Tuesday, January 19, 2010

a day of miracles




photos from previous haiti trips
with the recent events, we can't really get haiti off our minds. some of you may know that grant's mom has been quite active with humanitarian aide in haiti for the last five years or so. she has created special relationships with the haitians as she's visited every six months. leisa has been successful in taking them everything from medical supplies, personal hygiene kits, children's school supplies to even laptops and cell phones. needless to say as soon as she heard the devastating news, she booked a flight. unfortunately the airport in port au prince is a single runway airport. it's been flooded with worldwide response, which is a good thing... it just made it extremely difficult for her to get in. so through a number of amazing charitable events she was able to get down there. here is an excerpt from her haiti journal documenting some of the miracles along the way....


2010 Haiti Journal #3             January 16, 2010

Saturday. 11:30 p.m. In route to Boca Raton, Florida.

A day of miracles.
Miracle #1
When we tumbled into bed this morning around 2am it was the first time since Wednesday that we had been in a bed. We hardly embraced a 7:30 a.m. wake up call. But Anthony Bone was on the job, so off we went. We met him the night before as he “pulled a double” by working the bell hop station. He normally supervises in housekeeping. He convinced his boss to have us speak to the staff this morning. After Paul gave a little explanation of how Children's Hope regularly goes into Haiti with medical and school supplies, I spoke for a minute. Since most of the staff are from Haiti originally, I used my very limited Creole which made them laugh, I told them the phone service in Haiti is picking back up, which made them smile, but when we spoke of the tragedy and mentioned the Hatian saying that through solidarity many hands make the burden lighter...they cried. Then, one by one this staff of 100 of the most underpaid, undervalued in our society came up and kissed my check while they each pressed a few dollars into my hand...some with more, some with less...after I had cred, hugged and kissed more than I ever had we floated up to our room.We didn't expect one dollar, and we ended up with a total of $1,359.85. I think the 85 cents were my favorite.

Miracle #2
Back home, when we heard the news of the earthquake, we knew we had to cancel our vacation plans and book a flight on a commercial liner for Haiti. Then we heard the airport closed, then our tickets were canceled by the airline. We were offered a free ticket on a private jet going to Haiti...we headed out to Florida. Then our private jet fell through, but another miracle: “Clean the World” founder Shawn Siepler offered us not only free nights stay in two hotels, but also free passage for our shipment of supplies but two free seats on a small 4 passenger flight to Port au Prince tomorrow morning. Again, we are off. Right now we are in the back sear of a truck headed to Boca Raton tonight, and plan on flying out tomorrow on what Paul calls the Roberto Clemente Airlines. Which got a chuckle from the folks who volunteered to drive us five hours tonight to get us to the airport (and wouldn't even take gas money).

Little Miracle #3
Later that day we were standing on the street of Orlando, and a car honked at us and pulled in...a tiny shy woman in a maid's uniform came over, hugged me and slipped nine crumpled dollars into my hand, smiled a bit, and silently slipped back into her car.

We won't get to Port au Prince, Haiti until noon tomorrow, and yet miracles are happening already. If anyone was ever tempted to give up on humanity, they should remember another Haitian saying told to me by Junior Mesamours, “God will never give up on us, even if we give up on ourselves”.
peace, leisa

9 sweet thoughts:

Anonymous said...

i cannot tell you how much this post touched me. this whole haiti thing has affected me so much. i can't even imagine the affect that it has had on the people of Haiti. Grant's mom is a wonderful woman, but it doesn't suprise me in the least bit, because you guys are so wonderful. thank you for sharing this with us you guys, i am so happy that there is so much awareness about this, and it amazes me how kind so many people have been, and how many have stepped up to help! if you guys hear from her, and if she lets you know anything that anyone of us can do back here, let me know! i would love to help! :)

☂niki. said...

Wow!

Amazing. And so inspiring.

Amongst all of this sorrow, it's quite comforting to know that the people of haiti are being blessed by people like your in laws.

Anna said...

this has me tearing up. it's so hard for me to watch the news and see the torn and devastated country. i want to do something. i have these amazing skills as a nurse and i feel helpless, and that i'm not adequately using them right now. i know it's impossible for me to go to haiti right now, but i'm so glad that there's people like your mom in law that are able to contribute. and that so many are willing to give their 'widow's mite' towards a good cause. there are good people in this world.

sasha said...

my heart truly goes out for the people in haiti. we often get earthquakes in japan, but there was this one year... i think it was 1995, the magnitude was about 7.3. over 7000 people died. needless to say, it was devastating.

but haiti is a completely different place from japan. they don't have the resources they had in japan. so, i can't even imagine what they are going through...

grant's mom is a wonderful woman for doing what she is doing.

trudy...{and jamo} said...

wow.
how amazing and wonderful.

Jaeme + Randy said...

What an amazing lady. I'm so glad there are people like her that are willing to give so much of themselves to help others. I really hope I will be able to do some trips like this someday.

preston. shawnee. cohen. said...

Oh wow I love when I hear about people doing things like this. There need to be more people like this in the world, and I'm almost crying as I type this. What an example she is being, and you can tell she really cares and that her reason for doing it is because she really wants to help and make a difference.
I hope you are feeling better Britt, are you? Did you ever go to the doctor and find out what the problem was? Anyway, I love you and having been thinking about you and hope you're okay.
And the jcrew sperry's, I want. So cute!!

Kandis said...

I am a newcomer to this blog and wow, Grant's mom - amazing.

My friend, Jenna, made a comment on my blog saying that her friend posted some magnetic flower things (i've recently been into adding flower/ruffle embellishments to shirts) so she gave me your link and told me to check it out. So I checked out your blog today and was like 'what, Grant from freshman year???' I was good friends with Grant and was excited to see you guys are doing good. You have the cutest sense of style and your Halloween costumes are INSANELY sweet. I still haven't found those flower things Jenna was talking about so send a comment my way with the post link cause I'd love any new ideas. And, tell Grant hello from me. (sorry to be completely off the subject with the Haiti post but wanted to say hi.)

michael. mindy. dane. said...

You are so cute. I just love you. Thanks for the comment about style! I am such a spaz. Maybe I need to get a tumblr...I know what I like, kind of, but now always. And I never know what looks good on me. Sometimes I can tell people are trying to pull something off but it isn't working, ya know? And that's how I DON'T want to look. That probably sounds SO rude. Especially because I don't know what I'm doing with my own clothes so I shouldn't judge anyone else! (I shouldn't judge them anyway. This I know). I know this is jumbled and not making sense. Sigh. I need help. One of these days I'm going to hire you to help me with my wardrobe and teach me where and how to shop. I wish I could start over.I think it's beyond help. Someday maybe I'll have enough money to do just that!Plus, I see people wearing cute clothes and then I go to the mall or whatever and can't find anything cute. Sigh. I'm a mess.

But thanks for your comment anyway. And I love your new header. So cute!