

…who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children…

…who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,

…who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish,

…who give hugs in a hurry and forget their lunch money,

…who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,

…who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,

…who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those…

…who never get dessert,

…who watch their parents watch them die,

…who have no safe blanket to drag behind,

…who can’t find any bread to steal,

…who don’t have any rooms to clean up,

…whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,

…whose monsters are real.

We pray for children…

…who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,

…who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,

…who like ghost stories,

…who shove dirty clothes under the bed,

…who never rinse out the tub,

…who get visits from the tooth fairy,

…who don't like to be kissed in front of the school,

…who squirm in church or temple or mosque and scream in the phone,

…whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those…

…whose nightmares come in the daytime,

…who will eat anything,

…who aren't spoiled by anybody,

…who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,

…who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children…

… who want to be carried,

and for those who must.

…For those we never give up on,

and for those who never get a chance.

…For those we smother with our love,

and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

Do the Best You Can With What You Have Where You Are

I have decided that news commentators have some sort of sick game going on trying to see who can ask the dumbest question.

Michelle says maybe they get commission for the person who asks the dumbest of the day.

I'm really tired of people on the news talking about Haitians as if they are a bunch of lawless, random, ignorant fools.

Haitians are strong. They are proud. They are patriotic. They are giving.

I've met more people who would "give you the shirt off their back" in Haiti than in America. And many of those people may only have THAT SHIRT, but they'd give it to you anyway.

Remember the LA Riots? Americans aren't so awesome during crises sometimes either. The "natural man" tends to get desperate when pushed to the edge.

I think the thought that sums up the people I have met in Haiti is people who are doing the best they can with what they have where they are.

And I think they deserve your respect, Mr. Highly Paid Reporter.

Please continue to pray. Pray for Jessica. We have no idea where she was when the earthquake hit - we just know she wasn't at the orphanage. Pray for the families, for the children, for the injured. Pray for the rescuers. Pray for the governments. We need so miracles to come out of this. I can't stop to think about what's happened to all the paperwork they'd been compiling for our adoption for the last 27 months. We need a miracle, Lord. We need a miracle.

Pray for those that are stuck in the rubble and trying to hang on. Pray for the workers and their safety. Pray they'll have the ingenuity to figure out how to make do with what they have and still save lives in less than ideal conditions.

Pray that the world doesn't forget about this next week when some celebutante does something stupid.

Pray for the children.

Word on Harry and Some of the Children...

We received this from our Coordinator:

I just received first hand news from Haiti just a few minutes ago from Harry Mardy. Both Harry and his brother Guesno are okay. Harry has not been able to reach Nadia the orphanage director. He did get in touch with one of the Nannies at the new orphanage and all the kids there are okay. As you know Hope for the Little Angels was in the process of moving to another city and another orphanage. We know that some of the children were still at the old orphanage, I do not have word on these children and I do not have the names of these children. Also we had a couple of kids in foster care and I have no word on those kids. Harry did say that him mother did not make it and his sister Kenia did not make it. I think that some of you have met Kenia she has come to the hotel during the parent trips with Harry's wife Pascal. I am so grateful for the news we received today and I will continue to pass on information to you as I get it.

President Clinton Gets This Exactly Right....

Haiti and the US.... We're Like THIS (crosses fingers)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Updates ... but not on our kids yet...

We went to our hotel's website and it says that the hotel is structurally sound and should reopen soon. That means the outside broken orange wall on the TV didn't impact the interior of the hotel. We're praying Vladimir and Jean Claude and everyone are safe.

We have had people volunteer to do penny drives with their elementary school (thank you, Ginny) and people volunteer to blog and Facebook about what's going on. There is a non-profit organization that supports our orphanage. Your donation is tax-deductible. The paypal button is on the right if you want to donate. 100% of the funds go to the kids. (No "hoo-ha" as my friend, Rhett says.)

Thank you to the people that have already donated to the non-profit. Thank you for doing what you can to make a difference.

We're still waiting for word on our kids and where they were (because they had been in the process of moving to another orphanage facility for some time and we're really not positive who was where when).

On this little map, the red dot is Carrefour. That's where the orphanage has been and it's where the epicenter of the quake was. The purple dot is the hotel where we stay. That's downtown Port-au-Prince and that's where a lot of the pictures on the news are originating. That's where the Palace was. The yellow dot is the airport. The new facility they'd been in the process of moving to is "out by the airport" but I really don't know exactly where.


I wonder, in all this mess, if Jessica's father will find us again. If he'll bring her back and if we'll be able to have her in our family the way it has always felt like we should. I wonder if she was safe yesterday. I have no idea where he took her or where they were when the earth started shaking.

I wonder where my Nathan is. He's a tender-hearted-pork-n-bean anyway; he needs snuggles on a good day, so I imagine he's really having a tough time. I wish I was there to hold you, Little Man.

I wonder where our other O kids are. There are a couple that were with foster families and I don't know where those families are. I wonder where the Haitian Roots kids are. I wonder if their families are OK. I wonder if they had mommies to hold them until the ground stopped moving.

We'll keep updating here as we get information. Thank you for your prayers. And thank you for meaning them!

Update in Haiti

We have had a few bits of good news but nothing definitive. We have heard that Abel, the house manager, is alive but he was not at the orphanage at the time of the quake. We have also heard that some of the children had been moved to the new facility. This facility would put them further from the epicenter. We don't know who or how many had been moved but we can only hope.

We can not thank you enough for your continuous thoughts and prayers. I know it means a great deal to Lori and me as well as our extend families and friends.

Port-au-Prince is PEOPLE! It's People!

Quick update - we haven't heard word if our children are safe. Isabelle, if you read this please email me @ lolorosen at rapidwave dot net

Our creche is called Hope for Little Angels of Haiti. It's very small - only 68 children. ONLY 68 children.

It's located in Carrefour. That's where the epicenter of the quake was.

We were watching MSN last night and there was a video of the scene at the Presidential Plaza. It's that Plaza that gives our hotel the name LePlaza. We know these places as the camera scanned around and went down side streets.

And then, suddenly, there was the orange wall. That's our hotel. That WAS our hotel. We love those orange walls because you can pick them out from blocks away in the back of the taptap and know that we're almost home.

I want to have someone front-kick whoever the "Former US Ambassador to Haiti" dude was that was on CNN all night last night. From the sounds of it, he must have been great. To hear him talk about how the population in PAP went from the 250K mark in the 1950s to the 2 million+ mark now and for him to say that it's "all due to a lack of birth control and basic overpopulation".

Bastard.

Have you MET these people, Mr. Faux Ambassador?? They aren't fornicating rabbits. Yes, there is a lack of birth control in Haiti. There's also a lack of education. There's also an astronomically high instance of rape. There's also a lack of skills for people to farm or otherwise take care of their families elsewhere.

People live where they can get water and there isn't an infrastructure for that to be accessible elsewhere. People live where they can find a way to get food for their families (you know... the ones they created by fornicating, you big jerk). If you didn't have a skill or a trade and all you could do to try to survive with the people you love was try to find something to sell on the streets - you go where there are people there to see whatever it is you're trying to sell.

I've met some of these people, Mr. Former Ambassador. I have friends behind that broken orange wall that I saw on the news.

People like Valdimir and Jean Claude and Michael. There are staff at the hotel that I've seen more often in the last 2 years than I've seen my own family members.

When we were there last October, Vladimir brought his fiance down to meet us all.
He introduced us to Vanessa as his mother, his father, his grandmother, his son, his daughter. Because he thinks of us as family. We take care of each other. We care about each other as people, and not just as numbers of the victims in that rubble.

Somewhere in that mess is Mackenson and his family - our Haitian Roots child.

Somewhere in that mess are all the other Haitian Roots kids and their families.

Somewhere in that mess in Petionville is our friend, Harry, who is the LDS Bishop in Petionville. That means that he's told Heavenly Father he'll be responsible for the temporal and spiritual welfare for all the people in the congregation. He's also our coordinator for our orphanage. Our contacts are desperately trying to get in touch with him. We need to know that they're OK, not just because of our kids, we have friends that feel like family there. And right now, if they're OK, they're in the middle of trying to make things better for a whole lot of people.

It's not just our two children in Haiti that we're worried about. It's all the people of Haiti.

I've had many people tell us that they want to help. What can we do? Or "you're in our prayers."

Our coordinator also happens to be the Haitian coordinator for the Joint Council on International Children's Services. She's working with her resources right now to figure out where the best next steps are. She's also working with the State Department and the LDS Church Charities to see what we can do to get aid specifically to the orphanages in Haiti. We'll update as soon as we get direction.

But in the mean time, please pray for Haiti - and mean it when you say it. Pray for the people behind our beloved orange wall. Pray for the school children. Pray for the families. Pray for the leaders of all the different churches that are trying to help their congregations. Pray for the orphanages. Pray for the governments to work together. Pray for the best way to help individuals to be found. Pray for relief.

And remember that those are families in Port-au-Prince. They're people.

What's Left of the Haitian Presidential Palace...

This was on Twitter. I keep thinking... if the PALACE looks like that, what does our little orphanage look like?

I wish you could imagine the shanty towns in Haiti. ... the building just piled on top of each other

I can only imagine what these look like now.

There have been so many aftershocks today. So much chaos. I want to be there, holding my babies and making sure they have food and clean water and comfort and safety.

I can only imagine how very dark tonight is. Something like this must have knocked so much off line. Our contacts still can't get through to Haiti to find out if our orphanage was damaged or if the children are all OK.

As my friend T said, We're praying for angels to watch over them this dark night.

Please... let there be a miracle. Let there be someway to get these children out despite the destruction of so many of the government buildings. Let there be a way out of this chaos.

Sweetheart, I wish I could sleep with you and Miss Jess, I wish you were in the other bed with "Papa mwen". We wish were there tonight to comfort you - which would comfort us as well.

Please, Heavenly Father... let there be some process that will rise from this dust to allow us to get our babies home.

Wish I Knew Something...

As soon as we get word on our kids we'll let you know.

Please pray for the people in Haiti.