Priceless

Dear internet friends and followers,
I am now back home in the lovely USA. Truth be told I have been here over a week. I apologize greatly for the abruptness of this post- but the return was a well maneuvered, full Hood family surprise for my mom’s birthday.  Obviously, there could be no alluding to this date prior to my departure. The result of all this trickery was absolutely priceless. I have never seen that level of shock in my mom’s eyes or heard her shriek like that in my glorious 29 years of life.
The following will thus be one last bloggy attempt to give a semblance of verbal expression to an experience that is utterly impossible to sum up in words alone.  I will use mastercard to help me.  I hope it’s not copy written:

2 Cameras
52 braces (ankle foot orthotics)
Wearing the same backpack full of cloths for 8 months
1 debit card
14 airplane tickets
1 cell phone
6 orphanages
Innumerable bus rides
4 jars of “imported” peanut butter
9342 pictures
1 12X12 box of souvenirs
3 new Colombia mothers
1 pediatric walker
13 hours of video
47 blog posts
5 visitors/best friends coming to see me
0 Malaria pills (despite the fact I carried a huge vat of them throughout my entire trip… waiting for the moment they became necessary)
3 horseback rides
1 salsa lesson
2 lice infestations
*********************************************************
Closing my eyes and smiling all the way down to my stomach with memories of thousands of amazing kids…. priceless
Giving me something to fight for…..   priceless
Being inspired almost everyday….. priceless
Thank you for accompanying me on this priceless journey.  A few of my favorite photos to sign off:




















Thanks again for all the support, shout-outs, emails, visits and well wishes of those of you who silently followed along.  Thank you so much!!! Chao…. hasta luego.
KO

Return Visit to Shanghai Children's Home

Return Visit to Shanghai Children’s Home – May/June 2011

June 9, 2011

Following on the heels of Gladney’s March visit to the Shanghai Children’s Home by two child development specialists from the NY area,  we are pleased that in May and June we were able to visit once again in furtherance of the Waiting Child Partnership between the Shanghai Children’s Home and Gladney Center.   This most recent trip brought Gongzhan Wu (Gladney VP & Managing Director) and Lindsay Hatcher (Gladney social worker) to Shanghai for 2 days.  On this visit Gongzhan and Lindsay were able to gather additional information and photos on some of the children already matched with their adoptive families.  In addition, they were able to meet and interact with some of the children who will be assigned to Gladney and available for adoption in the upcoming months.  Please REGISTER now for next week’s webinar if you are interested in learning more about Gladney’s waiting child program and our most recent visit to China.

 

    

 

Mango Hunting

There is an activity here at the aldea in Costa Rica that is a novelty to me.  The daily (sometimes tri-daily) mango hunt.  It appears I have arrived to sunny Costa Rica just in time for mango season.  I love mangos… or at least I thought that I did.  That was until I became witness to the vest and fervor with which these kids of all ages hunt and subsequently eat mangos.  As Maura mentioned “you don’t have to worry about them going hungry, that is nice.”  Yes it is nice, they have ’round the clock snacks… if they are savvy enough to get them.

As far as I can tell, there are three methods to hunt a mango:

1. “Easter egg style”– this is where you just walk around and look for them in the grass. And there are tons. The risk in this method lies in the fact that the vast majority are malo (bad).  The are either obviously bad and smushed with bugs flying all around them.  Or, what I consider to be the scarier alternative, surprisingly bad. I have been witness to a few kids who have sunk there teeth into a “ground mango” and immediately spit and made a huge scene– bad mango. This is typically the method adopted by the littlest ones, or at least the less coordinated ones.  Because at a certain level you move on to advanced hunting.

Ground Mangos

Method 2: The chuck– basically you find whatever you can lying around. This may be another mango, a soccer ball, or a huge stick etc.  It seems to me they like using the big sticks… that way they can adopt kind of a sidearm sling thing.  And these kids can pick out a target like nothing I have ever seen before.  I will be walking through park area with on (personally not paying any attention to the trees) and the kid will stop me, point and tell me “look, there is a ripe mango” and after they describe exactly where it is to my non-mango-hunting-eyes, I see it. There it is, gleaming in the sun… amongst the other 30 that are around it, not quite yet ripe.  Kind of like this.

Can you spot the ripe mango?....

Once the target is elected it is not uncommon to see three or four kids throwing said gigantic branches into trees.  Shockingly, I have only seen one injury to date as one little boy had a stick drop from the sky and land on his head. I was nervous… but its been a week and he told me today that his head has totally healed (and sure enough, the knot that I had seen a week earlier was almost gone).

The side-sling chuck

The jump chuck

Even the little ones understand the thrill of the hunt.

Bringing the big boys a stick that she found.... to hunt her some mangos

Method 3:  The climb–This for me seems to me to be the most “skilled” method. As there are only about 3 or 4 teenage boys who I have ever seen attempt it.  Yep, you guessed it.  They scale the trees… and I mean high. This is also the one method that seems to be forbidden, a punishable act here in the aldea. But every now and then when they think no one is looking (or maybe no one is looking)  you can spot someone up in the tree.

Method 3: the climb

I am not joking when I say this is the absolute number on activity right now.  And it is what is on everyone’s mind… especially those that tend to perseverate on things.  Sometimes the promise of a mango following a job well done is the only way that we get through a hard therapy session.  But perhaps my most favorite mango story to date surrounds on of my most favorite kids here.  I say kid, but he is actually on of the older teenagers in the aldea.  He is 17-years-old… but is more like an adorable, loving, sweet, funny 5-year-old in a 17-year-old body.  We were working with him last week and he could not get mangos off his brain.  He just kept talking about them, honestly every 30 seconds he would bring up mangos again… no matter how hard we tried to change the subject.  His main obsession was the fact that he wanted to “climb the tree to get that mango”.  Like I said, he was talking about the one ripe mango that he some how spotted in the tree.  On mango that was literally 50 feet off the ground.  And he is not a tree climber.
But he talked about that mango. About how if we would just let him get up from the table he would climb that tree and get that mango…. and don’t worry he said, he would come right back.  There was not a shadow of a doubt in this child’s mind.  That mango was his… if we would just get out-of-the-way.  He was certain. That kind of certainty, to me, really is kind of beautiful.  From my (oh so mature) adult eyes, I knew it was an utter and complete impossibility that he could even get 5 feet of the ground in that tree.  For me it was all about the doubt.  For him, the sure success and capability.
Well, we finally finished.  And he marched right up to that tree.  Grabbed a hold with two hands, and dug his toe in.  Hopped up on the other foot to houst himself up. Attempt 1- no go. 2,3.  Then he turned to me, did this adorable little giggle thing that he does. Shook his head and said “nope” and of he went.  Never mentioning the mango again.

Dang I love these kids.

Mmmm.... mangos

Notice the fellow in the swing... he has a mango too

I think she likes mangos too

KO

I'm Starting With the Man in the Mirror

No message could have been any clearer, if you want to make the world a better place….

You should teach kids in an orphanage the dance steps to Michael Jackson’s Thriller (and others)!!

More fantastic visitors have come and gone. Two OTs from Philadelphia, Maura and Nicole, were here with me all last week.  They are two awesome therapists who I met when I slept on their couch last fall when I observed in the CHOP international adoption clinic. Love them!!  And well, Maura is perhaps the biggest Michael Jackson fan I have met in a while (rivaled by a few of the boys at Arther Gough–the home we are working with here in Costa Rica).  Thus, amongst doing over 15 evaluations… we managed to squeeze in a few song/dance sessions.

It was really cool to have the expertise of occupational therapists this week.  We worked together to evaluate the 15+ kids that I am going to be working with during my time here.  We were able to really look at the whole child and come up with some great treatment ideas that I am very excited about.  And the kids absolutely adored them.  I mean totally infatuated and enamored.   I am pretty sure this is the first of many many trips like this for these girls– they are definitely lifers.   They left with some great pictures and even better stories/memories. Here’s a few:

Nicole, Maura and the crew

The awesome toys they brought... pure therapy of course

I think that we may actually see one or the both of them back very soon to adopt this sibling set (that is if they did not already sneak them in their suitcases)

Yay therapy

Evaluation time... hard at work.

 Thank you guys so much for coming! Thanks for everything you did in this VERY short week and all your help in the future.

More soon

Shanghai Children's Home

Now that we are back from China, I thought everyone might like to know a little more about what it is like to be in the Shanghai Children's Home.

The Shanghai Children’s Home (SCH) is in the Hong Qiao area of Shanghai. There is a large gate and a reception area when you arrive at the orphanage. The first area you enter is the administration building. You walk into a glass lobby with a large conference room to the left. We have had many meetings in this conference room with the directors of the orphanage.  Many of the families adopting children from SCH start in this room and see a short film about the orphanage. We saw this film on our first trip to Shanghai. This building houses mostly offices and administrative space.






The next building is the rehabilitation center. The first floor has a gym, with mats on the floor for treatment, offices and private treatment rooms. On the second and third floors are a small sensory gym, a school for children with autism and more treatment rooms and areas for a program for the deaf. There are also classrooms for training and offices for the staff.

The orphanage itself is housed in a separate building. There are actually 4 areas separated into “gardens”. There is the rose garden, jasmine garden and I think 2 more gardens. Each “garden” contains more than 10 rooms of children. Each room will have about 20 children. They sleep in safe cribs with nice linens and cute teddy bears. Days are spent in walkers, chairs, wooden fenced areas with mats for tummy time or in the activity rooms. Outside there are landscaped paths, a fountain, a stream and many bridges and statues.

The orphanage itself is clean and the children are well cared for. We saw kids in clean clothes, well fed and happy. Bed laundry and clothes were clean. All the care is good. There is a medical staff there with nurses and doctors who see to the needs of the sick children. Some children are sent to the rehab center for treatment. They may go daily or 2 – 3 times per week.

The grounds at The Shanghai Children’s home are beautiful. I will attach some pictures for everyone to see the buildings. The staff is happy and always pleasant. They enjoy working with the children. I am always amazed that the administrative staff know the children well enough to tell you their stories. There was a young man, Stephan, who helped us with translation at SCH. When we were in the orphanage, he picked up a little boy and carried him around with us. Stephan told us that he just loved this little boy unfortunately, has blood cancer and will be receiving chemotherapy.

While families are waiting for their children that are in the Shanghai Childrens Home they can know that the caregivers and everyone at the orphanage is looking out for their welfare.

Pat

It takes a village…

16 05 2011

Week one in Costa Rica: done and done.  What a big change it has been to be here…. I mean pretty much in. Such a big change in fact, that the only way to fully and truly explain it to you all is the tried and true list form.
1. In Colombia we had 3 locks on the door. (that was in addition to the guards with guns outside the apartment complex). In Costa Rica we still have a guard (no gun, but he does have a machete that I think he uses in place of a weed-wacker), but we leave the doors wide open most of the time (I don’t even have a key to the place).
2. In Colombia the exchange rate for money was 1,850 pesos per dollar. In Costa Rica it is 510 colones per dollar. Therefore 5,000 Colombian pesos was like $3 and 5,000 colones is like $6. And that is totally throwing me for a loop.  The small coins that were worth less than a quarter in Colombia (that accumulated in my backpack like pennies at home) are now worth $1 (and my bad habits of misplacing/hording/disregarding this change could become a real money drain.)
3. In Colombia I was one of 3 people who was outside jogging (and wearing running shorts).  In Costa Rica you see Ticos and Americans alike– running, walking, jogging, etc. at all times of the day… in running shorts shorter than mine (men and women).
4. In Colombia I had to travel over an hour to the orphanage but the grocery store/malls/metro/etc. was just across the street. In Costa Rica I can walk to the orphanage but the grocery store is a car ride ot bus ride away.
5. In Colombia the only fastfood restaurants and chains that I remember seeing were: dominos, mcdonalds and an occassional subway.  In Costa Rica I even saw a Walmart today (enough said).
6.  The orphanage that I am working at is unlike any that I have been to before.  It takes a village to raise a child…. and this place has really brought that philosophy home.  It is actually called an Aldea (which means village), it consists of 8 casitas (little houses for those of you not so spanishly inclined) in which 5-12 kids live.  The caregivers, called tias (that means aunts) live there too. Thats right, they live there.  There are always at least 2 in each house. They live there 24/7 and work 11 days then get 3 days off. They are responsible for all the typical mom stuff– they take kids to drs appointments, cook, (don’t have to clean though because there are other auxiliary staff to do that– brilliant idea in my opinion in that it frees them up to actually spend time the with kids), help with homework, deal with behavioral issues and so on and so on. Each of the casitas are totally self-sufficient with a kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms- a real deal family home.
And this layout really makes the whole vibe totally different. It feels like a neighborhood. You see all the kids play outside together in the playground, basketball courts, swimming pool, open space between the houses. Then at meal-times they all “run home” to their respective houses and eat.  They just seem more adjusted, comfortable, protected.  And this is a challenging population. Over 50% of the kids here have moderate to severe delays (cognitive, physical, speech etc.) and other medical conditions requiring extra care.  But because of the structure, the involvement and commitment of the staff and tias, this place really seems to be working.
It has already been a great learning experience for me to see this alternative organizational framework.  I am sure there will be LOTS of stories and updates.  Sadly, this blog post will not be accompanied by photos because I seem to have accidentally lost my camera (I believe it is sitting in one of the over 6000 red taxis of San Jose).  Dang, almost made it the whole trip without a really-dumb-absent-minded-keely-moment. But it appears it has arrived.  So until I make it to the mall (see #4) or Walmart (see#5) I will give you all some well deserved visuals of this beautiful country.
That is definitely the one thing the two places have in common: beautiful, green, sunny, tree-y, mountain-y, flower filled, gorgeous countries.  I am excited for lots of exploring.
KO

Asia Webinar - Boys from China Available Too

Xiang Xiang is a little boy with a spinal deformity.

Dong Dong is a little boy with albinism.

Ya Ya is a little boy with post operative CHD.

 

Most (but not all!) children adopted through the “standard” China program are little girls – but did you know that there are many little boys with mild to moderate special needs available for adoption from China?  On the shared database there are currently 1110 profiles of boys (as compared to 416 girl profiles).

 

Gladney’s upcoming Asia Waiting Child Webinar will be focusing on adopting boys!   The Webinar is on Wednesday, May 11th at 1pm EST, be sure to register today!

 

Boys available for adoption are all ages!  1-3 years old; 4-7 years old; and 8+.  If you can imagine these little guys growing up through these stages and want to be a home and family for a waiting child who happens to be a boy – please let us know!  http://asiawaitingchild.wordpress.com/