Haiti Storm Update

From the Associated Press:

Gustav stalled offshore Wednesday and poured more misery onto Haiti after landslides and flooding killed 23 people. Oil workers began leaving their rigs and New Orleans drew up evacuation plans as forecasters warned the storm could plow into the U.S. Gulf coast as a major hurricane.

Gustav killed 15 people on Haiti's deforested southern peninsula, where it dumped 12 inches (30 centimeters) or more of rain. A landslide buried eight people, including a mother and six of her children, in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Gustav weakened to a tropical storm over Haiti, but was expected to become a hurricane again as early as Thursday over the warm Caribbean waters between Cuba and Jamaica. Its expected track pointed directly at the Cayman Islands, an offshore banking center where residents boarded up homes and stocked up on emergency supplies.

By Labor Day, Gustav could make landfall anywhere from south Texas to the Florida panhandle, and hurricane experts said everyone in between should be concerned.

Please continue to pray for those affected by the storm and those still in its path.

"Tropical Storm Gustav heads for vulnerable Haiti"

MIAMI, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The Atlantic hurricane season's seventh tropical storm formed in the Caribbean on Monday and was likely to strengthen into a hurricane before striking southwest Haiti soon, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Tropical Storm Gustav threatened Haiti with as much as 25 inches (64 cm) of rain in isolated areas, which could trigger deadly floods and mudslides in the impoverished nation of some 9 million people. Hurricane warnings were issued for the southern coasts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti west of Santo Domingo shortly after Gustav formed 225 miles (365 km) south-southeast of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, the Miami-based hurricane center said.

The storm's top sustained winds were already at 60 mph (95 kph) by early Monday afternoon, and the center's official forecast saw them reaching around 80 mph (130 kph) when it reached southwest Haiti within 48 hours. Haiti was still recovering from the passage of Tropical Storm Fay, the remnants of which were causing flooding across the U.S. southeastern states on Monday. Fay may have killed more than 50 people in Haiti last week, including dozens missing after floodwaters swept a bus down a river in the south.Forecasters said Gustav could produce rainfall of 5 to 7 inches (13-18 cm) over Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with the possibility of 15 to 25 inches (38-64 cm) some areas, the hurricane center said."These intense rains may produce life-threatening flash floods and mudslides," the center said. Haiti is vulnerable to devastating floods because hillsides have been stripped of trees by people desperate for charcoal to be used as cooking fuel.

In 2004, Tropical Storm Jeanne was blamed for flooding that killed some 3,000 people. The official forecast calls for Gustav to move to the northwest across Haiti and then over the southeastern tip of Cuba toward the Bahamas and Florida. But the computer models used to predict the future path of hurricanes disagreed significantly. Some had it moving more toward the west, south of Cuba in the direction of Jamaica and then the Yucatan peninsula.Another showed Gustav moving over a significant portion of Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico. Yet another had it crossing Hispaniola and heading toward the southern Bahamas.
(Editing by Jim Loney and Eric Walsh)

Our kids' orphanage is in Port-au-Prince. Please pray for them and the safety of the children and employees there. I just want them home! I will take the Minnesota blizzards and I won't complain!! Promise!

Farewell...

Ezra
Born: 1990 (?)
Feb. 13, 1992 (Gotcha Day) - Aug. 22, 2008

We enjoyed having you as a part of our family for the past 16 and a half years. Farewell. You were the best cat with the sweetest disposition.

And we are so sad.

60 YEARS!!

My parents have been married for 60 years as of today! WOW! We had a lovely evening - perfect weather, perfect food (thanks, Lee!), and perfect company!!

August 20, 1948 - August 20, 2008

After the four of us had dinner, Jenny came by with the kids and her mom, Bev, for dessert

We got my parents the Legacy Keeper by Hallmark.

We made "build your own sundaes" with sprinkles, peanuts, bananas, strawberries, heath bar pieces, whipped cream and chocolate sauce!

Jenny brought brownies, too!

Abby did her part to help clean up

Jenny's dessert, overflowing!

...And, it's gone!

Corene took my camera and started shooting! She took these and also the picture of her Gramby Bev above!

Referrals...

America World is pleased to announce the receipt of 6 healthy female referrals today! Families receiving referrals were logged into the China Center of Adoption Affairs on January 27 of 2006 (group 248). The little girls are currently located in the Jiangxi and Gansu provinces and range in age from 7 to 11 months. Please join us in congratulating these families, and in praying for them as they prepare to travel.

Just a reminder that our log in date (LID) is 3-13-06. We are group 252. It may seem like we are very close, but speculation is still next March right now for a referral. If you wonder why it is taking so long, tune in to NBC any night this week...(or there is a small hint on this blog post).

Behind on Birthday Bash Blogging 1

We were invited to the Divine Miss Z's birthday party. Last year she didn't have a party because she was on her way to China to get her brother. We so love get togethers with Jinglebritches and the clan. With Miss Z, you never know what on earth she is going to say or do.

Big Brother, showing off some moves. He now speaks English better than I. I mean me. Umm, wait...

Lee, Me and Nana, Jenny's foreign exchange student, who is Chinese. She came along with us for the party.

Nana eating her first gummy worm. Her life is complete.

I have to admit, besides being in touch with my inner child, I have no idea what up-to-date, current toys excite the average 6-year-old. So I was pretty happy when our gift, Hungry, Hungry Hippos was a hit. She was so cute, she said, "Oh, this is what I have always wanted!"

The Divine Miss Z shows off her muscles

We had a great time. Miss Z is such a joy, as is the entire Jinglebritches family. See you guys again soon and WE LOVE YOU!!

Another Fundraising Garage Sale! (and Mama Update!)

Several weeks ago, we started going from room to room clearing out things we no longer used or needed to make room for three more people in this house. In short order it turned into the very real need to have a garage sale. So we had a sale on Saturday and raised another $250 to go toward the adoptions. We sold bottled water and baked goods, too.

I added everything up just for the adoptions (all three kids) and it comes to about $60,000...probably more. This includes fees for the US government; fees to get documents; to get documents certified, apostilled, sealed, etc.; translation fees; foreign government fees; agency fees; fingerprinting fees; homestudy fees; re-fingerprinting fees; homestudy updates; travel fees; etc, etc. You will get bored if you aren't already, and I don't want to lose you here. The bottom line is that every bit of money we can raise helps!

On the phone with my mother-in-law who called to see how it was all going.

We had us some HIGH drama during the sale. A HUGE turtle was trying to cross the four lane county road next to our street. A customer asked for a snow shovel and picked the turtle up and put him back on the side of the road. After he did this, he said that the turtle will probably try to cross again since he wanted to get where he was going. I told my dad this and we wondered why the man didn't just carry him across to where he was headed. Dad said, go check on Mr. Turtle and see if he was indeed trying to cross back. I looked into the woods. Didn't see him. Huh. I guess he didn't decide to cross the street. I turned around to go back and almost stepped on the guy. Ugly, huh? Look at that TAIL!! He had to be 40 or 50 years old.

So, Daddy came to the rescue and this time we put him on the OTHER side of the road.

Up close of Mr. Turtle's Wild Ride

For just being rescued from certain death he wasn't very grateful. Here he is looking at my Dad and giving him the business.

Shortly thereafter, Mama spotted this little critter trying to cross, too. Where are all the turtles headed? Is there a convention in town? So my friend, Carla the vet, and I, go get him and take him across the four lane road. All of a sudden Abby is there. WHA?? My poor Mom nearly had a heart attack watching Abby run after us and cross that road. She hasn't gotten her voice back fully since all the Mama Drama so her "yelling" at Abby to stop did nothing. Mom said there were tons of cars (there are four-way stops, not lights, nearby) and then a clearing and she bolted across in those few seconds where there were no cars. We are so thankful she didn't get hit by a car. I suppose if she had I would have been grateful that our vet was with me, but thankfully it wasn't that situation.

Here is Abby, resting on a rug in the driveway (sold it!) Behind is the four lane road.

Lastly, here is the latest picture of my MOM!! Doesn't she look FAB? Her hair is really coming in and it is more wavy than it was before.

Our Beautiful Babes!

I love email!

And I love getting new pictures of our kids in our email!!

LOVE THESE!!! Oh, and notice our boy in a Spiderman shirt? Papa is happy!

Many, many thanks to the Brady family for these photos!! Priceless!