Donate to the orphanage

There's a new blog that has been set up and is being maintained by another mom who has a little girl at Noah's orphanage. It's amazing to me how all of these families have come together and are doing so much to help the kids down there. It's so expensive to ship things to Haiti so it's great when families are able to take supplies when they travel to meet and/or pick up their kids. When I went to Haiti I took a couple of suitcases full of stuff that my friends and family had donated and it was amazing to know that it was all going to be put to immediate use by these kids.

Although cash donations are always accepted and appreciated, sometimes it's easy to feel that if you can't give a lot you might as well not give. If you look at this donation blog though, you will realize that seemingly small things matter when you are in Haiti and you have nothing. A can of formula, a tube of Desitin, diapers, boxes of jello, cotton balls, crayons, Ramen noodles - all of these things are needed and can be used immediately at the orphanage. April does an amazing job coordinating these efforts and every item that can go down in a suitcase with a travelling family is one less item that needs to be purchased and shipped. If you want to send something to Haiti, click on this link and see how easy it is to help these kids: http://chances4childrendonations.blogspot.com/

Here are a few pictures that Phil and I took on our trips to Haiti. As far as I know, most of the kids in these pictures are still at the orphanage and they would be the ones benefiting from your donations.

Djoubensly - he was one of my favorites. He was so quiet and reserved and one of the few toddlers who wasn't crawling all over me when I was there. He was very reluctant to smile so when he finally did, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. Isn't he cute?

The big boys waiting for lunch.

Darline - her mom manages the donations blog and program. Can you believe those eyes?

Mackenson - In spite of our best efforts, he would NOT smile. He was so sweet and beautiful.

I had never seen so many toddlers feeding themselves without leaving half the food on the table or floor. That definitely didn't last once Noah came home. He leaves lots behind after every meal, and he likes to rub food in his hair. Getting oatmeal out of that kid's hair is no small task.

This is Noah and his best friend Kenny on the day that Noah was leaving. Apparently Kenny was very sad after Noah left. I'm pretty sure he's still there waiting for his turn to go home.

Ansito - Noah's little brother. When I was in Haiti nobody knew that he was Noah's brother and when Phil went down Ansito was sick and with the doctor the whole time so neither of us were able to get pictures of the boys together. We were told that he's going to a family in Washington state. I pulled this picture off of the orphanage website.

This is another picture from the website. This shows just some of the donations that one group of families was able to take down in their luggage when they went to visit their kids.