Kiera is an absolute doll!  Kiera has a diagnosis of a genetic syndrome and the specific syndrome “Crouzon Syndrome” has been mentioned, but we do not know this officially.

Our TEAM has gotten to meet and work with Kiera the past several years and have loved every minute with her.  Kiera is able to walk independently and talks in complete sentences.  She told our group (in Russian) that she was a princess!  We couldn’t agree more!  Kiera’s caregivers asked us to help her with a few of her sounds in Russian, which leads us to believe her language and communication skills are very good since they were concerned with the production of just a few sounds.  Kiera was able to hold toys with her hands, and complete a wooden animal puzzle with our therapists.  She loved sitting in the floor playing and was a very good imitator of just about anything!

George is currently in the baby room at his orphanage.  We got to see this little sweetie several times during our October 2011 trip.  George has a diagnosis of Down Syndrome and presented with over all low muscle tone.  We were excited to snuggle this little bundle and teach the caregivers ways to facilitate his development as well as some important information for feeding!  We stressed the importance of getting George upright during feeding times and keeping him upright after feeding to ensure food and liquid stays out of his airway!  His caregivers were very receptive to this information and immediately began to feed him in the new position we showed them!

Oh, sweet Paulina!  Paulina is a beautiful little girl with a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy and visual impairments.  During our trip in October 2011, our TEAM fit her with shoes and braces and she stood in her walker and walked for the first time!  It has also been observed that she makes attempts to get into the position to crawl on her own.  We are very excited about both of these things!

As for her vision, she doesn’t appear to be able to visually track items, but loves toys and especially music!  We are also so excited to get a report that Paulina often imitates simple speech sounds after spoken to.  This is so sweet and encouraging.  Paulina is also able to let you know if she doesn’t like something but for the most part was happy to have love, attention, and toys to play with!  We are praying for sweet Paulina, and that she will be snuggled in the arms of a mom and dad soon!

Daniel’s eyes have been described as “eyes of an angel” and they truly are.  Daniel has a history of seizures and a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.  We feel that his seizures scare the doctors and caregivers in his room so they feel “doing nothing” is safer than interacting with him.  He is moved only to be fed and changed.  Our TEAM provided as much information on seizures as possible and stressed the importance of movement and interaction for his development, but our latest information leads us to believe he is still in his bed basically all the time.

Daniel is able to track visually and often would open his mouth and softly vocalize when we would talk to him and hold him.  We were told that he takes his food from a bottle and caregivers often use a pacifier to help him complete his swallow.  We enjoyed getting him out of his bed and holding him in the floor while we played and talked to him. He appropriately lit up with interaction and seemed to really enjoy the attention.  He has very low muscle tone which is to be expected since he spends all of his time lying down.  He also seems susceptible to respiratory challenges such as bronchitis.  We feel his health status is fragile and we feel that he would not be able to survive a transfer from his orphanage.  As are all the children’s situations, his situation is truly life threatening and we are praying that he is able to find the care and love he needs with a family.

Some children just capture you, and that is how we feel about Kiril. This was our TEAM’s second year to work with him and we are so excited to share about this little guy. Kiril has a diagnosis of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. At first observation on this most recent trip, Kiril was interested in us and uneasy around us at the same time.  He definitely had to develop trust with someone in order to interact with them.  He is a very inquisitive little boy and was intrigued by our new toys but wanted to play with them on his terms.  Our occupational therapists slowly engaged Kiril and he enjoyed some time sitting in their laps and liked the feeling of a tight hug once he felt more comfortable with them.

Kiril is able to walk all around his room, and learned to walk on his own, despite spending so much time in his crib.  He likes to hold toys in both hands, and then he would often use his feet to play with other toys.  We were all impressed with the precision he could play using his feet, but he was frequently a bit too rough while playing.  We definitely feel he is a smart little boy because he responded so quickly to instruction and to use “soft feet” when playing after he was shown how to play more appropriately.  We do feel that he gets over stimulated very easily and reacts when this happens.  Since Kiril sometimes reacts negatively when over stimulated or when he feels threatened we feel like a family will need to take this into consideration.

He currently vocalizes sounds and vowels, but we did not observe words at this time. We also observed Kiril working on potty training during our time in his room.  We feel that Kiril presents with some very intricate challenges but has so much potential at the same time.  Our TEAM feel he could learn so much in a family that could help him feel safe and help provide the stability, structure, and the sensory input he so desperately needs.  We would love to share more pictures and information about Kiril.  Please join us in praying the right family finds him!

Our TEAM has gotten to know this happy little guy over the past several years. When we saw him in April 2010 we were able to work with him during a presentation at the orphanage in front of doctors, staff, and caregivers.  We watched then as Vanya attempted to take his first assisted steps using a walker we brought with us on the trip.  He was very weak, and tired very quickly, but those beginning steps happened with the assistance of our physical therapists.

This year when we returned in October, our first view of Vanya was him in his walker, moving about his room!  It made our hearts so full to see the change in him over the months since we had seen him last!  He can pull himself up to standing position when he is holding on to something.  He is currently very vocal, but is not using words.  He plays with sounds, smiles, and laughs and has a very expressive face!  He enjoys engaging in play while laying in the floor, fun toys, and we worked on reaching and pointing to things he liked while in a seated position.

Our occupational therapists say that Vanya has good visual tracking skills and has full movement of both arms.  He was able to hold toys and objects and was beginning to drop things into buckets during play.

Vanya’s smile definitely stole our hearts, and we are praying that his family finds him soon!  We would love to share more about this lovable little guy!

We are so excited to introduce you to Sasha!

TEAMWorks Ukraine has been able to work with Sasha on three different trips beginning in March 2009 and most recently in October 2011.  Over the years we have watched him grow and change, and he is easily loved by everyone that meets him!  Sasha’s diagnosis is cerebral palsy and that definitely does not slow him down!

Sasha loves toys and being on the move!  He is fast on the floor on his hands and knees but he is also able to stand in his walker independently and walk with his walker independently to move about the room!  He has made significant progress with his skills in his walker in a short period of time.  It is felt that he will continue to improve with the use of his walker so that walking is his preferred mobility! He wears braces to support his feet in a neutral position and decrease tendencies to walk on his toes. He is able to sit on the floor and sit in a chair independently. Sasha is so sweet and has so much energy and desire to move, we are sure his walking skills will continue to improve!

Our speech-language pathologist was able to work with Sasha and feels his potential for improving speech and language skills is very high!  He is currently able to say single words, does well imitating sounds, and enjoys exploring toys and interacting with others.  We feel like with encouragement and someone working with him consistently, his speech and language would take off!  Sasha definitely knows what he wants and is very motivated to to get it!  While Sasha was playing with one of our therapists they demonstrated appropriate play with a cause/effect toy and Sasha began imitating the therapist very quickly!  It was so exciting!

Sasha is heavy on our hearts.  Due to his age, he is facing being transferred from his orphanage to an institution in around 6 months.  We feel like he has great potential and would do amazing things in a family that loves him! We hope and pray that a family will fall in love with Sasha and welcome him into their family! See below for pictures of Sasha from 2009, 2010, and 2011!  More pictures and video are available.

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families…” – Psalm 68:5-6a

Sasha in 2009:

Sasha in 2010:

Sasha in 2011:

We were able to work with lots of kids while caregivers watched and asked questions. They also let us take kids that we weren’t able to see last year into the gym to demonstrate therapy techniques. We were able to demonstrate positioning techniques in some of the rooms with children who spend most of their time in their bed.

At the end of our day, the caregivers took us to another room to observe a child who is frequently upset and asked our opinion on how to help. As a team we gave them information on calming sensory techniques. We also got to demonstrate these techniques with this child. As we were leaving the room the child appeared to be more calm and was exploring the new toys we put in the crib.

We will spend our last day in Kiev, relaxing and sight-seeing before heading back home Sunday morning.

It was neat to see how everyone was really interested in the different equipment we used. As soon as we pulled out the bench, everyone was snapping pictures. And lots of people were interested in the swing and came to ask questions about it afterwards.

We spent the afternoon playing with the children. The caregivers were really open about us going around to each room to see all of the kids.

Mike went back to Slavansk in the afternoon to revisit the boy from the previous day and help with positioning for his bed. He also modified his activity seat and added padding since the little boy is sensitive to touch. Afterwards, Mike exchanged a better supporting wheelchair for a boy he had seen earlier in the week. The boy’s mother was so appreciative!