Haiti Relief | Minivans Are Hot

January 15, 2010 by Kelli

The pictures and projected death toll numbers coming out of Haiti are staggering. As many as 50,000 feared dead and more than 3 million stranded or injured on an island that was known for poverty before the earthquake hit. But relief and aid is on the way and for that I am grateful.

You’ve no doubt heard or seen of the numerous trustworthy and reliable organizations that you can donate to and know without doubt that your funds will be used well and fair.

Organizations like the Red Cross have already sent in teams to help with medical needs and to distribute much needed water and supplies to the survivors.

You can also give to Compassion International and World Vision, both of whom already have teams set up in Haiti and are quickly assessing the needs and distributing care and funds where needed. Both of these organizations are stellar, are prepared and will effectively use the funds they raise for the relief of the island of Haiti.

There is one other organization I’d like to make you aware of if you’re still undecided. I’ve written about IsleGo Missions before as they are an organization founded and run by my aunt and uncle out of Orlando, Florida. For a detailed description of who they are and what they do, read my previous post or visit their website. My aunt and I communicated tonight about what IsleGo is doing to respond to the tragedy and rather than try to reexplain what she told me, I’ll just paste her email here:

“As to Haiti, yes IsleGO is taking donations, people are already sending them. Dusty has a huge network base and we also have a partner in Haiti, a hospital that is about 30 miles outside of Port au Prince. This afternoon we sent 40,000 baggies of rice. Each bag has enough to feed one person, in the bag there is rice, spices and nutrients and all they have to do is boil water for have food. We are working on another 100,000 bags to get ready for delivery within the next few days. Dusty is already getting info on putting teams together by February. Anyway, to answer your question, yes we are taking donations. Thanks for asking. Checks can be made payable to IsleGO Missions.”

There is a link on the IsleGo site that leads you directly to PayPal if you would like to donate that way. If you would rather send in a check, leave me a comment and let me know and I will get you the address, or you can contact Dusty and Corinne Cooper personally through the IsleGo site.

No matter what organization you choose to donate through, I urge you all to give something. This is a massive devastation and it is within our power to help those who are suffering desperately. So I implore you to click on any one of the above links and take a few minutes to give out of the abundance with which you have received!

May you all have a blessed weekend.

Brain dump

January 14, 2010 by Kelli

With the temperatures warming up to a balmy 42 degrees, I am snapping out of my rebellion against all things weather. We took the kids sledding at the local park again the other night. I’d love to share pictures or video to document, but I brought the digital camera without the media card inside it and the video camera had roughly 45 seconds of battery power. Awesome. Go mom!

But I can paint a word picture. I’m better at that anyway. I have to say that snow is a huge perk to cold weather because sledding is good fun. And finally, Praise be to God, Tia realized what fun it could be. Within about 15 minutes she was sledding down the hill by herself laughing the whole way. It’s a pretty steep hill so the sled gets to moving which means her laugh was a combination of terror and delight.

Sloan brought a neighbor friend with him and they were practicing boy law by competing for who could be the loudest and could say “That was awesome!” the most. I think they tied.

Then there was Landon. I wasn’t sure about how he would do. He’s a little guy…a little guy who loves sledding! He would plop himself down face first on the sled, curl up in a little ball and bark, “Push!” And Lee and I, like Pavlov’s dogs, would comply. We’d run beside the sled about half way down the hill to keep it from picking up too much speed, then we just let him bounce the rest of the way by himself.

He came up with a grin every time.

In the words of my six year old, “It was tooooootally aaaaawesome!”

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With colds and fevers circulating around our house, we’ve had a couple of rough nights sleep. There is nothing worse than having to get up in the middle of the night when it’s freezing cold and stumble out to the kitchen to get water and medicine for a crying child. So last night, I decided we were going to be prepared.

Before bed, I rubbed down everyone’s feet with Vaporub. It works wonders. I don’t know how, but it does. I plugged in mentholated vaporizers in their rooms and they were all asleep by 7:30. And I went to bed knowing that I was prepared thereby ensuring that I would maximize my own sleepage (should be a word).

And nobody woke up. They all slept through the night.

It’s amazing what being prepared will do!

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My heart hurts for Haiti. Pictures like this one bring bitter tears to my eyes. (The picture is graphic and it involves children- I just want you to be prepared.) Lee and I talked with the kids today about the earthquake and how we can help them as a family. Sloan remembers the small earthquake we had here a couple of years ago so he kind of gets what happened.

We told them that we were going to be sending some money in to help with the clean up and rebuilding and suggested that they think about what they could give from their wallets. We decided to give them the freedomt o give as much or as little as they feel they need to give.

I’m interested to see what they decide to do.

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Today is my nephew Eli’s 7th birthday. We love that little boy – particularly Sloan. He and Sloan are two peas in a pod. I wish we lived closer just so those two could spend more time together.

Happy Birthday, Eli!

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I’ve run out of things to say. Shocking – I know.