Oliver

Oliver is a darling little 20 month old baby boy who is waiting for a family.



I am just going to go ahead and put the little videos we have of him right here because they are so cute and his little giggle is heart melting. Is there anything cuter than wobbly baby steps?





Oliver has hydrocephalus, craniostenosis, and gall stones. He is developing well at this point, already walking and communicating his needs. He feeds himself with a spoon and helps to dress and undress himself.



He is in a foster family and seems to have settled in well there. He likes to play with toys that make noise. 



This sweet little guy needs a family! Could he be your son? Please contact us at superkids@gladney.org for more information.

We Are Home! What Now?

We all made it home from Taiwan (with the exception of Gongzhan Wu, who is traveling in China for the next few weeks) safe and sound. We are getting over jet lag and starting to process the huge amount of information we brought home with us.





Each child we saw will have their own folder in Dropbox where we will put all of their information. We have information sheets and identification photos besides the photos and videos for each child. I came home with around 4,000 photos and 200 videos that need to be edited, sorted, and uploaded. It is a massive job.




Taken through the glass floor of the gondola sky lift we took up the mountain.

So how do we do it? How do we prioritize? We will first upload the photos and videos of children who are matched with families, then the ones who have families reviewing their files. Once that is completed we make a priority list for advocacy based on whether files are completed, etc. and work in that order to get all of the information uploaded.

Mary will be busy in the coming days speaking to matched families, giving them the much-anticipated updates on their children.




We have done this often enough to be pretty efficient with it by now, but it all takes time. And we are probably all still waking up at odd hours of the night/early morning, unable to sleep. It is the nature of the work.




We met a lot of new children that we can't wait to introduce here! And new pictures of children we know are always fun to have. Keep watching! We will be sharing everything here as we can.



You can also join our private Taiwan Facebook group where we can share pictures and videos of children that cannot be shared publicly. We have some cute stuff to share over the coming weeks and months!

Our Final Day in Taiwan

We are back in our hotel rooms early today. We saw children at Cathwel this morning then they provided a wonderful lunch for us and we spent some time talking about our common goal of finding families for more children with the director and staff there.

Our time here is nearly over. Our hearts have been full of hope and our hearts have hurt, as the different children have come to meet our team. Each one of them is so amazing and deserving of every opportunity in life!

Today we got to see some familiar little faces. Milo had us all amazed as he deftly climbed up the rope ladder to the little fort. He is just starting to walk and we got to see a few wobbly steps! He is such a sharp little guy! Nancy banged blocks, he banged blocks. Nancy stacked blocks, he stacked blocks. And then he clapped for himself to celebrate his accomplishments.



We also got to meet some children we had not seen before...



We delivered care packages...




Gongzhan was trying to work, but Milo decided he needed some "help"...



We met 2 adorable brothers who were new to us...



And that was all in one morning!

Our time in Taiwan is nearly over, but our effort to find families for the children we met is just beginning.


New Day, New Children

Today was our first day visiting children at Cathwel Service. We kept up a good pace throughout the day, meeting with 17 children total. Nine of the children we had never met before – and 8 still have their profiles in the preparation stage. Let me introduce you to a few of the new kiddos we met…



Avril is an adorable almost 4 year old girl with CHD, along with some other medical needs. She had never climbed a rope ladder, but when we asked her to she overcame her fear and went all the way to the top unassisted!



9 year old Amelia, who has a repaired cleft lip and palate, was so excited when we pulled out the make-up bag. She picked out eyeshadow, blush, and nail polish for Erin to apply. When she was all made up she was sure to have her social worker tell Erin what an amazing job she had done. Amelia felt so pretty – which naturally is without the make-up!



And wait until you meet 11 month old Andy and 4 month old Auggie! Andy is on medication for seizures, which are now well controlled. He may have some additional medical needs. Andy was smiley, and his caregivers told us he will hum when he’s happy. He’s doing well developmentally, including crawling. 




Auggie has a malformed ear with hearing impairment. He is still so young that further testing is still needed. His motor and other developmental skills are on track. And he’s so adorable!


 We are eager to receive these children’s full files so we can learn more about each one! Today was a pretty exciting day!

Gondolas, Pandas, and Ice Cream

Day three of our trip is officially in the books, and what a day it was! 



We started our morning with a gondola ride all the way to the top of the mountains. There, we enjoyed the most amazing scenery that Taipei has to offer. 



The gondolas had glass floors!


Tucked away in a quiet little area, we enjoyed some the best tea leaf fried rice, bamboo shoots, candied strawberries and ice cream. 






We made our way back down the mountain and enjoyed a little time with the animals at the Taipei Zoo. The pandas were a huge hit! 




We took the metro back to our final destination, the underground mall. We did a little souvenir  shopping, and of course, we finished our day with ice cream. 



We are looking forward to getting back to the kiddos tomorrow, but also bottling up all the experiences we had today. 

A Day In The Life - In Photos

The crowded breakfast area in the hotel.

Breakfast!

Waiting for the metro.



Makeup time!

A sweet moment with a sweet baby boy!

The room where the child interviews happen.

Things may have gotten a bit competitive...

A quick cuddle in the middle of a busy day does the heart good!

Lunch time! I hope you like shrimp...

TONI time!

Meeting to talk about the children after we were finished seeing them.

A special drink order for each of us.

Sweet potato dessert after a delicious meal with the directors and some staff from ChungYi.