A guest blogger, all the way from China!

We are excited to have a guest blogger today!  Amanda Wherry, a former Children's Therapy TEAM Occupational Therapist has spent the past 6 years living and working in China.  Amanda has paved the way for the first generation of "therapists" working in Western China, providing education and leadership for this new group of occupational, physical and speech therapists.  We are beyond blessed to know Amanda and hope to continue this partnership with her!

it was an amazing time.  the therapists have come and gone, but the impact they left behind is indescribable and unmeasurable.  in just a short week and a half they conducted 24 hours of trainings covering 17 topics, we saw more patients than i can count (one day, we saw 10 patients for OT, PT and ST and introduced speech therapy eval techniques to the head of the stroke rehabilitation and neurology department - all in just a 2 hour time span).  and the department now has some pieces of equipment that it's been needing for the past 6 years.  did i mention that this all happened in 8 days?  i can't explain my thankfulness.  it's more than just the fact that this department took some great leaps forward in the areas of PT/OT/ST, and it's more than the fact that now this therapy department is the only department offering speech therapy and having the potential to work within the NICU in all of central and western China.  for me personally, for a week and a half, i had a little piece of home by my side.  i had former coworkers and friends right here, seeing and gaining understanding about what my life has looked like for the past 5 years.  they experienced the smells of flooded sewer streets and unclean squatty potties, of people who haven't bathed in who knows how long, and of greasy food that's more oil than it is vegetable.  they saw people with devastating diseases that could have such a better life, such a different life, if they lived somewhere else - somewhere that was developed enough and valued ALL life enough to offer proper equipment and help to those in need.  they slept on beds that probably made their backs ache, smiled through exhausting 10-14 hour days, and never complained.  ever.  and they also saw the joys that i get to experience over here.  they got to know the local therapy staff at the hospital - how unique these young therapists are, how eager and teachable, kind, gentle, loving, and fun they are.  they saw parents' eyes light up with hope over their children with cerebral palsy walking (with the support of AFOs), a non-verbal little girl expressing choices and therefore empowerment (with the assistance of a talk board), a man with severe aphasia spontaneously speaking words for the first time since his stroke a year ago (to fill in the blanks in prompted sentences), and a 3 year old little boy who may now have the opportunity to go to school if he regains function in his affected side (through constraint induced therapy).  i was more than just grateful for the professionalism, the life, and the light that these ladies brought here - i was inspired - to keep pressing on.

my top ten highlights that came quickly to mind (which means there are probably more).  in completely random order:

10. julie's text of "back that thang up" which she wrote to me a mere 10 minutes after saying they were finally boarding the plane in houston after a day of delays.  the aforementioned "backing up" was because the plane had once again encountered mechanical problems and they would, in fact, not be boarding for several more hours.

9. cheri and carmen's joy over eating spaghetti at a westerner's house their 2nd to last evening here.  chinese food was NOT a high for them on this trip.

8. when our driver moo-ed like a cow and stuck his hands on his head like horns to tell macey that the mystery meat we were eating was beef.

7. the guy therapists twittering like junior high girls in mortified embarassment over us asking them to take their shirts off so that we could demonstrate some kinesiotaping methods on them.  guys here walk through the streets with their shirts tucked up above their bellies ALL THE TIME if it's 75 degrees or above.  what's the big difference?

6. macey's laugh.  have you heard it?  if not, you should find her immediately and say something funny.

5. raiding their stash of american snacks.  luna bars.  raw almonds.  trail mix.  life is good.

4. seeing how pumped my staff were when they found out that carmen was a cheerleader and wanted to teach them the hog call.  the youngest guy therapist even rushed over to the table to grab the pom-pom that we had just been using to practice PECS book methods.  he shook that thing and "woooooo-ed" like a champ.

3. the fact that, now after learning articulation methods from cheri, my entire staff can say "TH-ank you" instead of "S-ank you"

2. julie, wearing her sweater on her head, delicately walking on the curb while grabbing tiny tree branches for balance to avoid getting soggy shoes in the flooded hospital driveway.

1. reading the encouragement cards that people at Children's Therapy TEAM wrote me.  i cannot believe that people took the time to do that.  i've read 1-2 a day over the past several days - spacing them out to make them last longer.  and i've smiled, i've laughed, i've cried, and i've been reminded that i'm not forgotten.  thanks for that ladies.  it meant the world to me.

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