they are security. so we carried them down the stairs, out through the flood waters, loaded them in our boats. and it starts to hit you. okay, we didn t just come here and pick up canisters. we came up here and picked up lives. this is 1200 potential children in our tour of being down there, we had seen a lot of death. we had seen a lot of destruction. and now, we ve given back. we ve given new life, no hope to those families that thought their hope was deteriorated when katrina hit. the rescue occurred on september 11, 2005. in december, 2006, andrea will had twins, ben and sam, the first of the recovered embryos brought to full term. i just thank the people that rescued our children. i would introduce them to those men and i would tell them for believing that these embryos
that was keeping them frozen is quickly depleting in the heat and we need to get them to a facility and get them back into cold storage. when we got to the hospital, we got to the canisters, the doctors basically looked down and said okay, they haven t been breached, they re secure. so we carried them down the stairs, out through the flood waters, loaded them in our boats. we can t just come up here and pick up canisters. we came here and picked up lives. this is 1200 potential children. in our tour of being down there we d seen a lot of destruction. now we ve given back. we ve given now life, new hope to those families that thought their hope was deteriorated when katrina hit. the rescue was on september 11, 2005. in december of the following
here for our three younger children. at that time my oldest son was in the marine corps and all of the opportunities in terms of school and the support that our children received in transition, we would have to pay for some of those things in the city of new orleans. many of our members of the church, they ve experienced some of the exact same things, excellent school systems in various parts of the houston area. it s certainly nice to hear you were welcomed with open arms. but looking forward, i want to ask you what emotions do you feel when you hear about the rebuilding of new orleans when you hear that $9.5 million people visited the city before katrina hit and really the city is coming back to life. how does that make you feel? it puts a smile on my face. new orleans will always be home and we re excited about the rebuilding and the up ward mobility that the city is experiencing and we re excited
care of. reporter: debra stephenson has seen remarkable change in two granddaughters, journey and sky. last year journey won top reader award. sky is a wonder woman. she can do anything. she tries. they give them that courage. reporter: for melissa, innovation is what her son needed. i am thrilled we could choose the school that would be tailored to my child. reporter: josh den son, founder, says the student body is 50/50 black and white from affluent and disadvantaged families. we believe bringing kids together from diverse backgrounds is a great way to increase equity, to increase empathy and cat a liez creativity. reporter: when katrina hit in 2005, public schools in new orleans were considered among the worst in the country. the storm damaged and destroyed most schools, including ones like this. abandoned for ten years.
katrina would go on for another ten years in that it will go on for year of year after year and that we re in mid-recovery mode right now. things are better and we do not have the corrupt politicians here. congressman jefferson went to jail. i any federal governments done a good job of trying to root out the corruption that crippled new orleans. one of the things that you welcome. what are the changes that you have seen and things been brought that have really assisted the city and the people that live there? reporter: well it s been said that the hearts of american people after katrina hit particularly young people came down here and feel in love with it. people started to build homes and working with habitat for humanity or catholic charity groups. many of them said this is where i want to live. there s a youth culture that s helping to participate in new