Hurricane Sandy Update

We received the following update today regarding the hurricane's impact in Haiti.  The Kenscoff location is where we recently stayed with the children.  LaMardelle is where our girls currently reside and go to school.

Many pictures posted by various news outlets provide a sense of the devastation.  We cannot begin to imagine the challenges being faced by the thousands and thousands of people in the tent cities. We are eternally grateful for the protection and care that FEJ provides for the children in their care.

It did hit the FEJ Kenscoff location and caused a significant amount of damage.   There is flooding, roof damage and damage to the water tank.   The children have been relocated to another location for their safety, but we do not yet know where.   The LaMardelle location is experiencing some flooding in the school area and mobility is limited in and out of the area because of the roads being flooded.   The children at LaMardelle remain there and we received no reports of structural damage to this facility.   Thankfully we received no reports of anyone being hurt at either location.  
 Please keep the FEJ staff and the children in your thoughts and prayers, as they face yet another challenge.  

Tangible

tan·gi·ble     

adjective

Capable of being touched; discernible by the touch; material or substantial.

Much of the few weeks leading up to our trip was spent determining what types of activities we could bring that would help us to begin building the foundation of our family.  

We decided on a tangible representation of family.  Each person selected a specific type of bead and gave one of those beads to each of the other members of the family.  We also used a heart-shaped bead to signify the concept of family.  Remarkably, the girls understood our attempts to communicate the goal.  While we know the bracelets may not make it home in the end, we feel blessed that we were able to see evidence of their true purpose - Later that day, we spied one of the girls gently touching each bead and saying each of our names.

Surreal

Surreal - having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal

Traveling to Haiti was truly surreal.  As we've been fortunate enough to share with many of you, we could not have imagined a more wonderful experience.  We've certainly left pieces of our hearts in Haiti.

We landed in Port Au Prince and spent the majority of our time in a mountain town called Kenscoff - amazingly beautiful, rugged, and a paradise compared to Port Au Prince.  The last picture below shows the humble playground of the creche accompanied by the gorgeous mountain slopes beyond.

Go Team!

Just for fun, at last count, here are some of our totals:

1,524 baby wipes
4,095 cotton swabs
216 pens
226 hair clips and bows
22 bottles of children's acetaminophen liquid
24 toothbrushes

Thank you for your combined efforts to help us deliver needed supplies to the children being cared for by FEJ.  If you'd like to know more about FEJ, please check out the link below.
 Fondation Enfant Jesus