Pat and Kathys first day at SCH

Pat and Kathy hit the ground running their first day at SCH

WOW what a day!! We had a very courteous meeting with the new director and assistant director of Shanghai Children's Home (SCH). We discussed our schedule for the week which includes formal lectures on speech therapy, cerebral palsy, and autism, hands on workshops about development and play, and of course evaluations of Gladney's partnership waiting children. We cannot wait to see the children and hug them all!

We also described how Superkids was started by Gladney mom and humanitarian aid program specialist, Janet Fink. Janet's daughter, Jeannie, was adopted from the SCH when she was a little over two years old. Jeannie had a diagnoses of crossed eyes and nystagmus, both which were corrected several years ago. We showed her a picture of Jeannie (now she is 8!) and they were so happy to see her looking healthy and happy! The staff at SCH cares very much about all their children and work very hard to provide nurturing environments for them!

We began with a visit to the "Snoopy room." The children ran towards us, arms in the air, trying to touch us. They were ADORABLE! We then went to rehabilitation center to provide evaluation and treatment plans for two orphanage children. What makes SCH wonderful is their rehab center, which treats both orphans living on campus and children living in the outside community. Families living in Shanghai who have disabled children, bring those children to SCH for treatment. We love working with SCH rehab staff because they are so intelligent and open to sharing ideas. It's a gift to travel half way across to world to work together and exchange ideas for the benefit of children. We brought them physical and speech therapy text books.

Then lunch came around. We had a soup with tofu, rice, mushrooms, a small whole fish, a type of turnip,and cabbage. Kathy did better with lunch than I did. Then they took us to a rest room for tea and coffee. After tea, we started evaluating the Gladney partnership children....boy, are they cute!

We evaluated 5 children today and overall, they seem to be in good shape. Some have very minor conditions and others more extensive, but they were all sweet, and loving, and beautiful. When we return to the U.S. we are going to host a webinar with more specifics about our trip and the children we are evaluating.

We were still seeing children at 4:00 when the buses were leaving, so our ex-expatriate interpreters kindly drove us back to the hotel. Tomorrow we are going to fostercare to see more Gladney partnership children.

They are giving us a reception on Friday night!

Stay tuned for more updates and hopefully some pictures!

Pat