Meet our new Club Foot Unit Coordinator

An Orphans Wish is excited to announce our new Club Foot Unit Coordinator - Stefanie ! We have found the absolute perfect fit for this position. Stefanie is an incredible mother to nine beautiful kids, for who have been adopted from China. Club foot casting using the Ponseti method comes second nature to Stefanie, as her two youngest sons have both received treatment for their club feet using this method. Stefanie has extensive knowledge in this procedure and its benefits to club foot children. Her professional relationships with the Ponseti doctors in the United States as well as with our medical staff in China, makes for a wonderful team for our new club foot unit. Stefanie also has one daughter adopted from Guilin, China where our unit is located and has that personal desire to help the children from her daughters orphanage.

Our new club foot children available for sponsorship will be up on our website within a few days. Please feel free to contact Stefanie at chrisnstefanie@gmail.com for more information on sponsorship or details about this new unit.

Stefanie is well known throughout the adoption community as a strong advocate for the adoption of special needs children in China. Her website http://www.nohandsbutours.com/ offers an amazing resource for families interested in adopting children with special needs. Stefanie has such an huge heart for these children, incredible faith and a passion to give back to the children who still wait in China. We couldn't have found a more perfect person.

Welcome Stefanie.....we are honored to have you join our team!

The Club Foot Unit welcomes a new baby

We received our next Club Foot baby on 22 July. This little boy is a few months old. He arrived early in the morning and was quickly settled in with a refreshing bath, clean clothes and a warm bottle. About 1 hour later he was all tucked up in bed with a full tummy, sound asleep.

Gwendolyn's 2nd birthday!

We celebrated Gwendolyn's 2nd birthday on 22 July. It was her first birthday celebration and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. She is very proud of her new dress and bag which she likes to parade around in.

Tyler moves down to the Residential Unit

Tyler is now the eldest in the Special Care Unit and as he spends his mornings and afternoons downstairs with the other children, we thought it best to move him down permanently. He was very happy to go, saying a very cheery "Goodbye" to the Carers in the Babies Unit.

This will mean he will have more stimulation with children his age, and as he is not the eldest anymore, that will give another dynamic. He is now sharing a bedroom with Hugo, Landon and Brad, who will make sure there aren't too many "little boy antics" going on between the 3 little ones.

He easily gets around downstairs on his tricycle speeding to and fro and uses his walker for more sedate activities.

Brad celebrates his birthday

Brad celebrated his birthday last week with cake and gifts. He received a Superman towel, a model "lego" style car to build, and a Superman bag with a notebook and pencils. Cake was gobbled down quickly by most of the kids, so they had a chance to get the second piece. Brad was most impressed with his special day and with turning 8.

Today is the first day of the summer holidays for the children. They are excited not to have official school hours from Monday to Friday, and are making the most of the beautiful weather, riding bikes, playing board games, and hide and seek.

More babies in the Clubfoot Unit

We received our next two children into the Clubfoot Unit on 5 July, taking the number of children in the Unit to 7. The two children travelled from the same orphanage away up in the North, and were tired after a long day. It was a shaky start, as they didn’t know anyone and were upset, but it wasn’t long before they were bathed, dressed and playing with the other children.

Natural wonders

Wow, what a day. Four new babies arrived in the Special Care Unit late in the afternoon on 3 July. Two of the bubs are premmie, so we have them all wrapped up and warm and sharing a cot at the moment. It always takes some time to process each baby and make sure they are settled, so it was 7.15pm by the time we were heading for home.

Then we had to negotiate the flood waters to get home. It had been raining steadily for a number of days and the result was major flooding. We were very fortunate to get out before the only road left open was completely closed. The photo shows the flooded farmland and roadway. Our afternoon shift staff weren’t so lucky and had to stay overnight. They took it in relays to work the night shift, so that they could all get some sleep. Fortunately, the road was open again late the next morning and the new shift could come in for each of the Units.

Club Foot Unit update

We now have 5 children, 3 girls and 2 boys in the Club Foot Unit. Some have taken longer to settle than others, but they are all doing well now. We are expecting more to arrive on Sunday and early next week.

The staff are enjoying getting to know them and the kids are really enjoying their new environment.