Shaken

I didn't sleep last night. I woke up at three in the morning and stayed awake for the next hour and a half. My thoughts kept straying to Chengdu and Chongqing and Sichuan and all the people who lost their lives in the earthquake. I worried that Makena's orphanage had been hit. I started wondering about where her biological family might live and whether they had been in harms way. It felt very depressing and hopeless.

The worst was reading about the schools that collapsed like houses of cards and finding out that as many as eight hundred kids in one school alone might have perished. I thought about the one child policy. I thought about all the families who had lost their only child and who might have (at one time) had a second child but been forced to leave him, or her, somewhere to be found (and hopefully adopted). I thought of them and how now they had none. Their hopes and dreams lost in a matter of seconds.

Insomnia thrived on my worries.

I woke up this morning to read e-mails telling me that Qianjiang had been spared and that help was on its way to orphanages in the Sichuan province. I felt relieved but the fate of the victims out there still haunts me.

If you are inclined to help in a small or great way, please visit the Half the Sky site. They have a trusty infrastructure operating n China and have been authorized to set up a relief fund to help all the children that have now been affected by this act of God. The money will pay for food, medical assistance, short and long term fostering and many other things. And not just for the children in the Half the Sky programs.

A little will go a long way.

You can donate to the fund by calling Half the Sky (+1 510 525 3377) or at
one of two dedicated sites online:
Global Giving: http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/2100/proj2086a.html
or
Half the Sky website:
http://give.halfthesky.org/prostores/servlet/Categories?category=Children's+Earthquake+Fund

If you would like a Canadian tax receipt, please donate at
http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s86248

Thanks.

Isabelle