Hope for Ella

Unadoptable?

The bleak news of Ella’s situation struck a chord of sadness in our hearts. Her orphanage is afraid that no one will want to adopt a little girl who is struggling with seizures.

It’s been months since Ella started seizing. We rushed her to the hospital that first evening when the seizures began. The doctors, in desperation for the seizures to stop, put Ella in an induced coma. This procedure was routine, but Ella’s situation went from serious to grim when an EEG scan showed little brain activity. The doctors told us that the chances she would ever wake up were slim.

Ella’s eyes opened the next morning. Already she was a miracle and had proven herself to be a fighter.

With medication, Ella’s seizures began to decrease, though they have yet to cease. Since the first seizure, we’ve been to many hospitals and specialists who have said that Ella’s condition is non-reversible. She is continuing to suffer from seizures, but we are hopeful that a solution will be found and that they can be brought under control.

Her current situation is not optimistic. At best, she will live a normal but limited life. At worst… we shudder to think of what will happen. If Ella is not adopted, she has almost no chance.

Ella is a sweet and beautiful little girl. She’s six months old with a gentle and patient temperament. She soaks up love, loving to be held tight and close. Sometimes her eyes stare into space, but sometimes they are responsive and deep. When she sees familiar faces and hears familiar voices, a surprisingly joyful smile lights up her face.

Ella is on a long road to healing, but we believe that she is on it and we desire that she will continue on it with a family by her side. She desperately needs the love and care of a mother and father. If there was a family, one prepared to deal with Ella’s very challenging special needs, the orphanage would jump at the chance to do her adoption paperwork and give Ella a chance.

Are you that family? Do you know a family who could care for this beautiful and loved little girl? If you are interested in helping find her a family, please contact Hannah.

One-on-Two

Angela and Samuel (in my fully biased and completely unobjective opinion) are the single funniest pair of children here.  Angie adores her big brother and Samuel well in his own quirky way feels the same way about his little sister.  Angie will do quite literally anything her big brother does, to the point of walking over to the Tom the Dog (of whom she is terrified of on most occasions) and attempt to pet him simply because Samuel is playing with Tom too.  All this to say, every morning from 8:45 (ish) to 9:30 (ish) one can come to the yellow room and watch the two of them learning together because instead of one-on-one class time, we have one-on-two time. 

We sing songs together, play dress up, color, dance, stack blocks, read and simply enjoy each other’s company.  Their differing types of adoration for each other is incredibly helpful in getting them to participate and keeping them entertained for the hour or so of class time.  Angie will play any game Samuel suggests, and Samuel follows Angie’s lead when her enthusiasm for learning permeates the room.  I spend the vast majority of my time smiling and laughing at their combined antics as they learn and develop and explore.

There is only one rule for our class time: “if we leave the room, Angie and Samuel MUST hold hands.”  The reason for this rule is twofold 1) one two-year-old leaving a room while under one’s supervision is difficult enough to control and/or contain; two is downright impossible, the handholding forces them to walk slower and head in the same direction and 2) it is probably one of the cutest things I have seen in my year here.

There is actually a story that lead to the hand holding.  One day we were coloring, the kids LOVE to color, however, I could not find the crayons so we resorted to markers, which of course got EVERYWHERE.  Angie’s hands were almost entirely blue and Samuel had green all over himself.  I was going to ignore the marks until Samuel started crying and stuffed his green hand into his mouth and then proceeded to smear the green marker all over his face.  At this point I decided it was time to Xi Shou (wash hands).  I had them hold hands and walk down to the bathroom.  We washed our hands, went back to class, cleaned up the toys and then went to snack time.  The next day, we colored again and again I could not find the crayons and AGAIN the markers got all over the kids hands, so again we washed our hands.  Somehow this has become the routine, after clean up, before snacktime, we walk down the hall and wash our hands.  They have learned to say “scrub, scrub, scrub” and the two of them actually ask to wash their hands.  They practically fly past the snack room in their haste to wash hands, and will inform their nannies of their intentions when the nannies try to herd them into the snack room.  It is adorable and truly enjoyable.

Scrub, Scrub, Scrub! from New Day Foster Home on Vimeo.

---This post was written by our beloved intern, Jazz