Gladney Blog

Superkids is heading back to Taiwan in just a few days! We are hoping for no typhoons this time! Along with Gladney VP and Director of Asia Programs, Gongzhan Wu, Taiwan Program Caseworker, Mary Chapman, and Superkids Pediatric PT, Keely Farkas, we have two new Superkids volunteers joining us for this trip - Faith and Michelle. Today we'd like to introduce you to Michelle who is a soon-to-be adoptive mom and an adoption advocate!

Hi there. My name is Michelle, and I am feeling blessed to be able to join the Superkids team as we travel to Taiwan to advocate for the children still In search of their forever families. 

A snap shot about me. I am a wife, mother, sister, daughter and a nanny. My family and I live in Northern Virginia, just minutes outside of our nation's capital. I have a wonderful husband and two fantastic teenagers. I love being a wife, mom, sister, daughter and nanny, there is no other title that would mean more. I'm passionate about life and really enjoy walking along side young ones as they grow into little adults. The privilege I have sharing in little ones lives through being a nanny as well as serving as a lead Sunday school teacher for the ones and twos room is amazing. 

Why Taiwan and why now? Well, our family has made the decision to grow our family through adoption. We didn't come to this lightly. This has been something that has been heavy on our hearts and prayed for a long time. When we talked about it we all felt the same way, we didn't want to just adopt any child. We wanted our "special" child. We were adopting a little boy from Taiwan with special needs. We want to help educate others, advocate for Down syndrome. Our little boy is special. he has an additional chromosome. That makes him unique. We want to come along side him through his journey of life. So the short of the long is we didn't set out to find a child with Down syndrome. Rather we were blessed by having him find us. 

This will be the first of I hope many trips to Taiwan to advocate for these precious lives. The Superkids team that went to Taiwan in September of last year changed my life forever, they introduced me to my soon to be adopted son. To think that I could be that person to write the blog post about someone else's future child, words don't even begin to describe that feeling. The next journey of my life is beginning, being an advocate for orphans in Taiwan. Feeling blessed at this new title of "advocate" and looking forward to learning more about how we can assure these precious children a chance at a forever home. My heart is overflowing with love to share.

Edited to add: JACK NOW HAS A $4,500 GRANT THROUGH GLADNEY!!!

Our last day of seeing children was spent in the Enmei orphanage in Ningbo. It was a good day. We met 9 matched children and got updates for their families. This is such a fun part of what we do! It is also an important part of what we do since our goal is not only to find families for children, but also to prepare families to their parent children.

Ji'an Social Welfare Institute has a special place in my heart.  When I first visited the orphanage in 2013, we drove on a bumpy dirt road to a very poor orphanage.  We visited with the children in 2 cramped dark rooms.  Even though we see over a hundred kids each trip, I vividly remember the kids climbing in the windows, their faces, and the clothes they were wearing. We left with tears in our eyes that day.   

The transformation over the last four years has been amazing. It is now housed in a beautiful new facility with one of the region's rehabilitation centers on campus.  The staff is attentive and truly interested in ideas on how to improve care of each individual child.