Dye Mon, Gen Mon.

An old Haitian proverb meaning, beyond mountains there are more mountains.

It is pretty impossible to even know where to begin this post.  It's Friday, the devastating earthquake we all have heard and seen so many horrific images from happened three days ago on January 12th, 2010 at 4:53 p.m.  I don't feel any different today than I did three days ago when first hearing the news coming out of our son's country.  I am bearing a grief that is the heaviest I believe I ever have known, and ever hope to know.  We have grown to love Haiti.  Not in the way you "love" Disneyland or the beach in Mexico, or your favorite hiking trail.  No we love Haiti as the homeland of our dear sweet son.  An island of tenacious people, with the biggest most endearing smiles I have ever witnessed.  A rugged place with a combination of beautiful mountains, bustling cities, oceans and plateaus, a few rich and privileged, and millions of poor.  

Thousands, many of thousands, of Haitians are now dead.  They are being dumped into mass graves w/ miscellaneous earthquake debris thrown right on top of them.  They are not being photograhped or identified in anyway, there is not the time or resources for such a thing.  They are still digging mostly with their bare hands to free the trapped people that have managed to cling to life.  Thousands of people are waiting for much needed medical care at make shift clinics, the majority of the people offering care are typical Haitians w/ no medical training.  There is help trickling in, and although the news channels report thousands of people coming in from numerous countries, the devastation and need is so widespread that the majority have to wait far longer than imagineable for any form of medical attention, and then that attention consists of Tylenol, cardboard splints, and some gauze.

Haiti a country all ready so broken. Tormented for years w/ mass poverty, political unrest, no infrastructre. It's only the hopes and dreams of the Haitian people that keep it clinging, just on the brink, but alive, hopeful and full of smiles, the Haitians have managed to "maintain."

Now their strength and courage has again been shaken, shaken by that of a 7.0 magnitude earthquake.  How will they recover from this?  A "full" recovery, and I mean a recovery that could even take them back to Tuesday afternoon before the quake hit.  An afternoon that was still riddled w/ poverty that we don't have any way of truly grasping, you don't, don't even try. It's harsh, foreign, so far removed from anything we can deal with, and yet it's better than what they have now.  I wish we could go back to Tuesday afternoon, as dire as it was, it's better than it is today.  But of course we can't this is the new reality for Haiti.

This "new" post earthquake Haiti has left the Island of Hispaniola needing to find a renewed norm of surviving amongst such despair.  How or when will the government rebuild?  Will any kind of infrastructure be able to emerge?  Where will the children go to school?  What will happen to the most likely thousands of newly orphaned children?  Will our already matched children be able to leave Haiti and make room for more needy children?  We aren't going to have answers to these questions for a very long time I fear.

Life in Haiti will go on, and it will again be full of those beautiful smiles we have grown to love.  Our son is safe, all of the children that we consider to be his "siblings" are safe.  Marie the orphanage director that is a strong, resourceful woman is safe and will care for our children in this roughest of times.  Our dear friend Veniel and his beautiful family are all safe, their guesthouse is destroyed and although five people lost their lives in the rubble at Wall's guesthouse that horrific day, they too will pick up the pieces and their spirits and find a way to survive.  Our hearts are heavy, but our hopes are yet again high.  I don't know what the future really holds for the only land our son has yet to know, but I do know we will NEVER forget, we will continue to love, and support and maintain pride in our hearts for this island of people that have granted us the most precious gift on the face of this earth!