Fun With Kids Last Week

The past few days I have had many quality…fun moments with the kids…from just sitting with them & singing songs with signs with them, cuddling with them to going for walks outside the gates for walks. 2 highlight moments for me were going for Sapebon’s with Den-Den, Joseph, & Mackinely. We walked downtown to find a vendor to buy enough Sapebon’s so that each child in the Miriam Center could have one (or some of one for the lower-functioning kids). I was a little nervous taking Den-Den as you have to walk down this steep, rocky hill & therefore back up the hill on the way back BUT he did amazing with Nahum’s help holding under his arms to help. We even walked around for about 30 minutes downtown before coming back. My favorite part though was once we got back. The boys handed each of their brothers & sisters Sapebon’s & I had helped feet the lower functioning kids. Den-Den kept telling me his “Moma’s” the workers didn’t get any…My heart broke because this boy did not want his Moma’s to be left out. So I snuck back out & bought enough for all the workers to have one & Den-Den proudly found each of his Moma’s to give them one  PRICELESS Moment.

Another moment for me was Saturday when I was evaluating Thamara… I was just blown away by how much she could do. Thamara I always thought was at a 2 year level all around mentally, emotionally, etc. But NO she is so bright. She was able to trace over shapes & letters, lace independently, color independently, stay seated on fine motor tasks unattended, & the list goes on & on. She was so excited to sit down & work together.

Kenderson is still fascinated with the back depot closet & since the past 4 days I have been super busy & focused on finishing the visibility boxes which involves tons of printing, cutting, laminating, hole punching & Stephanie has been busy using the Cricket to cut out stuff to make teaching materials to develop a curriculum we have spent a lot of time in the Luke 2:52 room. We have been letting Kenderson just hang out with us…or should I say hang out in his favorite spot in the closet. This boy fascinates me…I can’t wait to figure out what is so fascinating for him in that closet.

I have been drowning in paperwork as I try to finish up Miriam Home evaluations, OT sheets, Visibility boxes, & create an evaluation form for For Jonathan’s Sake so that I can start that process next week. Courtney & I just finished creating Nahum’s job description, making expectations, making him a binder with each child’s OT Goals, treatment plan, & evaluation all in it. He has a detailed schedule of what day he sees each kids so that each kid gets seen 1x a week. Courtney & I are now beginning to develop Presidue and our 2 nurses job descriptions & schedules. Please pray for wisdom & guidance as we do this. A lot of other changes are in the process as well that we would love prayers for wisdom.

This whole week we are having a staff retreat & today we did a SWAT analysis as a mission staff…during that time Courtney & I on the side did one on our Miriam Center programs. A little depressing that we had more weaknesses than strengths in most programs but excited because we have vision for many of these weaknesses & it confirms our need to revamp many of the programs. Please pray for the rest of this week that we are open to learn & open to hear from God.