Friday…

Good Morning!
It’s been a few days and the team of 32 is all home and “decompressing” from an amazing week in Cap Haitien.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the news, videos, youtube, blogs etc…
BABY STERLY IS HOME!! He arrived with his new Mom and Dad, Liz and Larry Warren,
at Dulles airport on Tuesday afternoon. He was welcomed by grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, Park Valley church friends, media and more!
Liz and Larry tell me he’s doing very well at home in Warrenton. He only woke up once last night! We are all looking forward to their baby shower this Sunday at 12:30 at Park Valley church (Alvey elementary school). So many people want to meet baby Sterly and congratulate Liz and Larry!

We got an email from Sid who was instrumental in helping the Warrens get Sterly home…From Sid:
 Jan 29, 2010 11:23:09 AM
“We just got 120 orphan letters signed by PM of Haiti. US gov sent a commrcial plane 2get those orphans out. We r w/ plane now & wAiting 4all 120 of them. Good feeling!”

Isn’t that exciting!! So many more kids leaving Haiti for loving homes here in the U.S.
It’s a miracle for so many!

To all of you that have cleaned out your childrens closets and donated these items to HHA. Our storage unit was overflowing! We got a call from the Medical Missionaries in Manassas that they needed clothes, school supplies, stuffed animals, shoes, toiletries etc to take to victims of the earthquake. I met two Doctors that would be travelling to Haiti
with the Medical Missionaries. We met at our storage unit in Gainesville where we filled two pick up trucks with clothes, shoes, toys, stuffed animals, blankets and more. They were so grateful to have our ’stuff’ and we were thrilled to know that it would be going to help the vicitims of the earthquake. Thank you all for donating your things…please know that your ’stuff’ is helping the poorest of the poor! What a blessing.

We’d packed up and taken about 1000 pounds of the same donations (clothes, shoes, toys, vitamins) with our group that went last week. Much of it was used to help the people of Port au Prince that were transported to Cap Haitien for aid. There are still 2000 people staying in a community center in Cap that were relocated from Port au Prince.

Your kids ’stuff’ was given to these people too!! Again, thank you. You made a difference for these people. Thanks to you they were given clean clothes, shoes, and their children now have a stuffed animal to comfort them.

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti.

Our Heart for Haiti Valentines luncheon and fashion show  is being moved to…….

FEBRUARY 19th!  Same time, same place…different date due to impending snow storm (another one!)

If you have not signed up, please go to our website and click on Wings Heart for Haiti luncheon. 

Thanks to all of your that have signed up, it’s going to be a fun afternoon!!  Our guests of honor will be Liz Warren and baby Sterly!!

Join us for a special Valentine’s Benefit luncheon. Friday, February 12th (now the 19th!), 11:30 – 2:30 Click to view the invitation

Please join us for a wonderful lunch, fashion show, jewelry, fun conversation with great friends,  all to benefit the children in Haiti that need us desperately.  The luncheon will benefit Helping Haitian Angels.  

 A fabulous afternoon for all…Have a heart for Haiti!

Baby Sterly\'s Homecoming!

Liz, Larry and Baby Sterly just landed at the Orlando airport!!! They said they were tired, dirty, emotional, thrilled etc…They couldn’t beleive that a hotel shuttle was on it’s way to pick them up for a comfortable nights sleep…when they heard they also had flights booked to come home, they cried. They are very grateful.
Thanks to the generosity of a Park Valley church member they have a nice hotel room and flights home tomorrow!!
They leave Orlando at 9 a.m. and arrive Dulles at 11 a.m.
It’s just unbelieveable that they’re finally home!! Tomorrow morning Sterly will meet his grandma, grandpa, aunt and lots of friends!! God is good!!!

If you’re free at 11:00 a.m. we will all meet at the United baggage claim. thanks!!

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 1 CHRONICLES 16:8

Hi Everyone,
Well, with a few texts here and there we don’t have a whole lot of information about Liz and Larry’s homecoming with baby Sterly. They got to the Port au Prince airport at 1:30 this afternoon. They met with their attorney to talk about our Kay Anj orphanage getting legalized. This is wonderful because we were almost finished getting legalized when the earthquake hit. Our paperwork was lost.
Larry texted us about 30 minutes ago and said he has no cell service and had to borrow a phone to text us. They hope to get on a flight this evening to Sanford, Fl. If it’s too late my guess is that they’ll stay the night in Fla. and come home tomorrow.

I’ll update when I hear more!!

Good Morning Everyone,
The group is home! The first wave got home (after missing their flight from Fla. on Saturday) Saturday morning.
The guys got home last night at 11:00pm. Thank you for all your prayers for them.
If you see any of them at work, school, grocery store, thank them..or give them a hug! They are all “decompressing”, napping and hugging their families.
Liz, Larry and Baby Sterly got up at 2:00 a.m. to get on a bus with Archibal (for protection) to go to Port au Prince.
The bus had engine trouble so they didn’t get out at 3 a.m. like they’d planned. They’re just an hour or so off schedule.
They do not know what to expect when they get to the PaP airport. They will hopefully get on a C-17 military airplane later in the day. They have been through so much. Please pray that they are able to get on this flight and get home safely.
They have no idea where this plane will land in the U.S. They’re ok with that though, they have Sterly with them and that’s all that matters.

I will update later today on their progress….
As always, thanks for your kindness, caring, concern, gifts, prayers. We could do none of this without all of you!

Hello everyone,
Baby Sterly, Liz and Larry ARE NOT coming home tonight. There was a problem at the Cap Haitien immigration and customs.
I will include an email from Don McGee who is, again, taking care of them and getting them home.

Sid will assist Larry in getting them on C-17 Military Flight from PaP…mistake is Cap Haitien customs is not aware of everything and are mistaken. Larry will be in touch with Sid and will leave today or tomorrow. Pius Bannis (Dir guy from CIS) will also assist Sid with any more problems.

Please tell everyone you know NOT to go to the airport tonight. It will probably be a couple days. I’ll update when I hear something.

Bill, Mike, John and Mike H. did get on the flight and will be coming in to National at 8:30pm.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Good Morning everyone,
This will melt your hearts…I was texting Larry last night to see if they got on the flight today to come home with baby Sterly and he texted back…”not sure yet, going to bed, Sterly is sleeping between Liz and I”. An unimagineable 12 year journey to adopt has finally ended. A dream come true for all.

Let’s talk about Gods timing…here is a quote from the Warrens NEW friend Don McGee, a Park Valley church member that stepped up to help them (and saved the day!) get Sterly home.
I just talked to Sid. Tomorrow the Haitian Gov will be taking over and implementing the change for the Visa paperwork. This will cause a potential long “road block” and more $$$ costs for many people. Thank GOD Larry and Liz went today. The Director for INS(Immigration and Naturalization) was instramental as well in getting Sterly taken care of. Not sure of his name, but he is also Haitian and Sid met him by chance while working for ICE this week. Since they met and realized they are both Haitian, Sid has since been staying at this man’s House there IN Haiti for the past 4 days…so he too knew all about Sterly’s story and also helped Sid with getting Larry, Liz, and Sterly taken care of at the Embassy today. (Most people who go to the embassy take all day for processing but Larry and Liz only had to be there for 45 minutes total!!)
God’s timing is PERFECT!!!

When I heard that Liz and Larry had the Visa in hand I called Pastor Barry and and asked for just a couple minutes (I spoke last week and made each service run into the next cause I couldn’t stop talking about Haiti and the kids!) to speak…again!
I’m sure he thought…oh no! we’re gonna run over again! Pastor Barry said “you take as much time as you need”. I love him!
So, Larry’s parents, Kim and Larry joined me and we told the PVC members that their prayers had been answered and Sterly was coming home!! We introduced Larry’s parents as Grandma and Grandpa Warren! again…a dream come true.

The group that missed their flights in Florida yesterday will be home this morning. Bill, Mike, John, and Mike H. will leave this morning and get into National airport at 8:30 tonight. Liz,Larry and Sterly are on their way back from Port au Prince as we speak and working with Bill and Mike on getting on the same flight as the guys. Please pray. They don’t think there are seats available.

I’m attaching pictures of the new Play Ground in the town square of Bel Air. Bill said last night as they were getting ready to go to bed they could hear lots of kids playing and singing on the swings! Music to our ears!!

You can imagine everyone from the trip is exhausted and running on fumes. I’m sure once they hug and kiss their wives, husbands, kids, parents they will get a much needed nap.
“God imparts His amazing grace and strength to us when we’re going about doing His work–things that we could never do in our own strength!!”

I am honored and blessed to know each of these selfless people. I’m proud to call them my friend, my husband.

Update!! just found out Liz, Larry and Sterly got on the flight with the guys!! They will all arrive at Reagan National at 8:30 TONIGHT!! If you’re not busy please join us as we welcome Liz, Larry and their beautiful new baby boy Sterly home!!!
We will meet in baggage claim.

It’s the best day ever!!! Sterly has his visa, his new mommy and daddy and is booking his flight home to Warrenton, Va. to meet his new grandma, grandpa, aunts and uncles!!! Congrats to Liz and Larry…it’s a boy!!!!

Now for the bummer….everyone missed their flight in Fla. to Dulles.
So DO NOT GO TO THE AIRPORT TO GREET THEM…. I’m so disappointed but they know we love them and they all said they were honored to know so many people were coming to the airport “just for them”.

The play yards are finished!! The guys (and some girls) worked til they had blisters to get them done.
They’ll get me pictures of them later this afternoon.
According to the team, they’re spectacular!

The baby dolls were a huge hit! thanks to all that found or donated the African American dolls! Bill said the girls just kept screaming…not one of them has ever held a baby doll! What a dream for a little girl. EVERY girl at Kay Anj got a baby doll!

Bill, Leila and Lisa have got our orphanage running like a top. They’ve made some changes and everyone in Haiti is on board.
Bill left Pastor Eustache with money to buy cups (for drinking) plates, new laundry tubs, church shoes and bibles for every child.
The kids were sad to see everyone leave…but they know we’ll be back soon. We all look forward to being together again!

Most of the team arrives home tonight! I would love to have as many people there as possible to greet them, welcome them home and just give them a big ole hug! If you are free at 6:30 tonight come to Dulles airport to meet them.
They arrive on Jet Blue from Ft. Lauderdale at 6:30. It will be fun!!

Thank you all for your faithfulness, your prayers, your gifts, concern, understanding and especially your love.
This trip would not have been possible without all of you!! Thank you PVC and Sudley for making it possible for the teams to help the devastated people of PaP and Cap Haitien. We love our church families!!