AQ 10 - 02.17.10
Overwhelmed, yes I am. Research I had done is gone. Resources I had ordered, for me & for others, are gone. Material for programs I was organizing is gone. It’s all worth pursuing again, but the audiences & deadlines have changed.
I’ll have an MRI to check for fractures to my right leg. My body won’t let me forge ahead here in the U.S. It tells me constantly to remember January 12 & to remember Haiti.
Daily friends in Haiti are asking for different kinds of aid. Daily I’m helping to connect them with people & resources.
Daily I’m in awe of your responses to our family & to Haiti. I need to finish telling you our story, & then, since Haiti isn’t as much in the news any more, I’ll tell you some of the stories the news hasn’t told that are worth hearing.
As you’ve already figured out, you won’t hear from me every day………………..
Frank had headed for our apartment after the first tremor of the earthquake on January 12. His cell phone rang, & it was CNN wanting to interview him. He couldn’t believe he was answering an interview while he was desperately trying to locate his family.
It took him an hour to get to the apartment from his office a mile away. He had to climb over walls that had fallen across the road from both sides. Since the apartment walls had fallen, too, he could see from far away that there was no more apartment. The landlord saw Frank coming & ran to meet him. All he said was, “I’ll go with you.”
The two men couldn’t climb down the right side where our door #3 had been. Some of the structure was still standing on the left side of the building, so they began to climb down as the light disappeared from the sky. There was no electricity in Port-au-Prince that night & the rest of that week. The world was black for the people on the french side of the island of Hispaniola.
Our landlord had a flashlight, but Frank still couldn’t see much. They heard water dripping from above & smelled the sewage running underneath them, but when they yelled our names they heard only silence. There was an eerie silence in Juvenat. Power lines were sizzling from where they lay on the ground. Frank felt there was no life under the fallen concrete, & he didn’t know yet how Trevor, Mike & Angela were. This was a dangerous place for anyone to be, especially in the dark, & if he didn’t get out of there Trevor might end up completely without a family.
(This is a risky thing for me to share with all of you. You’re coming to your own conclusions, & I’m only sharing part of every story piece. As a family we have talked about what we were all thinking & why – well, not to the same extent with Pria - & we’re very thankful for each other & the way we each handled things.)
Our pastor & his son arrived to drive Frank to the orphanage where Trevor & our visitors had been helping that day. The orphanage was still standing, though the outside wall had fallen in one spot. It fell where the youngest ones were eating their dinner. The children had just finished & slid to the ground to play when the earthquake started. All are well.
Trevor knew right away that something was wrong with the rest of his family. Frank pulled him aside to tell him it didn’t look good. They hadn’t found the three of us. Trevor said his first thought was that his father had invested his whole life in his family, not in a business. And, with Trevor living away from home now, Frank had lost his entire investment, our family.
Mike & Angie stayed at the orphanage to comfort the children there, while Pastor Bobby & his son took Frank & Trevor up to their house on the mountain where there was little damage, & where they could make phone calls. Trevor said he was dying inside as they drove in the opposite direction of our apartment. What if one of us was still alive, or all three? (They didn’t yet know that World Vision had contacted a search & rescue team from the U.S. & they were on their way to help find us.)
Trevor said he knew at that moment that he was in Haiti for his. He held Frank’s hand as they went up the mountain to make plans & make calls on the worst night of their lives.
I’ll have an MRI to check for fractures to my right leg. My body won’t let me forge ahead here in the U.S. It tells me constantly to remember January 12 & to remember Haiti.
Daily friends in Haiti are asking for different kinds of aid. Daily I’m helping to connect them with people & resources.
Daily I’m in awe of your responses to our family & to Haiti. I need to finish telling you our story, & then, since Haiti isn’t as much in the news any more, I’ll tell you some of the stories the news hasn’t told that are worth hearing.
As you’ve already figured out, you won’t hear from me every day………………..
Frank had headed for our apartment after the first tremor of the earthquake on January 12. His cell phone rang, & it was CNN wanting to interview him. He couldn’t believe he was answering an interview while he was desperately trying to locate his family.
It took him an hour to get to the apartment from his office a mile away. He had to climb over walls that had fallen across the road from both sides. Since the apartment walls had fallen, too, he could see from far away that there was no more apartment. The landlord saw Frank coming & ran to meet him. All he said was, “I’ll go with you.”
The two men couldn’t climb down the right side where our door #3 had been. Some of the structure was still standing on the left side of the building, so they began to climb down as the light disappeared from the sky. There was no electricity in Port-au-Prince that night & the rest of that week. The world was black for the people on the french side of the island of Hispaniola.
Our landlord had a flashlight, but Frank still couldn’t see much. They heard water dripping from above & smelled the sewage running underneath them, but when they yelled our names they heard only silence. There was an eerie silence in Juvenat. Power lines were sizzling from where they lay on the ground. Frank felt there was no life under the fallen concrete, & he didn’t know yet how Trevor, Mike & Angela were. This was a dangerous place for anyone to be, especially in the dark, & if he didn’t get out of there Trevor might end up completely without a family.
(This is a risky thing for me to share with all of you. You’re coming to your own conclusions, & I’m only sharing part of every story piece. As a family we have talked about what we were all thinking & why – well, not to the same extent with Pria - & we’re very thankful for each other & the way we each handled things.)
Our pastor & his son arrived to drive Frank to the orphanage where Trevor & our visitors had been helping that day. The orphanage was still standing, though the outside wall had fallen in one spot. It fell where the youngest ones were eating their dinner. The children had just finished & slid to the ground to play when the earthquake started. All are well.
Trevor knew right away that something was wrong with the rest of his family. Frank pulled him aside to tell him it didn’t look good. They hadn’t found the three of us. Trevor said his first thought was that his father had invested his whole life in his family, not in a business. And, with Trevor living away from home now, Frank had lost his entire investment, our family.
Mike & Angie stayed at the orphanage to comfort the children there, while Pastor Bobby & his son took Frank & Trevor up to their house on the mountain where there was little damage, & where they could make phone calls. Trevor said he was dying inside as they drove in the opposite direction of our apartment. What if one of us was still alive, or all three? (They didn’t yet know that World Vision had contacted a search & rescue team from the U.S. & they were on their way to help find us.)
Trevor said he knew at that moment that he was in Haiti for his. He held Frank’s hand as they went up the mountain to make plans & make calls on the worst night of their lives.
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