Today I Am Grateful

There are days I get so caught up in my own life that I can barely see past the end of my own nose.

Today is not one of those days. Today I have spent a lot of time worrying, wondering, hoping, and praying about the children in the BRESMA orphanage in Haiti. As I've thought about them I've looked at my own kids and been so grateful that they are safe and healthy.

I held Jamie and Liam a little closer today.

I'm grateful I have enough food to feed them. I'm grateful I have enough clothes to keep them warm. I'm grateful I have a house for them to live in. I'm grateful I can drive 20 minutes and buy Costco sized boxes of diapers. I'm grateful for running water and heat.

I feel impotent in the face of what those two young women and their 150 charges are going through. I've done what little I can and now we must wait for the cogs of government to work. We have to pray that those cogs work at breakneck speed. I hope that somehow they can get the supplies they need to last another night. Another day. I hope that they can get out before the looting and riots take over.

But most of all I feel grateful for all that I have and all that I am given.

(for updates and news about BRESMA, read Virginia Montanez's blog That's Church and follow her on twitter.)

If You Can Help, Please Do.

This is not just your generic post about the devastating earthquake in Haiti. It's not a plea to help nameless, faceless people who have lost everything and may end up losing their lives as well. It's about two local young women who have dedicated themselves to living and working without pay at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

They are trapped.

The children they work with have no food or fresh water. The infants they look after will die if they are not evacuated.

Many of these children have adoptive homes waiting for them here in the United States.

But they are trapped in Haiti.

Communications from these women are sporadic but at this time it seems as though the only hope for getting them out is to get a private plane down there to evacuate them. Reports say that the airport in Port-au-Prince is functional.

Virginia Montanez, who writes the blog That's Church, is spearheading a local effort to find a way to help these women. To learn more about it go to her blog. If you can help in any way, please do.

I know that my readership is small but I'm doing what I can to get the word out.