Another successful fundraiser

Thank you so much to everyone who donated silent auction items. helped set up beforehand and clean up afterwards, who brought all the yummy food, and who bid on these great auction items. Altogether we brought in over $2000!!

Andre and I are just so grateful to all our friends and this wonderful community for the love and support you give us. We know that Haiti has been in the news for nearly two months now, and with the

earthquakes in Chile and Taiwan, everyone's on overload regarding earthquakes. We're hearing that many relief workers are leaving Haiti now, just as the rainy season is beginning. The UN is predicting a second wave of suffering as Port-au-Prince prepares for flooding and disease. 150,000 survivors of the earthquake are living in areas that may be evacuated. In the midst of all this, Andre is preparing to fly there tomorrow. Today we spent the day packing his five 50-pound bags and 40-pound carry-on plus day pack. A lot of the wonderful purchases and donations we've collected will have to wait for my trip over in a week or so. It was so hard to prioritize and decide what to take first and what can wait. We also just learned that American Airlines has tightened their baggage restrictions and will allow a maximum of three 50-pound bags, rather than five, even though we're prepared to pay the $300 overage fee. Well, we'll take it all and pray that we get it all on board. We'll be arriving three hours early before the plane's cargo gets filled.

It was great to see so many of our friends altogether in one place. Usually Andre prefers to be out of the spotlight, but he seemed to enjoy chatting with everyone about how his family is doing. We've heard from Dr. Tony Hoffman of UCSC who's working on children's rights in the Delmas neighborhood not far from Andre's family, that his stepfather should see a doctor. He's either depressed or ill.

We finally spoke to our friend Rose who just got back to Florida after two weeks in Haiti. She's starting the adoption process for a one-year-old malnourished baby boy whose mother died in the earthquake. She had hoped that the US embassy would give him humanitarian asylum, but she couldn't get an appointment.

Before she left Florida, Rose had tried to buy a tent to take with her, but every store was sold out. We're lucky to have the three relief tents we bought from Shelter Systems, as well as four smaller tents that were donated.

Rose had a hard time getting out of Haiti. She'd paid $130 to fly to D.R., but it cost her $500 for the hour and a half flight back home. She misses little Alan already. The adoption lawyers she spoke to said it will probably take 6-12 months to get him to the U.S. and it's going to cost quite a bit too.

Rose was surprised to see so many white people in Port-au-Prince. That will be something new for me too. I'm so used to being the only "blan" for miles. Poor Haitians would cross the
street and follow me around asking for money and telling me they're hungry. Rose was surprised to see all the white people riding in the back of tap-taps, getting rides on motorcycles, and filling up her flight home. She said there were probably about 20 Haitians on the flight and the rest were Americans. When Andre and I went in June it was me, a few missionaries, and a plane full of Haitians.

Andre and I have a few goals for our trip to Haiti. First of all, we want to
find out if there's another way to buy the land in the mountain village since the escrow office was destroyed in the earthquake. We'd also like to see if there are any structural engineers who can evaluate his family's house in Port-au-Prince and see if it could be repaired. Maybe that would be a faster way to get them out of the rains.

I also want to meet Tony and Starry, two Americans in Haiti who I've been in contact with. And I plan to go to Jeremie to visit Andre's sister Marjorie who moved there with her husband and his family about a week or two after the quake. She had never been before, but it seems she likes it. I've always wanted to go to Jeremie. Now that Andre's sister, brother-in-law, nephew Joel and goddaughter are there, I have my excuse.