Haiti Day Four--The Orphan Miracle

(Images from www.meridianmagazine.com and http://utahhospitaltaskforce.blogspot.com/)

Before we left Utah, last Thursday, we were told we would be able to bring back 120 Haitian orphans on our plane. In fact, one of the objectives of our mission here is to secure the release of as many orphans as possible.

Late Thursday night, while we were refueling in Orlando, we received word that the Haitian government had suspended all orphan approvals until they could confirm deaths. This was devastating. We knew it would take months to confirm deaths in Haiti, a country whose record keeping is rarely reliable.

The orphans cleared to leave already had the correct paperwork, but it was lost in the earthquake. Many had already been waiting for a long time to have a family.

Constant contact with the appropriate international, US, and Haitian authorities was being made the entire day during our flight. Unceasing prayers were being offered by everyone on the plane. We arrived in Haiti at 12:30 am and continued negotiations through the night. It turned out that one of the natives in our group has a step-brother who is the head of the secret police. Steve Studdert called him and was able to arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister at 9 am the next morning.

The next challenge was to now convince the airplane to stay on the tarmac for 10 hours. Imagine yourself as the pilot and crew in a disaster area in the poorest country in the hemisphere with no terminal, watching a group of humanitarians being escorted away by the Army and being asked risk your life and property by staying overnight.
Senator Hatch himself called the owner of the airline in the middle of the night and asked him to please consider staying until 10 am Friday morning. Both Senators Bennett and Hatch worked through the night with us from their offices in the states. We had only 9 hours to orchestrate what we were hoping would be a miracle.

The next morning Steve, along with his team of aides, showed up, while they were arriving, the President's wife was arriving too. Steve's interpreter pointed this out and our secret service contact made the introduction. Steve didn't know it, but his compliment on Mrs. Preval's dress is the single best compliment you can give a Haitian woman. At that point she introduced Steve to her husband, President Preval, and he was more than happy to help.

For the next hour every person that they needed for a signature (which was multiple ministers and the US ambassador) miraculously showed up at just the right time. They were getting signatures for all 120 but were running out of time because the plane was leaving at 10:30 no matter what. At that point the team had to decide, “Do we take the 70 we have now or do we wait for all 120 signatures and chance not taking anyone home at all?”

They raced through the streets in their bus driving on sidewalks and everywhere else except the road to get the 70 orphans to the plane and they barely made it. The team had just saved 70 kids and when we got the news back at camp there were tears of joy and clapping.

That was one of many miracles to come.

Sometimes when a disaster like this happens, it’s easy to question, “Where is God?” But when you see the response, the love, and the thousands of small and large miracles that take place on a daily basis, it makes you wonder, “Where isn’t God?” He is everywhere, buoying the Haitian people up, creating a new life for the survivors, finding families for the orphaned children, moving people to sacrifice for something greater than themselves, strengthening those who came to help to do more than they thought they could and providing a new perspective for so many who have so much yet still want more.