Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy: The Online Diary of a Central Oregon Grandmother

Welcome to the online diary of a Central Oregon Grandmother (me) who is busy celebrating the positive portions of her everyday life ... along with her best friend husband (Cary). It is quite an eclectic diary and I try to do my best to incorporate a little bit of history into many of my posts. Your visit to our piece of American Pie is greatly appreciated. This chatty Kathy posts frequently, so coming back to visit often is highly encouraged.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Haiti:

Since this is my online diary, I need to put something on here about the earthquake disaster and of the suffering people in Haiti. I have been waiting until I could process it a little bit more. It has been so overwhelming -- the tragedy and human suffering that has reverberated throughout the whole world over the past 11 days. I think about everybody over there during the day, and it makes me cry whenever I do. Then when I wake up at night, praying for the people and their helpers, wondering how I can make a difference. It is such a huge mess over there. The reporters that covered the 2005 Tsunami say it was not as horrific as this earthquake has been.

Because my online diary is focused on celebrating the positive portions of everyday life, I have decided to take a positive approach in posting about the earthquake ... focusing on the good things that have occurred in Haiti since the earthquake happened. I will be linking to some positive stories that I have found for you to read if you want to.

Angels Among Us:

I want to take this opportunity to thank everybody who left their own busy lives behind to travel to Haiti to help the people there. And, to thank everybody who has joined together with their $10 (or more) to help with the relief effort. On Larry King Live the other night, they raised nearly $9 million dollars in one hour by many people giving small amounts! I also would like to thank the people of the churches and the missionaries who have been living and helping the Haitian people for many years before this disaster struck, and who have been invaluable during the earthquake. And kudos to the American military and those in other countries that are stepping in with supplies and distribution.

God bless all of you!

It is a small world, and in many ways a loving world. We usually only hear about the bad and unfortunate events, but I want to celebrate the positive parts. It is my way of spreading hope. To those who are critical of how long it is taking to get help to the victims, I keep thinking that the best of the best are there to help, and if they are having trouble doing that, it must be so much worse than those of us watching it on t.v. can even imagine. We need to pray for and be supportive of the process, no matter how frustrating.

Links to positive stories:

Here is a link to my Daily News website, which offers links to many different forms of media - http://ogocaj23.blogspot.com/

Anderson Cooper Video:
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/23/video-anderson-cooper-reflects-on-haiti/