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Monday, January 25, 2010

The journey of Gavin, the Haitian orphan, to his new mom in the US

Don’t know every detail of the story, but I have heard for some time now, that my friend and 3rd grade teacher, Suzanne Schmidt has been working, through all the paperwork, visits to Port au Prince to the orphanages, the selection (falling for, really) of Gavin the 14 month old boy, and lots more red tape with the US, to try to adopt this sweet Haitian boy. Once the earthquake hit, there was the initial confusion, fear that he and the fellow orphans might have been harmed, but luckily not so. CNN did a story on the very orphanage Gavin is from a week or so ago, interviewing the caretakers of the orphanage, two sisters from Pittsburgh, who had been with the orphans in the catastrophe, and who were working hard to keep them fed, trying to continue sheltering them (believe their building was destroyed), and doing the care they had been doing before the quake. From a plea they sent out on their Blackberry, for help and support, the world responded. Another twist...local Boulder pilot (and friend) Karlene Soehn, scrambled after the quake, got a plane, and crew and was ready to go to Haiti to bring out the orphans, but ran into resistance from the US government to allow them in the country. Somehow the team in Pittsburgh managed to get the proper permissions. Here are some relevant video links:

CNN initial report on Bresma Orphanage in the quake aftermath:
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/world/2010/01/15/tuchman.haiti.orphanage.cnn

Pittsburgh news article on the orphanage and it's plight:
http://kdka.com/local/Haiti.Orphan.BRESMA.2.1433031.html

Amateur video on Pittsburgh rescue mission to get the orphans out of Haiti:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6F3dfRL72o&videos=OmWI_dL2XiM&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1

Some local Pittsburgh video/news on the two sisters who run the orphanage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oHJtYJDIHM&videos=-vk_EdjWZHE&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1

A CBS news piece on the kids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=KzQWRX9ttWc&feature=fvw

The youtube with Suzanne Schmidt arriving in DIA, greeted by her 3rd grade class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s78p6M_DLww&feature=player_embedded

Daily camera article:
http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14247374

Shawn Collins (friend of Suzanne Schmidt and resident of Boulder:CO)

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