Q&A

The Australian Therapy team was based from the University of Australia and it is a teaching the therapists.  The woman who runs it is a Christian and considers it a piece of her own ministry to bring these teams out to UA orphanages and to kids with special needs here, but... it's not an official Christian trip or based on ministry.  It's more so to teach the students (with a benefit for the children!)

It was asked if Aleksa will be the first child adopted from this institution, then what happens to the rest, where do they go...  Well, they stay right where they are.  The institution has about 85 'children' with special needs from ages 4 to 35 years of age.  After age 35 if they are still living, they go to an adult facility, like a nursing home for "old people" as our translator put it.  We had the opportunity to ask a lot of questions and it was great to get straightforward answers from the director!

Someone mentioned Elizabeth (my sister) coming down for us again to help with the kids.  Nope, the timing of her trip was perfect so I got to see her and meet her fiancée... but she went back home on Monday and I left on Tuesday.  Our children are staying at our house and my parents are there overnight with them.  They and Mike's parents are switching off on who has the kids in the afternoons and weekends (since 5 of the kids go to school in the daytime) and Lynae is going to the church 2 mornings a week and trading off with grandparents the other 3 mornings.  We are very appreciative of them all and the offers of support from many other members of our church and community that have volunteered to help watch the kids if either set of grandparents need a break or need to do something specific with just a few of the kids.  We even have 3 nurses that have offered their expertise with medical questions that may come up such as using the nebulizer or feeding pump if those are necessary.  God has provided, and we are so thankful to everyone back home helping this adoption to work by keeping things going on the home front!

If you have questions, I will try to either answer them in a subsequent post or in a Q&A format.