Help for Haiti

Haiti is very near to my heart. If you know me and my family, you know that my youngest son was adopted from Haiti over 4 years ago. I say youngest son because my oldest son is currently living in the same orphanage that Eli was in. My family had started the adoption process earlier this month to bring JP home.

My wife, Lori, and daughter, Avalon, went to Port-au-Prince in November to help the orphanage with some projects and were able to meet JP. JP had been waiting about 2 years for his adoption paperwork to be completed and was about ready to go to his new family in Montana, but that family decided to not follow through with the adoption. When we heard about this, we knew that JP was supposed to be our son.

Dear friends of ours, Sara and Marc Orjansen, are also in the process of bring their two children, Vaniesa and SeBee, home from this orphanage as well. Sara traveled to Haiti with Avalon and Lori in November and met her children on that trip also.

Now with the current situation in Haiti, our hearts are breaking not knowing what condition JP or the other children are in. There are currently 26 kids living in the orphanage. We communicated with some people at the orphanage on Tuesday. They are currently telling us that there has been damage to the orphanage and beds need to be replaced. The children are doing OK, but are scared. They have opened the building to others in the community, and will run out of food and water soon. Please help us support these children and the community around the orphanage.

Our adoption agency, A New Arrival, is collecting donations. A New Arrival is a registered 501 C(3) non-profit adoption agency, licensed since 2000 in the State of Montana. They received full Hague Accreditation from the Council on Accreditation July 15, 2009 and are licensed through 2013.

You can make a donation directly to A New Arrival by going to www.anewarrival.com and then click the "Donate" button.

If you would prefer to give to one of the international organizations, here is a list of some that I know are doing an amazing job for the people of Haiti:

• Donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting "Haiti" to 90999
• Donate $5 to Wyclef Jean's www.yele.org by texting "YELE" to 501501
• Donate $10 to the Clinton Foundation by texting "HAITI" to 20222
• CNN list of other organization that are working in Haiti

Thank you for any donation you can make that will help the country of Haiti in this time of need.

Scott, Lori, Avalon, Faith, Eli, and JP Schlecht