Susie and the rest of the US team – Jeff, Bill, Richard and Tim – arrived in the Dominican Republic this morning, after saying a tearful goodbye to all of the children and staff in Haiti. Susie is already planning another trip in about two weeks.
It has been a week of extreme highs and extreme lows. It’s Friday, so we wanted to focus on the positive, and thank everyone for the incredible outpouring of support and concern.
Two of our children – Jesse and Sarah – were approved to be evacuated today, and their adoptive parents from Canada picked them up for a flight out of Haiti today. We are going to miss of them, and we pray that they will use the blessing that they have received to make it a better world for all of the children that were left behind. It is always bittersweet for us when our kids are adopted, because we love each of them, we have helped raise them and they have all of their friends at the orphanage who they leave behind when they get adopted, but they do have incredible opportunities when they are set free from the bondage of life in Haiti.
While we have been dealing with the day-to-day crises, many of our community are actively helping to raise funds for Mercy and Sharing. Last night there was an incredible fundraiser at the new Viceroy-Snowmass Hotel, which graciously gave us use of the ballroom free of charge. It seats 200 people, but the place was overflowing and we probably had 300 people in attendance. So I wanted to give a special thanks to everyone who helped, including Mark Thomas, who came up with the idea for the fundraiser and was driving force in organizing it, Jeff David, the General Manager of the Viceroy, Amy Trubiroha Wells from the Viceroy, and Bob Richmond, April Clark, Glenn Smith, Mick Ireland, Don Cheney, Todd Hartley, Darren Behnke, Kathy Broughton, Murray Robertson, Katie McKirahan, Liz Curtin, Kira Harrison and Chris Couve.
There is another fundraiser tonight (and continuing this weekend) at the De Vore Gallery in Aspen and yet another fundraiser on Sunday at Krabloonik Restaurant in Snowmass Village. The Concert Benefit for Haiti is scheduled for February 11, 2010 of the Wheeler opera house in Aspen. The website for information is located at www.haitibenefitconcert.com. Hope to see you there!
We have another team going in to Haiti who are arriving tonight in Santa Domingo and will be at Williamson tomorrow. Through the continued generosity of Feed the Hungry we have over 100 tons of relief supplies including food and medicine arriving January 29, 2010. We have been donated five shipping containers that have been converted into mobile medical clinics, which will be shipping into the country over the next week or two. We plan to use these in Port–au–Prince where the need is greatest.
We are overwhelmed by the generosity and support that we have received, there are so many people we would like to thank, and I wish I could mention everyone here tonight, but you know who you are, and more importantly, your generosity will be repaid in Heaven!
