Haiti Challenge

I admit I haven't done much reading on this disaster in Haiti.  I'm just sitting down to write about thoughts that have been going through my mind for 24 hours with no time to process.  Yesterday the recurring theme on Twitter was, "Watching scenes from Haiti.  Wow.  Shocked.  Praying for Haiti."

From where I sit on a daily basis I get my news from Twitter.  I fire up my iPod Touch and read "tweets" from people who make sense to me.  But this post is NOT about Twitter.  It's about people's reactions to the world.  My Twitter feed has given me a very unique perspective on this event from people who I highly respect.  I don't hear from strangers.  I hear from very intelligent, thoughtful, and caring people.  And their response has been one of awe, compassion and action.  And that is what this post is about - action.

My life has changed since Sorin was born. The thought of my son suffering is unbearable.  And when I look at cnn.com and nytimes.com and see the photos of Haiti, I see news through a new lens now - awe.  I see it through the parent's lens, and I know each person suffering is someone's child.  And they need help.

As I said, I haven't done much reading on this.  But really, what do you need to know?  You need to see pictures and hear a couple stories of what's happening.  From the nytimes.com:

“You can’t do anything about the dead bodies, but inside many of these buildings people may still be alive. And their time is running out.”

--Eduardo A. Fierro, a structural engineer

inspecting quake-damaged buildings

Their time is running out.  I'm sitting on a laptop computer, sore from a hard day's work, and ready to get some sleep.  But their time is running out.  

Compassion.

I have no other stories to share.  Do you really need one?  My purpose is very simple:  action.  It's too easy to pass up opportunities to help.  I've done it so many times in the past.  Not this time.  I was inspired by Bebo Norman's tweet where he said that he would donate $5 for everyone who repeated his plea (on Twitter) for financial support to Compassion International.  My challenge is this:  

• donate $5 or $10 to World Vision, Compassion International, or the Red Cross (texting "disaster" or "Haiti" to 90999 will take it right out of your phone bill)
  
• write on my Facebook wall that you did this (or comment on this blog post)
  
• I will match your gift 

I started the challenge this morning, and I have 4 partners on my team. 

If you'd like to forward this blog post to someone who may be interested, please copy and paste right after you visit one of the three websites above.

Awe   =>>  Compassion   =>>   Action

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