Gladney Blog

MATCHED!!

Ash is a sweet, clever 10 year old that we had the pleasure of meeting last month. It truly was a pleasure spending time with him – he did every task we threw his way, and he did them well! He completed all of our hard puzzles and was so gracious with everyone – us, the social workers, the other kids in the room. Ash is in the 5th grade where he gets good grades and told us he has lots of friends. He is learning some English in school and we could tell he was very proud to answer our questions in English when he could.

Meet sweet, spunky 7 year old Kelsey! This was our first time meeting Kelsey and we all had fun getting to know her. She did well on all of the tasks asked of her. She even did some simple multiplication!

MATCHED!!

Last week while in Taiwan we met Kade for the first time. We had recently received his file and were excited to meet him to learn more about him. In his file, it states that he may be on the autism spectrum. However, our team unanimously agreed that we aren’t sure that is an accurate diagnosis – let me tell you why. Kade is a bright, personable, and fun almost 5 year little guy. He participated in our activities well, answered our questions, and generally acted like a typical energetic little boy.

We have a group going to China to spend time with children who are available for adoption! We are so excited to be able to facilitate this trip! You can read all about the trip here.

MATCHED!!

I could tell by her pictures that she was super cute and had a big personality, but I'm not sure I was prepared for just how sweet little Melody actually is in person! I love meeting children that I've read about and seeing their little personalities out-shine anything that could be written about them.

"It went by so fast!" We say it, we hear it every time. "It just went by so fast." Again, here we are, heading home. The week has flown by. And now we will spend weeks and months processing and sharing the information we gathered.

We just finished our first day at ChungYi. So many words swirl through my mind that could aptly describe this day, so many words, and yet I’m struggling to put any of them down so you can read them. 

Today was another full day of seeing kids at Cathwel! There were some kids we had the pleasure of seeing again for updates, and several kids we were able to meet for the first time. One thing in common was the passion the caregivers and social workers had for each of these children! It is always so heartwarming to see the love for these children and the common thread of everyone wanting permanency and the best opportunities for each of these children!  

We had a wonderful first day in Taiwan at Cathwell orphanage. We met so many amazing children! We were all impressed with the well mannered and calm, zen-like persona of the older boys we met with.

We are going to Taiwan this week! Did you hear that... this week!!