At a Loss for Words

My father is at home. There is no euphemism in that statement and I am not meaning "At home with God" either. HE IS AT HOME. In his own bed. And has been for two days. And yes, we had been told he would be in ICU longer than he was in the hospital for his ENTIRE stay. And yes, we had been told to expect that the soonest he could get out was late next week. And yes, when I told you my dad was the strongest man I know, I really meant it and now I have proof.

Throughout this whole ordeal my father has been stoic and solid and completely resigned that whatever happened would happen and he was ok with that. Yesterday on the phone I heard something different. I heard hope and excitement and an acceptance of the very real possibility, and now even PROBABILITY that he has beaten the unbeatable. He had less than a 5% chance to be on this side of his cancer. LESS THAN FIVE PERCENT. He did it. The doctors did it. God did it, even if he isn't so sure about that part, I am.

He told me I could quit praying now because it obviously worked. I told him I never would.

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There is nothing I can tell you about Haiti that you probably already don't know. I weep. I wish I was there. I wish I had skills that were needed or a magic wand to fix it or enough money to make a difference. What I can tell you is that each child that you see laying in the streets on CNN, each baby that is trapped in a building dying alone today, each family that is destroyed and separated is as precious as the person you love most in the world. I have held the hands of dying Haitians. I have held the hands of celebrating Haitians.

There is no us or them. They are not any smarter than you or any dumber. They aren't any more or less deserving of this than you (except for maybe Pat Robertson, they are DEFINITELY less deserving than him!).

They are mothers and fathers and sons and daughters who live with less every single day than you do when you go camping. And now they have nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I beg of you, I ask, I plead for you to give. Give where you want, give more than you want to.

If you are looking for a hands on the ground organization that will give you reports daily of what they are doing with your money go to this website. Hands Across the Sea is an orphanage and school that is run by the mother of very good friends of mine. She lives there permanently and is well established in the community and has been for years. Her orphanage houses some very disabled children and schools many in the community.

I have sponsored a little boy in Haiti for many years. There are many organizations that do this. Now might be the time for you to consider this as a long term committment to making sure a Haitian child gets food and education for the rest of their life so they can contribute to rebuilding their country.

Just please do something. ANYTHING.