in a fog

I am living in a fog...literally and figuratively.  Literally because we are surrounded by dense fog.  We can't even see the buildings around us.  It has been foggy like this most of the last three days.

Not unlike my mood.

Friday I was in a fog...trying to sort out what we could do to try and get our senators and  representative on board with granting humanitarian paroles for ALL children in Haiti with adoptive families in the US.  We have done everything we can do.  We have written letters and made phone calls.  Won't you join us?  Please contact your senator, representative, President Obama, and Secretary Clinton and ask them to consider granting humanitarian parole for all children.

Currently it seems that the DHS is granting visas to those who have legal adoptions in Haiti.  This is very good news and we praise God for this development.  The number of completed adoptions is but a drop in the bucket to the number that have yet to be completed.  We are in that number.  We are one of the hundreds who did not have finalized documents.  Our papers?  Likely at the bottom of a pile of rubble.  To start again will take months, if not years, and only after Haiti gets their adoptions up and going again.

It is my hope that the US will see such a need for these children - not only those who were orphaned before, but also those who have been orphaned since the earthquake.  The orphanages in Haiti were full before the earthquake.  This disaster will only compound the problem.  But if we can get those children who have an adoptive family in the US, the orphanages will be able to take in the newly orphaned children.

I realize I am sounding like a record here.  This needs to be done.  Has to be done.  The lives and futures of hundreds, if not thousands of Haiti children rely on it.

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Roundabout Geek is meeting with some board members from NVM tonight.  He is still considering going to Haiti to help out at HIS Home.  It is the logistics of getting there that are complicated, to say the least.  He is also cautious...wanting to make sure he is going there for the right reasons.  Obviously we both feel that making sure our Joshua is safe and bringing much needed supplies to HIS Home are the right reasons.  However, is now the time?  And if he goes, he will go down with whatever cash he can carry as well as whatever supplies he is able to bring with him.  He will also be armed with a copy of our dossier, a copy of our I-600 receipt from my November visit, pictures of us with Joshua, and all the necessary paperwork to get him out. 

Please continue to pray that we make the right decision for our family regarding this.  There is a lot at stake here and we want to make sure if he goes, he will be able to be effective.

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I read yesterday that there are some people who are angry at that the US is helping Haiti so much, saying we have our own poor and homeless and orphaned and widowed, asking where Haiti was during Katrina.

I don't think there is any polite way for me to say this - ARE YOU SERIOUS???

The US is the most affluent country in the world.  And the closest country to Haiti.  Which, by the way is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, if not the world. Do you people even realize that Haiti is actually considered a fourth world country?  The ONLY fourth world country in the world.

Where were they during Katrina?  Why weren't they helping then?  Ummm, they couldn't.  The poor here would be rich there.  There aren't many states in our union that can say the average person makes $2.15 A DAY!!!!  Our minimum wage is what, double or triple that?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

Before the earthquake, the average person had no running water, no electricity, no transportation, very little shelter, and no consistent means of food or water.  Now?  Whatever they had is GONE.  DO YOU HEAR ME????  GONE!!!!

AND THERE ARE OBTUSE, SELFISH PEOPLE WHO ARE MAD BECAUSE THE US IS HELPING THEM???

I chose to be a US citizen - I was not born here, but have lived the majority of my life (all but 10 months of it) here, in the US.  When I was 18, I made the decision to become a US citizen.  Why?  Because I believe in the United States. 

Heartless...heartless and selfish.  I cannot believe that someone who lives here, even poor here, would have the gall to say that one life is more important than another.  I mean really...we are ALL God's children.  The Bible doesn't say that only the people living in the United States are God's children.  We are ALL God's children. 

Who is going to help you next time you need it?  It is wrong for me to say that I hope no one will, but my guess is that someone will be there to help you in your time of need. 

Haiti has no welfare, no medicare, no unemployment offices to walk into, no economy, no means of sustaining itself, nothing.  At least here there are shelters, people willing to help others, soup kitches, medicare/medicaid, unemployment, food stamps, FEMA.  Come on, even the homeless here have something.  The homeless in Haiti had NOTHING and now even those who weren't homeless before the earthquake are finding themselves homeless now.

I am so angry at that attitude. I pray it is a select few that feel this way...and that they keep their mouths shut! 

I helped the effort from Katrina - both monetarily and physically.  What did you do?

Did you know that 4 - count them 4 - hurricanes ravaged Haiti two years ago?  So much so that what little rice they could produce in the platuea of Gonaives was completely and utterly destroyed?  And there were around 800,000 people left homeless from that?  And now this earthquake, which is expected to leave 200,000 people dead and 3 million people homeless?

And you still think we, as the United States should just ignore them?

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Okay, done.  For now anyway.  My heart breaks for the people of Haiti.  For a country that is woven into my heart, not only because my son is there, but because my heart is ther.

As I hear new things, I will let you all know!

Keep praying.  Always!