A Knock At My Door

Today, 23 of our children were due to be evacuated on a Belgian relief flight. These children are being adopted by families in the Netherlands and will be leaving Haiti, to join their adoptive families in Holland. In the end, the necessary paperwork was not completed on time, so these children will now be leaving tomorrow. It is possible that a further 13 children, who are in the process of being adopted by Luxembourgian families, will leave on the same flight.

God's Littlest Angels is working very hard to evacuate as many of our children as we possibly can. Although a limited amount of water and diesel have been brought through to us by missionaries in the Dominican public, there are very real concerns about our ability to obtain consistent supplies of essential items such baby milk and medicines over the following weeks and months. While the situation at our orphanage is not critical at this point, it is thought that many infants and young children in Haiti will die from illness and starvation in the aftermath of this disaster. We don't want a single one of our little ones to perish.

Later in the day, we received news that the US Department of Homeland Security were going to issue a statement indicating that they would be allowing orphaned Haitian children to enter the United States, temporarily, on humanitarian parole. This opens up the possibility that all of the children currently being cared for by God's Littlest Angels, could be leaving in the next week.

It is incredibly difficult to come to terms with the possibility of being separated from so many of our children, so suddenly. I am particularly attached to some of our medically fragile children and it will be particularly upsetting for me to have to say good bye to them.

During my lunch break this afternoon, as I was sitting in my room, struggling with the reality of the incredible emotional upheaval that is coming, there was a knock at my door; a teenage boy had fallen and hurt his arm. There was also a little girl with a burn who needed to be assessed. These children could not access medical care at the closest hospital, which, is overwhelmed by earthquake victims.

A man came to our gate. He told our Director about an orphanage that had collapsed. The people who ran it had died, leaving 80 children, without food or shelter. It is likely that as soon as tomorrow, we will be admitting at least 20 children, under the age of two, to our main orphanage building.

The message is not lost on me; there will be little time to dwell on our sorrow. There are too many children who need us.