Coming Home!

The children should be coming home tonight or tomorrow morning!  My friend's wife and her sister on on there way or already in FL now to pick up their kids whenever they arrive.  I believe that 114 children from the orphanage will be coming to the US from this orphanage (these were the children already in process of being adopted).  Now the orphanage will not need to care for so many children (approx. 15 children were not in process of being adopted yet) and can focus on helping birth families that are in need of help.

The kids have been back and forth and unsure of what will be happening to them for the past week during aftershocks and small amounts of food.  Plus, media attention--CNN's Solodad O'Brien went with the children on the bus yesterday to the embassy (the bus ended up having to turn back as the children were getting sick in the heat and waiting in clogged streets).

I can often whine and complain (maybe not out loud all the time, but it is still there running through my mind) about how things are going in my life.  Don't have enough money, our furniture is mostly handed down through family and friends, but I need to be reminded of how my life has been blessed.  Those who have been blessed with much need to give much.  Give their prayers, give their time, give what they can . . .

We have all been blessed in some way, so we should give of those blessings to others.  What have you been blessed with?  How can you use what you have to help those around you?

PS  I think I may have to look back on this post when I want to start to whine about things.  I'm one of those people who needs lots of reminders!

Update

The kid's orphanage was on Fox News over the weekend.  The reporter that came upon the orphanage found the children with almost no food and water with no help having arrived, but they alerted the powers that be and relief has been sent there way (what little there is that can actually get to them).  Out of the 130 or so children there about 120 are already in process of being adopted and many of them have been in limbo for at least a year.  There is a plane waiing for the kids in the Dominican Republic and our friends are on call to be ready to have their children very soon.

They are waiting on clearance from the State Department.  All of the children have visas in hand and they just need the ok.

Soon, soon, soon!

Prayer for my friends kids in Haiti NEEDED

My friends whose children are in one of the orphanages in Haiti need prayers sent their way.  They just got news from the orphanage about the actual current status at the orphanage and are in need of real help.

Follow this link to the orphanage website for details.

Some good news: They have news from the state department that they will be trying to get all of the children who are in process of being adopted to their families in the US and finish the paperwork here, but they need to make it through until that time comes--with travel being the way it is and red tape that needs to get cut and also making sure that children and their paperwork can successfully be put together to find their families.  There are also many other children who have lost their parents in this time and I am sure it is hard to know who to trust as well.  My heart just cries for these kids!

Help for Haiti

Friends of mine have been going through the process of adopting 2 children from Haiti for the past couple of years.  As many people are aware adoption processes can take a long time.  During this time they have been down to visit their children several times, but have not been able to bring them home yet.  The orphanage where they are staying did get damaged in the earthquake.  So far it sounds like the children are ok, but a couple of workers at the orphanage were hurt.  (The director and a nanny).  We don't know the extent of their specific injuries, but please remember these children in your prayers and, if possible, send a donation to a solid charity that is working in Haiti.

Some suggestions:
Doctor's Without Borders
The Red Cross
World Relief
or if you would like send a donation directly to the orphanage where my friend's children are
http://www.forhisgloryoutreach.org/earthquake_relief

Please remember to pray for my friends who have already been struggling with not being able to bring their children home from an already devastated country.  I cannot imagine how it must feel to know that your children are stuck in the middle of all of this.

The children and families of this country are already struggling so much and now this earthquake has taken so much more away.  If you can send nothing else, send your love and prayers to people who are in great need.

Thank you.