Here is a new one that my friend (Sarah McCubbin) and I just came up with:
Uneducated (People) Negating Innocent Children's Emotions and Freedom.
UNICEF: YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reporting
23 hours ago
Sunday, January 31, 2010
UNICEF...
This is the real acronym: United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund
Here is a new one that my friend (Sarah McCubbin) and I just came up with:
Uneducated (People) Negating Innocent Children's Emotions and Freedom.
Here is a new one that my friend (Sarah McCubbin) and I just came up with:
Uneducated (People) Negating Innocent Children's Emotions and Freedom.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
2 GLA Families on Larry King Live...
Great interview Wilkin's and Stanley's. Jaime... I was cracking up at Danise...and that one of your girls would not go on camera. That would have so happened to us!!! I would have been on the inside, like "come on kids, it is not everyday that we get to be on Larry King Live!!!" :-) Lovin' Danise offering Jean Dany her lollipop and him denying her!!!! I was laughing!!!!!!!! Sorry, not at your expense... lol...
Okay everybody, enjoy two of our families from GLA... I am so proud to be a GLA parent!
Okay everybody, enjoy two of our families from GLA... I am so proud to be a GLA parent!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Dixie's account of the "Mass Exodus"...
24 January 2010 6:30 AM
24 January 2010 11:10 AM
I forgot to tell you that one of the babies that was brought out was very sick before we came and we feared that we would have to leave he behind. On the way to the airport, she was taken to a hospital that had a team of American doctors, they looked at her and gave her fluids and thought she was stable enough to travel. it turns out that she had meningitis. She went directly into a hospital here in Miami and her adoptive mother came to the hospital to stay with her. The last report we received was that she was stable.
I want to personally thank everyone that was so kind to us throughout this process. Our sincere Thanks to:
First to Aaron and Tanya Ramsay for being there and making things happen!
To Tanya, Jill Wilkins, and their team in Miami who worked hard with little sleep to make our arrival and the meeting with between the adoptive parents and children go so well!
To our volunteers that arrived in Haiti to help during the evacuation of the children and the arrival of humanitarian aid.
Pastor Joel Trimble for video services and finding buses for all of the kids to get to the airport in Pap,
everyone at the PAP airport for allowing us to sit on the grass and be inside on the runway, to Vision Airlines that provided the charter jet and all of their employees that held babies on the flight!
To Miami International Airport staff and administration, who went beyond what was usual to make our arrival all of the way through the reunion with the parents and finding us a shuttle to our hotel. I take my hat off to them and I cannot express our gratitude with just these words!
To the Marriott Airport Hotel for their welcoming spirit and great hospitality. I will stay here again!
To limo service that CNN hired to come and take us to their office. The driver took us to Walmart to buy tarps and tents after the show and we appreciated it very much!
To everyone that had any thing to do with making this happen!
I tried all day yesterday to blog without any success! I thought my days might be quieter while I was in Miami, but they are just as busy as when I am in Haiti!
Our trip from GLA to Miami was pretty exciting! I slept 2 hours Thursday morning and then was up trying to get things ready for us all to leave. I was on the phone and coordinating cars, people, and children up to the moment we got in the cars to leave. Thankfully, all of the staff did their jobs perfectly and we had cars and vans for everyone, all paperwork was in order and packed into a suitcase, clothes and food was packed, and the kids were bathed and dressed on time! That in itself was a miracle!
About 11 AM that Thursday morning, we had another large aftershock that sent the women running out of the house! It took everyone to get them back in to finish getting the kids ready. Pastor Joel Trimble came with his video camera and took video of the whole process of loading the children and he went all of the way to the airport and into the plane with the children. Hopefully, he will post some of the video on You Tube.
We were late leaving for the airport and thankfully, the traffic was not bad. The drivers took a shortcut to get us there but it was through an area hit hard by the earthquake. Our older children had not seen any houses that had fallen during the quake. Seeing them personally, really affected some of the older children and they were very sad when we drove by.
This time, we did not have to spend hours in the heat of Port au Prince like we did when we went to take the Dutch children to meet their plane. We were there for 8 hours that day. FRiday, we were there about 4 hours. We were also allowed to get out of the vehicles and wait on a nice grassy area. We made it a great adventure for the children and it helped so much that I took 10 staff members with us. The older children kep asking me..."Are you going too Mme John?"..."Is Molly going too Mme John?" When I told them that yes, we are all going! They were happy and very few of the children cried when they joined their families. We were all there and it was just as if they were in Haiti.
The Miami Airport and several missions in Miami sent some volunteers on the plane to help us. We had been told that there would be extra passengers who would help us take the children out, but they did not show up. So each of the volunteers and staff had 3 to 4 children to take care of. Needless to say, it was an INTERESTING ride!
We arrived in Miami about 12:30 AM Friday morning, we spent 7 1/2 hours in Immigration. Yes, it took that long to process all of the children! The airport personel were so nice. They brought toys, baby formula, diapers, wet wipes, and food! They even came in and held babies! GLA kids are usually so well behaved when we go places and they did not disappoint us here either! They sat for that whole time or laid in the floor and took naps with very little whining and crying! I think we adults whined more than they did!!! 
But it was all worth it when the children were united with their families! The airport had provided us with two conerence rooms where the parents could sit and wait and where we could bring the children to change them and get them ready to meat their parents. We had run out of clothing in the middle of the night and our spare clothing had been taken to another location, so we desperately needed to change some kids before they met their new families!
We had a well organized reunion, the children did well with it all. Nobody was afraid or crying. Parents were overjoyed. It was a miracle that these children got to come home without the process being finished. Some of these parents would have had to wait another year or more to take their children home under normal circumstances!
The GLA staff was so exhausted that in a way it helped us send the children home with their adoptive families. We were sort of numb and our emotions were numb too! Some of the children had been with us 6 years, others 4 years! That is a LONG time and those children...it was hard for them to leave! Most of the children did really well and others will be sad for a little while, but we are all so glad they are with their forever families and safe.
We all went to our hotels and collapsed. I slept 5 hours until Haiti called an woke me up! And then went back and slept 8 more hours! I will never get that sleep back that I lost...but this sure helped!
Saturday, I had to go to the CNN studio here in Miami and talk for 5 minutes about orphans and the ability to adopt the new ones. I explaind that all new orphans from the quake disaster must be placed in orphanages until it can be determined that they are truly orphans and family does not come forward asking for the children. Only if President Preval and the international community can come to an agreement to let the orphans be adopted. I do not foresee UNICEF especially letting this happen without a lot of noise from their side! I would love to see the orphans adopted, but we just need to pray that this is possible later after things have settled down in Haiti.
We also went shopping and bought tarps, tents, blankets, towels, and lanterns to hand out when we get home. We spent some of the donations that came in and bought enough to help our staff that lost their homes and the surrounding community. We are also going to help some of them rebuild their homes at least for the ones that owned their homes and for the others, we will try to relocate them to a different housel.
Sunday
We are still waiting for confirmation that we can fly back to Haiti today. if not, we will fly into the DR and drive across the border. I will update this as I know what is happening.24 January 2010 11:10 AM
I forgot to tell you that one of the babies that was brought out was very sick before we came and we feared that we would have to leave he behind. On the way to the airport, she was taken to a hospital that had a team of American doctors, they looked at her and gave her fluids and thought she was stable enough to travel. it turns out that she had meningitis. She went directly into a hospital here in Miami and her adoptive mother came to the hospital to stay with her. The last report we received was that she was stable.
I want to personally thank everyone that was so kind to us throughout this process. Our sincere Thanks to:
First to Aaron and Tanya Ramsay for being there and making things happen!
To Tanya, Jill Wilkins, and their team in Miami who worked hard with little sleep to make our arrival and the meeting with between the adoptive parents and children go so well!
To our volunteers that arrived in Haiti to help during the evacuation of the children and the arrival of humanitarian aid.
Pastor Joel Trimble for video services and finding buses for all of the kids to get to the airport in Pap,
everyone at the PAP airport for allowing us to sit on the grass and be inside on the runway, to Vision Airlines that provided the charter jet and all of their employees that held babies on the flight!
To Miami International Airport staff and administration, who went beyond what was usual to make our arrival all of the way through the reunion with the parents and finding us a shuttle to our hotel. I take my hat off to them and I cannot express our gratitude with just these words!
To the Marriott Airport Hotel for their welcoming spirit and great hospitality. I will stay here again!
To limo service that CNN hired to come and take us to their office. The driver took us to Walmart to buy tarps and tents after the show and we appreciated it very much!
To everyone that had any thing to do with making this happen!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Our Haitian Adoption...
(She had some great pics of Jonas, but I cannot copy and paste them...)
Haiti quake speeds adoption for some
City family has been going through process for 2 years
of The News-Sentinel
Rebekah Hubley holds out her hands to her son, Jonas, who, at age 4, is learning to walk. With a smile and some encouragement, Jonas takes seven steps toward his mother.
“Oh, that's great, Jonas. That's the farthest you have gone yet,” said Hubley, laughing.
The past two years have been an uphill climb for the Haitian-born orphan, who has special needs. The Hubleys, a family of six including Jonas, are still in the process of adopting him from a private Christian orphanage in Haiti, “God's Little Angels.”
Eighty-three children from the orphanage were flown to Miami on Thursday night to go to families that had already started the adoption process.
“Some of those people only got their adoption decrees at Christmas,” said Hubley. Because of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince that killed an estimated 200,000 and left 400,000 homeless, the agency is bringing the children to the United States to finalize their adoptions. The orphanage needs space for all the new orphans they are expecting from the earthquake.
“You never get a Haitian baby anymore; the adoption process takes too long,” said Hubley. “If parents are really lucky, they might get a child when they are a toddler, and that's if you started the process when they were a baby.”
The orphanage is in the mountains above Petionville north of Port-au-Prince and missed the full strength of the quake. All Jonas' adoption paperwork is now buried in the rubble of the Haitian government building in Port-au-Prince. There are nine steps parents must go through in adopting a child from Haiti, and the Hubleys, after two years, were only on the third.
Fortunately, Jonas has been in Fort Wayne for the past two years on a medical visa. Rebekah Hubley has been in touch with the orphanage, which is still standing; all its children and staff are safe. A staff member who was outside the building when the quake struck said the building swayed at least two feet in both directions. Nannies and children inside were knocked off their feet. Food for dinner flew off the stove; amazingly, all the eggs in the kitchen pantry remained unbroken.
The Web site of the orphanage says prospective parents interested in adopting will need to wait until things in Haiti are straightened out. Hubley said the orphanage doesn't want a child adopted to the U.S. before the child's parents or relatives can be located. The earthquake may only have made the child an orphan through separation.
An added complication for Hubley is the nonprofit agency, Hands That Heal, which she and a friend started through her church, Avalon Missionary, 1500 Lower Huntington Road. The agency, which offers free medical treatment for orphaned Haitian children, is based at the church but is not a part of it. She is anticipating an influx of children who will need their stateside services.
American doctors and hospitals donate their time and services to help. The agency connects the children with doctors and hospitals, and finds a host family while the child is stateside. Their first patient came in February 2008. People in Haiti know about them through “Gods Little Angels” Orphanage, word of mouth and through a larger agency that has its own medical clinic in Haiti.
Currently, Hands that Heal has five children here; one child went back just before the earthquake. Hubley has been talking with Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd District, and staff member Kathy Green, trying to work out the snags.
“There were medical visa kids who were getting ready to come over, and they are stuck,” said Hubley. On the flip side, she noted there are also children here who were ready to go back and are now stuck in the States.
The first child they had through their program in 2008 is now 2, and Hubley has no idea whether the little girl made it through the earthquake.
“Someone said this is a country of such dichotomy - you have the poor and you have the rich, and the earthquake did not discriminate. The poor really fared better than the rich because they lived in shacks of tin and mud, which collapsed around them, not like the heavy cement block buildings,” said Hubley.
Hands that Heal
If you would like to learn more about Hands that Heal or make a donation, go to http://handsthatheal-mk1618b.blogspot.com or contact Rebekah Hubley at r_rhubley@hotmail.com. Checks can be made to Avalon Missionary Church, 1500 Lower Huntington Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46819-1361.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Another article from this morning...
Orphans From Haiti Unite With New Families At MIA
MIAMI (CBS4) ― One of the most heartbreaking stories from the devastation in Haiti is the children. Nearly 80 orphans from Haiti arrived in South Florida to meet their adoptive parents for the very first time. From the chaos of Haiti to the comforting embrace of loved ones, they arrived at Miami International Airport Friday morning to meet the families who have opened up their hearts and their homes. They are from 'God's Littlest Angels', a Christian orphanage outside of Port-au-Prince which stood through the earthquake."Here's my son, right here, he's great," said one proud adoptive father.
These adoptive parents, from all over the country, have waited years in some cases, for this moment and thought it was lost when the earthquake struck.
Tim and Annette Franklin from Vermont are adopting 2-year-old Gedeleine.
"It's amazing. It's an amazing moment," said an emotional Tim Franklin to CBS4's Michael Williams. "We wondered a week ago if this moment would ever come. Now it's here, it's awesome."
Kevin Downes is a California film producer. He and his wife were touched by the plight of Haitian children through a documentary he's working on. Now 21-month old Benicio is an orphan no more.
"It's overwhelming, it's exhausting, it's tiring, it's a long journey but more than anything we're just thankful," said Downes.
The last leg of a long journey included 7 hours of immigration and customs paperwork before happy reunions at the airport early Friday.
Jennifer Ebenhack and her husband, missionaries living in Haiti have a son and daughter and are adopting three Haitian children who have lived with them for years
"Only god can make something miraculous out of such a horrible nightmare," said Ebenhack.
Her adopted son Justin couldn't be happier to be here.
"I'm very excited because now I get to come here with all of them and see all of my relatives and I get to see my great grandmother and great grandfather who are too old to see us," exclaimed Justin.
While the earthquake twisted steel and shattered the country, the human spirit has endured. Every reunion that took place this day, and will take place in the future, is testimony to that strength.
"Our hearts break for everyone still in the country, but we're glad that she's here and that she has the opportunity for a future that she didn't have," said Gedeleine's new dad, Tim.
Of the 80 children who arrived Friday, 58 came to the U.S. through the Bethany Christian Services, one of the largest adoption agencies in the country. Right after the earthquake, Bethany worked with its Haitian counterpart Gods Littlest Angles to receive clearance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"All of these children escaped from this tragedy unharmed, but it is important to remember that there are millions of others who still remain in Haiti," said Pam Harrington, director of international adoption services for Bethany.
If you're interested in adopting an orphan from Haiti, click here to get more information from the Bethany Christian Services web site.
GLA brings American children to the US...
Here is the first article that I can find on GLA's families being united. I am looking for some video coverage...but no luck yet.
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83 Adopted Haitian Children Arrive In U.S.
Adoption Process Expedited After Haiti Quake
POSTED: Friday, January 22, 2010
UPDATED: 12:59 pm EST January 22, 2010
MIAMI -- More than 80 Haitian orphans arrived in South Florida Friday to begin their new lives with their adoptive parents.The 83 children from an orphanage in Petionville and their new parents were in various stages of the adoption process when the earthquake struck last week. Most of the paperwork was lost in the rubble of the government buildings in Port-au-Prince. Info: How You Can Help
In light of the disaster, the U.S. smoothed the way for the children already in the process of being adopted to come and live with their new parents."Our hearts break for everyone who's still in her country, but we're glad that she's here and she has the opportunity for a future that she didn't have," said one adoptive father.The parents were at Miami International Airport early Friday, exhausted and elated to rewrite the future of their children."We just had to learn that every moment was really fluid. We weren't sure what was going on. We were, but it changed so frequently. But that's OK because what everyone was doing was the impossible," said another adoptive father."I fell down on the floor on my knees and was crying, crying, crying, thanking God, and shaking so hard I could not send an e-mail to all my family. My hands would not type," said an adoptive mother.The children, who have seen lots of heartache in their short lives, showed that they were willing to open up to new people. One of the children, Daphne, was proud to demonstrate her hair braiding skills in the airport terminal.The families also kept in mind the children who were not given the opportunity to come to the U.S. Their leaving opened up dozens of beds in the orphanage, which can now be used for other children who have lost their parents.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Micah is having surgery tomorrow...
Please be praying for Micah tomorrow. Around 1pm he will be having his tonsils and adenoids out. This is an easy surgery as far as he is concerned, but I have been told that recovery is not very easy. Lots and lots of popsicles!!!!! I will update after we get home tomorrow afternoon/evening.
James 1:27
James 1:27 (New International Version)
27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Latest update from Dixie (GLA)...1-18-10
Here is the latest from Jonas's orphanage:
-------------------------------
18 January 2010 10:45 PM
Is it ever going to get better? The day starts at 6 AM and ends at Midnight every day! I do not mind the long days, but pile high stress on top of that and it is too much! Everybody forgets to eat because we are so busy! Every country where we do adoptins wants scanned documents before they will approve the children to enter their country and we need to email them ASAP! Scanning documents here is not easy. Making photocopies of 800 documents take a long time! Stephanie, Melanie, and Amanda have worked so hard on getting documents pulled and copied or scanned and have worked two solid days and need a third day before they will all be done!
I was interviewed by CNN news again this morning. I think it went fairly well and I was given enough time to tell about the need to get the children to their families. The US, as usual, issued a statement about allowing children to come to the US and it is long and detailed and confusing! We just want to know can all children in process go??? I think they can but will find out when we get to the US embassy with the documents!
Today has been hard. I am tired and "fussy". I have no patience with passive people today. I want people talking to me that are on fire to get these kids out like we do! If you cannot fight for the children, please do not call me right now! See, I AM REALLY "fussy" tonight!
The Dutch plane comes tomorrow to take 100 children to the Netherlands. We mst be down at the airport early. We then will wait for a flight bringing in some relief supplies. We are very thankful that supplies are coming. A couple of other orphanages are coming to share in the donated goods. They are almost out of food.
We also heard today about an orphange with 60 children in it south of Port-au-Prince that collapsed and the children were killed. So much suffering and misery! The devastation runs from Port-au-Prince clear to Jacmel! The media is not showing you that far south yet, but it is bad. I do not know if we will ever know how many people died from this. People are still dying from their injuries!
We also heard of another orphanage with 80 children where the orphanage was destroyed and the children are all living outside. they are running out of food and water. We will try to get some to them as soon as possible. People have been so good about donating. We are thankful to have some funds to help community that is suffering!
I must go to bed. I need to be up early again. We have all promised ourselves a couple of days of sleeping in when this has settled down! And we are going to do it, too!
And Life in Haiti goes on...
Saturday, January 16, 2010
A Big Aftershock...
A little over an hour ago, I was skyping with Anna at RHFH. In the middle of our skype she wrote, "we just had a huge aftershock... poeple are going crazy rebekah!"
Cazale is a good hour and 45 minutes outside of PAP. I just spoke with Tom Vanderwell and he said that the aftershock was big enough to send all of the staff and kiddos back out of the house for the day.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, DO NOT FORGET TO PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF HAITI!!!!!!
Cazale is a good hour and 45 minutes outside of PAP. I just spoke with Tom Vanderwell and he said that the aftershock was big enough to send all of the staff and kiddos back out of the house for the day.
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, DO NOT FORGET TO PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF HAITI!!!!!!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Latest update from Dixie (GLA)...
14 January 2010 11:55 PM
It's really 12:40 AM but I didn't want everyone to think I did not blog on the 14th! I know that I wrote something earlier but it is NOT here! The web site monsters must have eaten it, because it has disappeared!
Today, I just want to cry! I just want to crawl into a corner and curl up for awhile. I may just have a good cry later...I think I deserve it! My hands have shook all day from stress. All of my staff said the same thing today. I think the shock is wearing off and the stress of surviving and keeping the children safe is taking its toil on all of us. The stories and photos we are seeing is so sad. Our staff has lost lots of family members. Our cook said he had 11 families members who died! Some of staff has not come to work. We are fearful for them. They live on the side of a hill in Port au Prince. Another staff member said that most of the houses in this area are collapsed. Please pray for these people. Especially for Madeleine and her family.
I finally got sleep last night and even slept through a big aftershock at 7 AM this morning. I was tired! My day started early and I have not stopped all day long. Phone calls, skype conferences, and just running the orphanage has been more than enough work today.
I think the news people will now go on to stories of things down in the city. We were their only contact in Haiti for 48 hours almost. Now they have crews of journalist arrive and they are going down in the midst of things to get first hand reports. Maybe we can stop talking on the phone now and return to our work!
Members of our US and Canadian board are coordinating relief efforts and donations are being collected to bring supplies into Haiti for the orphanage and surround area. A chartered plane is coming in on Monday with some volunteers and some supplies. We are struggling to take care of all of the babies since many of the workers have not come to work.
The international efforts will of course be centered down in the worst areas but there are people who lost their homes and family members around us. We will focus our relief efforts up here in the mountains for now and bring food, water, and also help rebuild homes here. We will also be preparing to take in more orphans as needed.
Our families from Canada, Holland, and Luxembourg are all being airlifted out of Haiti. We took the Canadian family to the airport tonight to catch a French flight. They missed that flight but the airport personell said for them to stay and they would get them on a flight out of Haiti. The rest of the families will leave tomorrow.
We continue to have aftershocks. Will it never stop shaking??? When I told my staff that they might last up to a month, they all moaned and said "NO!". They do not like them either! As I am writing this , my desk is shaking! I HATE THESE AFTERSHOCKS! I said after the hurricane that I thought that was the WORST thing and I never wanted to live through that again, but I think an earthquake has now become my number 1 least liked thing!!!!
Well, it is 1:10 AM and I need to go to bed! If you want to see some earthquake photos that Laurie took downtown, keep checking www.godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org . I just do not have time to add them to our web site PLUS we have had so many visitors to the web site that it keeps going down! So Tom Vanderwell will put them on the blog for me. You can thank Tom for finally getting these to you. I have had good intentions since Wednesday to get them posted!
I want to thank everyone who has posted on my facebook and written me emails. Even if I do not answer, know that I am reading everyone and it means a lot to know that you want to help and are praying for us. It truly does mean a lot to me! I also am very thankful for all of the donations that have come through Paypal and through the Blog site for the Haiti Relief Fund. It is a little overwhelming to think of the outpouring of funds to help the children and those effected by this disaster! Thank you!
God is good. He has protected us and we all praise him. Our nannies sing about their love of Jesus. They sing of His goodness and faithfulness. I feel so blessed to be here at this time and having the nannies minister to me through song and their total reliance on God! Makes me feel humble. I do not know if I would do as well in their shoes...
It's really 12:40 AM but I didn't want everyone to think I did not blog on the 14th! I know that I wrote something earlier but it is NOT here! The web site monsters must have eaten it, because it has disappeared!
Today, I just want to cry! I just want to crawl into a corner and curl up for awhile. I may just have a good cry later...I think I deserve it! My hands have shook all day from stress. All of my staff said the same thing today. I think the shock is wearing off and the stress of surviving and keeping the children safe is taking its toil on all of us. The stories and photos we are seeing is so sad. Our staff has lost lots of family members. Our cook said he had 11 families members who died! Some of staff has not come to work. We are fearful for them. They live on the side of a hill in Port au Prince. Another staff member said that most of the houses in this area are collapsed. Please pray for these people. Especially for Madeleine and her family.
I finally got sleep last night and even slept through a big aftershock at 7 AM this morning. I was tired! My day started early and I have not stopped all day long. Phone calls, skype conferences, and just running the orphanage has been more than enough work today.
I think the news people will now go on to stories of things down in the city. We were their only contact in Haiti for 48 hours almost. Now they have crews of journalist arrive and they are going down in the midst of things to get first hand reports. Maybe we can stop talking on the phone now and return to our work!
Members of our US and Canadian board are coordinating relief efforts and donations are being collected to bring supplies into Haiti for the orphanage and surround area. A chartered plane is coming in on Monday with some volunteers and some supplies. We are struggling to take care of all of the babies since many of the workers have not come to work.
The international efforts will of course be centered down in the worst areas but there are people who lost their homes and family members around us. We will focus our relief efforts up here in the mountains for now and bring food, water, and also help rebuild homes here. We will also be preparing to take in more orphans as needed.
Our families from Canada, Holland, and Luxembourg are all being airlifted out of Haiti. We took the Canadian family to the airport tonight to catch a French flight. They missed that flight but the airport personell said for them to stay and they would get them on a flight out of Haiti. The rest of the families will leave tomorrow.
We continue to have aftershocks. Will it never stop shaking??? When I told my staff that they might last up to a month, they all moaned and said "NO!". They do not like them either! As I am writing this , my desk is shaking! I HATE THESE AFTERSHOCKS! I said after the hurricane that I thought that was the WORST thing and I never wanted to live through that again, but I think an earthquake has now become my number 1 least liked thing!!!!
Well, it is 1:10 AM and I need to go to bed! If you want to see some earthquake photos that Laurie took downtown, keep checking www.godslittlestangelsinhaiti.org . I just do not have time to add them to our web site PLUS we have had so many visitors to the web site that it keeps going down! So Tom Vanderwell will put them on the blog for me. You can thank Tom for finally getting these to you. I have had good intentions since Wednesday to get them posted!
I want to thank everyone who has posted on my facebook and written me emails. Even if I do not answer, know that I am reading everyone and it means a lot to know that you want to help and are praying for us. It truly does mean a lot to me! I also am very thankful for all of the donations that have come through Paypal and through the Blog site for the Haiti Relief Fund. It is a little overwhelming to think of the outpouring of funds to help the children and those effected by this disaster! Thank you!
God is good. He has protected us and we all praise him. Our nannies sing about their love of Jesus. They sing of His goodness and faithfulness. I feel so blessed to be here at this time and having the nannies minister to me through song and their total reliance on God! Makes me feel humble. I do not know if I would do as well in their shoes...
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Laurie Bickel interviewed by Matt Lauer...
Laurie, is Dixie Bickel's daughter, and she is in charge of the finances at GLA. When Ryan and I were in Haiti we went out with Laurie, Dixie, and John Bickel for dinner the night before we left for the States. We ate at this amazing restaurant in Petionville, and I wonder if it is even still standing??? We ate and talked for a 2-3 hours with them and had a great time. Laurie loves Haiti and is very adept at getting about PAP. She has went out each day and today was interviewed by Matt Lauer and had a lot of her photos posted during the interview. Please take the time to watch this and please donate to GLA or other humanitarian organizations in Haiti.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Adoptions in Haiti...
Many of you have asked what the earthquake will do to our adoption of Jonas. I have tried not to think about it because so many are still trapped or need medical attention. So many have died, this is not a time to think about myself. I would be lying to you if I told you that I have not stopped to think about our adoption.
Here is what I know. Remember when we went to Haiti in October to sign the paper for the Judge. Judge Cadet is not reported to be dead and he was crushed in one of the government buildings downtown PAP.
Where is our dossier??? ( A dossier is a file that holds ALL OF THE PAPERS that we spent hours gathering and getting state sealed, notarized, and approved by immigration.) Where is it??? Well, we are currently in Parquet, so that means more than likely that our file, dossier, is in one of the buildings that no longer exists. Haiti adoptions are completed a lot by hand, and the different offices are not always 'organized'. So, our papers are probably EVERYWHERE along with hundreds of other dossiers.
So, what will happen with Jonas's adoption??? I do not have ANY FEAR that it will be completed, I just don't know how it will happen at this point.
Here is what Dixie, the director of GLA, our 'O', wrote about current adoptions today:
14 January 2010
Our lawyer was able to get through to us today. She says all of the government buildings downtown were damaged or destroyed! She reported that Judge Rock CADET was killed in a building collapse.
I have asked our lawyer to petition IBESR and the government of Hait to allow all children in the adoption process to be allowed to join their adoptive families. We are all going to need beds for orphans who have lost their family in this disaster! I need all of my families to contact their adoption agencies and government officials to allow these children to leave Haiti without a Haitian passport on Humanitarian or Refuge visas! I KNOW the USA government can issue emergency passports for situtations like this because they did it for me during a crisis in Haiti from a poison in a children's fever medicine and children were dying. We sent 11 children out of Haiti during that time and most did not have a Haitian issued passport. Please find out if your government has such a system in place! (All DUTCH Families: Please work through NAS to get these children home. They are trying to get ALL children in process and not just those finished in Parquet. So join forces with NAS and not to confuse the issue with the Dutch Government.)
Some of your dossiers are thankfully with us in our office. Others are wtih other government sections and we do not know if they are intact or not. I do know that the National Palace, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, DJI building which is part of the legalization department, National Cathedral is gone. I do not know about Immigration or IBESR!
I do not know if this is possible but let us explore the possibility of getting the children out so that we can take in more orphans.
--------------------------------------------------------
So, that is where we are at... I have a peace...
As our little boy turns a year older today, Jonas--Happy 4th birthday, I still cannot get his Haiti family out of my head. I pray that they all have survived. I also have had a crazy prayer today: God, if he does have siblings and they survive and their mom does not, if it be Your will--bring them to GLA. I have not shared this prayer with Ryan... ;-) When God called us to adopt Jonas, He did not just call us to him, He has called us to take care of him and his Haiti family. I have said this before, but we adopted a family, not just one member. My heart is breaking and praying for a family that I have never seen nor touched. Please God, spare Jonas's family and unite us with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is what I know. Remember when we went to Haiti in October to sign the paper for the Judge. Judge Cadet is not reported to be dead and he was crushed in one of the government buildings downtown PAP.
Where is our dossier??? ( A dossier is a file that holds ALL OF THE PAPERS that we spent hours gathering and getting state sealed, notarized, and approved by immigration.) Where is it??? Well, we are currently in Parquet, so that means more than likely that our file, dossier, is in one of the buildings that no longer exists. Haiti adoptions are completed a lot by hand, and the different offices are not always 'organized'. So, our papers are probably EVERYWHERE along with hundreds of other dossiers.
So, what will happen with Jonas's adoption??? I do not have ANY FEAR that it will be completed, I just don't know how it will happen at this point.
Here is what Dixie, the director of GLA, our 'O', wrote about current adoptions today:
14 January 2010
Our lawyer was able to get through to us today. She says all of the government buildings downtown were damaged or destroyed! She reported that Judge Rock CADET was killed in a building collapse.
I have asked our lawyer to petition IBESR and the government of Hait to allow all children in the adoption process to be allowed to join their adoptive families. We are all going to need beds for orphans who have lost their family in this disaster! I need all of my families to contact their adoption agencies and government officials to allow these children to leave Haiti without a Haitian passport on Humanitarian or Refuge visas! I KNOW the USA government can issue emergency passports for situtations like this because they did it for me during a crisis in Haiti from a poison in a children's fever medicine and children were dying. We sent 11 children out of Haiti during that time and most did not have a Haitian issued passport. Please find out if your government has such a system in place! (All DUTCH Families: Please work through NAS to get these children home. They are trying to get ALL children in process and not just those finished in Parquet. So join forces with NAS and not to confuse the issue with the Dutch Government.)
Some of your dossiers are thankfully with us in our office. Others are wtih other government sections and we do not know if they are intact or not. I do know that the National Palace, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, DJI building which is part of the legalization department, National Cathedral is gone. I do not know about Immigration or IBESR!
I do not know if this is possible but let us explore the possibility of getting the children out so that we can take in more orphans.
--------------------------------------------------------
So, that is where we are at... I have a peace...
As our little boy turns a year older today, Jonas--Happy 4th birthday, I still cannot get his Haiti family out of my head. I pray that they all have survived. I also have had a crazy prayer today: God, if he does have siblings and they survive and their mom does not, if it be Your will--bring them to GLA. I have not shared this prayer with Ryan... ;-) When God called us to adopt Jonas, He did not just call us to him, He has called us to take care of him and his Haiti family. I have said this before, but we adopted a family, not just one member. My heart is breaking and praying for a family that I have never seen nor touched. Please God, spare Jonas's family and unite us with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Dixie Bickel....
This morning, Dixie from GLA, was interviewed my Matt Louer. Please consider donating to GLA today!!!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Earthquake update from GLA...
(Here is the latest update from GLA--Jonas's Orphanage) My heart is sick this morning... I am going to try to reach Witlene, one of our adult HTH patients. Ryan and I were just at her house in Haiti in October. I am worried, because their house is on a second story. Please pray for Witlene and her family today. Please pray for all of Haiti, especially Port Au Prince. With everything going on and with all of the destruction in PAP, I really doubt our adoption will be complete this Spring/Summer. So many offices were damaged downtown and that is where our paperwork/dossier is at. Can you imagine, an already ineffective system, now having all of this paperwork scattered about??? I don't know for sure that this has happened, I am just being realistic. This earthquake is a catastrophe on so many levels, it is hard to wrap my mind around it. I am so glad that Ryan and I were in Haiti in October: I can see in my head the Haiti that I grew up in... It will be very sad to return and see the devastation. Please pray for Jonas's Haiti family... I cannot get my mind off of them.
---------------------------------------
(Dixie's Blog)
Last updated:13 January 2010
13 January 2010 1:20 AM
At a few minutes before 5 PM on 12 January 2010, a large earthquake hit Haiti. The center was a few miles south of Port-au-Prince. On the map, it looks like we were not far from the center here at the orphanage if you draw a straight line between the center of the earthquake and the orphanage. We have heard that the gravel pit across the valley from us partially collapsed which we have worried about for a long time!
As things started to shake, I knew it was an earthquake and I jumped up trying to get out of my office. Items were falling off my bookcases and even the monitor of my computer fell off my desk! Many of my good glassware fell out of the hutch in the dining room and food that was being cooked for the children flew off the stove and landed on the kitchen floor! Statues fell off the shelves, items in the pantry fell too! But not 1 egg was broken out of 6 dozen sitting on the pantry floor! Kids fell, staff fell to the floor because the house swayed so much!
Dr. Claude was out in the driveway playing basketball and he said that the orphanage swayed about 2 feet back and forth for 30 to 40 seconds! he was afraid that the building would fall! Thankfully, the building stayed standing and John cannot find any cracks in the walls which is pretty amazing!
All I could do was pray that the house would stay standing! John was yelling at us all to get in a doorway, but we could not walk! Finally we got into the doorway and stayed until the major shaking stopped. Everyone went outside after the earthquake. We had multiple tremors after the big one. They came about 10 minutes apart and last a long time! the staff refused to return to the house and eventually, we brought all of the children outside and put blankets on the ground.
The internet phone has not stopped ringing. BBC, NBC, the Today Show all have called multiple times! It is 1:45 AM now and they are still calling! I am so exhausted but we do not want to go to bed. The nannies came in at 10 PM but we had two strong after shocks about midnight and the nannies and babies are sleeping outside on the ground on blankets! It is cold tonight. The temperature is about 60 degrees if not colder! I pray that the cold is not too cold for them!
My son, Mark, was at school in Port-au-Prince when the quake happened. His school is on Delmas which is one of the worst hit areas. A missionary family finally was able to bring him home about 10 PM. They said that there were multiple houses down that you could see from the street. Caribbean Market was destroyed along with so many other buldings! Walls were collapsed and there are dead people lying under them! Please pray for Haiti and for all of who are here! We had 8 visitors come today. What a welcome, huh?
We continue to have aftershocks. We have had 3 in the last 5 minutes! I have never heard of aftershocks like we are having! They are almost continuous and lasting for a minute or more each time! I do not like this!
We will know more hopefully in the morning. I do not know if I will sleep tonight or not! I will post photos later on Wedneday. I am just too tired right now to post photos!
---------------------------------------
(Dixie's Blog)
Last updated:13 January 2010
13 January 2010 1:20 AM
At a few minutes before 5 PM on 12 January 2010, a large earthquake hit Haiti. The center was a few miles south of Port-au-Prince. On the map, it looks like we were not far from the center here at the orphanage if you draw a straight line between the center of the earthquake and the orphanage. We have heard that the gravel pit across the valley from us partially collapsed which we have worried about for a long time!
As things started to shake, I knew it was an earthquake and I jumped up trying to get out of my office. Items were falling off my bookcases and even the monitor of my computer fell off my desk! Many of my good glassware fell out of the hutch in the dining room and food that was being cooked for the children flew off the stove and landed on the kitchen floor! Statues fell off the shelves, items in the pantry fell too! But not 1 egg was broken out of 6 dozen sitting on the pantry floor! Kids fell, staff fell to the floor because the house swayed so much!
Dr. Claude was out in the driveway playing basketball and he said that the orphanage swayed about 2 feet back and forth for 30 to 40 seconds! he was afraid that the building would fall! Thankfully, the building stayed standing and John cannot find any cracks in the walls which is pretty amazing!
All I could do was pray that the house would stay standing! John was yelling at us all to get in a doorway, but we could not walk! Finally we got into the doorway and stayed until the major shaking stopped. Everyone went outside after the earthquake. We had multiple tremors after the big one. They came about 10 minutes apart and last a long time! the staff refused to return to the house and eventually, we brought all of the children outside and put blankets on the ground.
The internet phone has not stopped ringing. BBC, NBC, the Today Show all have called multiple times! It is 1:45 AM now and they are still calling! I am so exhausted but we do not want to go to bed. The nannies came in at 10 PM but we had two strong after shocks about midnight and the nannies and babies are sleeping outside on the ground on blankets! It is cold tonight. The temperature is about 60 degrees if not colder! I pray that the cold is not too cold for them!
My son, Mark, was at school in Port-au-Prince when the quake happened. His school is on Delmas which is one of the worst hit areas. A missionary family finally was able to bring him home about 10 PM. They said that there were multiple houses down that you could see from the street. Caribbean Market was destroyed along with so many other buldings! Walls were collapsed and there are dead people lying under them! Please pray for Haiti and for all of who are here! We had 8 visitors come today. What a welcome, huh?
We continue to have aftershocks. We have had 3 in the last 5 minutes! I have never heard of aftershocks like we are having! They are almost continuous and lasting for a minute or more each time! I do not like this!
We will know more hopefully in the morning. I do not know if I will sleep tonight or not! I will post photos later on Wedneday. I am just too tired right now to post photos!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
PLease Pray for Haiti...
Please pray for Haiti!!!!!!! If you have not seen on the news: Haiti was hit with an earthquake today with a magnitude of 7.3, with multiple aftershocks over 5.0.
Here are some pics that I found on Twitter: ( I do not know who took these photos, so I cannot give credit where credit is due...) (If you are reading this with small children around, do not scroll down. The devastation is real and this country is in turmoil!!!!! Just pray!!!!!!!!!!!!!
**Also, it is times like this when I wish I knew Jonas's Haiti family. I am praying for his family and I cannot even put faces or names in my mind to pray for them. I do not know if they survived today. I know that his family was in or nearby Port Au Prince. I am so thankful at times like today that his mother chose to abandon him at a Haitian orphanage in May 2007!!!!!!
He is alive and healthy!!! He had his 4 year old well check today and is in the 75% for height (North American growth chart, might I add... ) and he is 85% for weight. We have a big boy on our hands, not that I needed to tell anyone of you that know him already and have picked him up... ;-) He is developing leaps and bounds and our pediatrician was so impressed at how he walked down the hallway just holding on to my hand... Go Jonas...
---------------------------------------------
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."
United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were unaccounted for.
Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some places.
Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.
"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the group's offices in Maryland.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.
"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said.
Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged.
"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of personnel remain unaccounted for."
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of the National Palace had disintegrated.
"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people to know what's going on."
An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.
Kenson Calixte of Boston spoke to an uncle and cousin in Port-au-Prince shortly after the earthquake by phone. He could hear screaming in the background as his relatives described the frantic scene in the streets. His uncle told him that a small hotel near their home had collapsed, with people inside.
"They told me it was total chaos, a lot of devastation," he said. More than four hours later, he still was not able to get them back on the phone for an update.
Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the national palace. He too had not been able to get through by phone to Haiti since.
With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks and damage reports. The news, based mostly on second-hand reports and photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and roads blocked with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times, was said to be "a broken mess."
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.
The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California. The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.
"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like this happens, you just hope for the best."
Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.
Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes. But no major damage was reported there.
In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of significant damage.
"We felt it very strongly and I would say for a long time. We had time to evacuate," said Monsignor Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago.
The few reports emerging from Haiti made clear the country had suffered extensive damage.
"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."
Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.
"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."
Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where several homes had stood: "It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire."
In the community of Thomassin, just outside Port-au-Prince, Alain Denis said neighbors told him the only road to the capital had been cut but that phones were all dead so it was hard to determine the extent of the damage.
"At this point, everything is a rumor," he said. "It's dark. It's nighttime."
Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti, issued a statement saying his office would do whatever he could to help the nation recover and rebuild.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti," he said.
President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in case humanitarian assistance was needed.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers
Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland reporting that many people had died.
"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food, medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.
Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force there.
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.
"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying to call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."
Yahoo News
--------------------------
Palace today...
These are real people, with real families... Don't turn away... They might be poor, but they have the same basic needs and feelings and emotions that we have...
PLEASE PRAY FOR HAITI... DO NOT TURN AWAY BECAUSE YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE... WHAT CAN YOU DO TODAY TO HELP? YOU ARE READING THIS UNDER A ROOF WITH CLOTHES ON AND FOOD IN YOUR FRIDGE... WHAT WILL YOU DO???
Here are some pics that I found on Twitter: ( I do not know who took these photos, so I cannot give credit where credit is due...) (If you are reading this with small children around, do not scroll down. The devastation is real and this country is in turmoil!!!!! Just pray!!!!!!!!!!!!!
**Also, it is times like this when I wish I knew Jonas's Haiti family. I am praying for his family and I cannot even put faces or names in my mind to pray for them. I do not know if they survived today. I know that his family was in or nearby Port Au Prince. I am so thankful at times like today that his mother chose to abandon him at a Haitian orphanage in May 2007!!!!!!
He is alive and healthy!!! He had his 4 year old well check today and is in the 75% for height (North American growth chart, might I add... ) and he is 85% for weight. We have a big boy on our hands, not that I needed to tell anyone of you that know him already and have picked him up... ;-) He is developing leaps and bounds and our pediatrician was so impressed at how he walked down the hallway just holding on to my hand... Go Jonas...
---------------------------------------------
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200 years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster and chaos."
United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were unaccounted for.
Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in some places.
Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.
"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the group's offices in Maryland.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.
"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this," he said.
Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged.
"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of personnel remain unaccounted for."
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of the National Palace had disintegrated.
"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people to know what's going on."
An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine.
Kenson Calixte of Boston spoke to an uncle and cousin in Port-au-Prince shortly after the earthquake by phone. He could hear screaming in the background as his relatives described the frantic scene in the streets. His uncle told him that a small hotel near their home had collapsed, with people inside.
"They told me it was total chaos, a lot of devastation," he said. More than four hours later, he still was not able to get them back on the phone for an update.
Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the national palace. He too had not been able to get through by phone to Haiti since.
With phones down, some of the only communication came from social media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the aftershocks and damage reports. The news, based mostly on second-hand reports and photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and roads blocked with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times, was said to be "a broken mess."
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people.
The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California. The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.
"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like this happens, you just hope for the best."
Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.
Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes. But no major damage was reported there.
In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of significant damage.
"We felt it very strongly and I would say for a long time. We had time to evacuate," said Monsignor Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago.
The few reports emerging from Haiti made clear the country had suffered extensive damage.
"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."
Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.
"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."
Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where several homes had stood: "It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire."
In the community of Thomassin, just outside Port-au-Prince, Alain Denis said neighbors told him the only road to the capital had been cut but that phones were all dead so it was hard to determine the extent of the damage.
"At this point, everything is a rumor," he said. "It's dark. It's nighttime."
Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti, issued a statement saying his office would do whatever he could to help the nation recover and rebuild.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti," he said.
President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in case humanitarian assistance was needed.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers
Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland reporting that many people had died.
"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food, medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.
Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force there.
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.
"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying to call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."
Yahoo News
--------------------------
Haitian Palace before...
Palace today...
These are real people, with real families... Don't turn away... They might be poor, but they have the same basic needs and feelings and emotions that we have...
PLEASE PRAY FOR HAITI... DO NOT TURN AWAY BECAUSE YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE... WHAT CAN YOU DO TODAY TO HELP? YOU ARE READING THIS UNDER A ROOF WITH CLOTHES ON AND FOOD IN YOUR FRIDGE... WHAT WILL YOU DO???
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Happy Birthday Micah Ryan Hubley
I am still up, so technically I am still 'living' January 9th, but by the clock I should be sleeping because it is January 10th. :-)
7 years ago, January 9, 2003, Micah came into our world. Wow... where in the world has 7 years gone? Honestly, the first 2 years are completely a blur! I wish I would have been blogging then. He was in and out of the hospital so much, I don't have a lot of memories of just sitting at home and playing with him. Sad, huh...
I will post pics tomorrow of how he spent his 7th b-day. It was with his best buddy, Joe, and they wanted to go to Build a Bear. Fun times!!!
Tomorrow, actually today, we will celebrate with family and friends and have a party. So, I am off to finish some food for tomorrow and then hit the bed. Joe is spending the night, so I will have 4 boys and 1 girl to get ready for church tomorrow... Good times at the Hubley house!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICAH!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Micah...
(Wouldn't it be nice if it was really that warm out today!!! :-)I am off to bed, but wanted to post real quick. This is one of my New Year's resolution: to become a more 'faithful' blogger. :-) Anyways, we had Micah to the ENT today to have a look at his tonsils, and we walked out of the office with a date for his surgery. January 20th Micah will have his adenoids and tonsils removed. Over the past 2 years he has gotten sick sooooo frequently and no one else in the family catches what he gets. He has also had some nasty strep throat over the last year or so. So, we are sad that he has to endure yet another surgery, but we know that he will be much healthier and sleep much better afterward.
If you or your kiddos have ever had a tonsil/adenoidectomy, any advice would be great! Jonas had his adenoids removed when he was circumcised, and he did not have too much discomfort. But, I have heard when tonsils and adenoids are removed it is much more painful.
So, please respond with things you would have known and things that worked good for recovery.
Thanks so much!!!
Sunday, January 3, 2010
China's Weather...
CY is about 1 hour outside of Beijing, and this is what it probably looked like at Bethel over the New Year's weekend. Pray for safety today as people are already headed back to work, since it is already Monday morning in China.
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BEIJING (AFP) – A freezing front swept over much of northern China Sunday with snowstorms snarling road and air traffic, schools set to stay closed, and some of the lowest temperatures in decades forecast in coming days.
Snow storms were expected to continue through Monday and the mercury was set to plunge in the next 48 hours when China returns to work following a three-day New Year holiday, the Beijing meteorological station said.
Gale force winds sweeping down from Siberia could result in temperatures as low as minus 16 degrees Celsius (three degrees Fahrenheit) in the capital on Monday and Tuesday, it added.
In some parts of northern China temperatures were expected to drop as low as minus 32 degrees Celsius.
Classes at primary and middle schools in Beijing and nearby Tianjin would be suspended on Monday, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Heavy snows hampered traffic at Beijing Capital Airport where about 90 percent of all flights were delayed or cancelled on Sunday, the last day of the holiday, China Central Television said.
Over 500 flights were delayed and about 400 flights were cancelled, stranding thousands of passengers, it said.
To ensure safety under the snowy, icy and foggy conditions, only one of the airport's three runways was in operation, reports said.
Inbound and outgoing flights at other airports in northern China were also experiencing delays and cancellations, they said.
With Beijing set to return to work, the head of its traffic management office, Song Jianguo, said 7,000 traffic police would be deployed for Monday's morning rush hour, along with 5,000 volunteers to maintain order at crowded bus stops, Xinhua reported.
The city authorities had mobilised a vast army of 300,000 people to clear snow, the agency added.
Major highways in Beijing and Tianjin, as well as in the surrounding provinces and regions of Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia were closed due to the heavy snowfall earlier Sunday, but some roads opened later in the day, China Central Television said.
Long-distance bus travel in north China was also being hampered by the weather, reports said.
With snows expected to continue in the region throughout the night, traffic was likely to become even more snarled when the nation returns to work, the reports said.
Meanwhile, the agriculture ministry said it had dispatched teams of experts to farming areas to advise farmers on how to protect their crops in the extreme cold weather.
(Article provided by: Yahoo News)
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