The Circle of Life

When I first heard about the Earthquake in Haiti I admit I buried my head in the sand. Two weeks post-partum I could not emotionally deal with this catastrophe. In the weeks that followed I allowed myself to learn about the devastation. I started following two stories closely.

The first was the search for a 30 year old Ottawa woman, Katie, a friend of some ski patrol friends. Katie arrived in Haiti just prior to the earthquake to conduct an environmental assessment, and checked into the Montana Hotel which was then flattened.

The second was the fight to get three year old Haitian orphan, Esther, home to her family in Montreal. I had been following this story for awhile as the family in Montreal are close friends of Laurel's, but after the earthquake this became urgent.

Today both of these stories came the end of the chapter. Confirmation that Katie's body was recovered the day before from the ruble of the hotel, and Esther and her mom arrived in Canada to start their life as a family of four.

A bittersweet day.