TEAMworks China - Travel Day(s)

Well it wouldn't be a TEAMworks trip if things didn't go a little wrong. Our lovely check-in ladies woke up on the wrong side of the bed (thank you daylight saving time), and our bags could not be even a pound over. We did some fancy shuffling and all 4 bags are exactly 50 pounds! Phew. We got to security and as our luck would have it, Victoria Lee was checked in instead of Amber Lee. She ran downstairs and found out her bag was headed for Salt Lake...eek! :/ We are about to board our international flight in Dallas, and are preparing for our massive spring forward for a total of 14 lost hours! We are so excited to see what God has in store for us and how he will use us to help the children of China! We are hoping everything arrives in Asia instead of Utah!

TEAMWorks China - A new adventure!

A little TEAMWorks China announcement!

TEAMWorks is excited to assist local neonatologist, Dr. Bo Lin, a native of China, as he opens a clinic for children with special needs in China.  TEAMWorks will assist Dr. Lin in providing education to staff and therapy to families attending his clinic over the next years.  We feel that providing support and resources for families raising children with special needs is an important step to keeping children out of orphanages.

Amber Lee, physical therapist, Melissa Foster, Occupational Therapist and Sophie Wentz, Speech-Language Pathologist leave this weekend on the first trip with Dr. Lin.  As they begin their travels, please keep our gals and Dr. Lin in your prayers and check out the TEAMWorks Blog for updates from their trip!

TEAMWorks Ukraine :: A Way to Help From Home!

Due to unrest, TEAMworks has not been able to travel back to our home country, Ukraine.  While this saddens us greatly, and we miss Ukraine terribly, TEAMworks has an amazing opportunity to positively impact special needs families in Ukraine once more. 

TEAMworks would like to send some much needed supplies to a therapy clinic in Ukraine. A volunteer American physical therapist, Carrie Moss, who works hand-in-hand with a Ukrainian physical therapy assistant to provide care to many in need.  

TEAMworks is honored and blessed to be a part of their endeavor, and our hearts are filled with joy to know that we can continue to do something even while we are not traveling to Ukraine.  

Please, continue to pray for Ukraine and please consider making a donation.  We hope to raise $465 to ship various sized orthotics, therapeutic strapping, therapy toys, and balance aids. Click Here to make an online donation. 

If you would like to make a donation by check, please send it to the address below:

TEAMworks
c/o Children’s Therapy T.E.A.M.
2474 E. Joyce Blvd., STE 2
Fayetteville, AR 72703

Make checks payable to TEAMworks and note in the memo your desire to help fund Ukraine!

TEAMWorks Guatemala - Tuesday, September 30, 2014

“We care for orphans not because we are rescuers but because we are the rescued”
         -David Platt

Today we were able to follow-up with the sweet children we had met last Thursday.  Our first stop was Veronica’s house, the little girl with osteogeneis imperfecta. We were able to give her a new chair with a few modifications to keep her comfortable. We also feel like she might have the most buoyant chair in town (see picture below ☺)! We then stopped by to see the village woman’s husband who had been in the car accident. Kelly was able to educate his wife on how stretch his arm once he was more comfortable and Nicole was able to provide him with a walker for when he was ready to ambulate. We were also asked to pray with the family for his healing. It was a very humbling and special moment.  We also stopped by the man’s house who suffered from TIAs and he was looking much better and told us he had been doing the exercises Nicole had previously shown him. We were able to visit a new child’s house today. We had previously attempted to go by his house last week but he was not home. Jonathon suffers from residual effects of meningitis, which he acquired at 3 months old. Paige was able to give information regarding hearing loss and improving textured feeding. Nicole discussed the importance of “tummy time”.  And, Kelly was able to discuss ways to improve bringing hands to midline and beginning functional play with his hands. Lastly, we visited Jose Angel the baby with hydrocephalus. We were able to provide him with a wedge for positioning.

We then headed to Casa Mana to meet a boy with a brain tumor from an outlying village. His name was also Jonathon and he, his mother, and two brothers took a taxi 50 miles from their village to meet us there. He was very sweet and interacted well with each one of us but was very weak. Nicole and Kelly were able to show simple techniques for strengthening and Paige was able to show oral motor exercises to decreased drooling and language activities.  He also had increased seizure activity, as his mom was unable to pay for his expensive medication. We educated her on seizure safety and effects on function. She was so sweet and grateful but we were even more grateful to help her out. We were also able to give a wheelchair to a sweet girl in need from another city. Carlos, an adult from this city drove FIVE hours in a rented ambulance to pick up this chair. Our driver, Juan, has been with us for the past 4 trips and has gained quite the knowledge base for assembling and adjusting our wheelchairs. He was able to quickly show Carlos how to fit the chair to this little girl upon his return. Paige, Nicole, and I were just there to inform him on safety precautions and positioning. We would also like to take this time to mention and thank our AMAZING translator and friend, Leo. He is such a trouper translating for three, fast-talking women! He is able convey not only our knowledge and information to each person we meet but also our hearts. We love our Guatemalan team! 

This was our last day of seeing kiddos and we are so grateful for all the support and prayers back home. We have had an amazing time! We have made new connections and continued our relationships with old friends. We are excited to see what the future holds for TEAMworks Guatemala.

TEAMWorks Guatemala - Monday, September 29, 2014

Everybody Dance Now!!!  (Arriba! Abajo! A derecho!, A la izquierda!)

We began today at Hermano Pedro, a hospital, residential care center, and church. They house approximately 250 residents, many of who are in wheelchairs. We were immediately taken to “dance group” where we, of course, jumped right in to help out! We were told by one of the volunteers that many of the residents were non-verbal but were very expressive with their face, and he wasn’t kidding! These kiddos lit up at just a simple touch and smiled from ear to ear when we were dancing with them. It was such a great start to our time there. After dance group we were split up. Paige was able to go to the baby room and help out with several feeding questions for parents whose children were in the baby wing and she played PT for a mom who needed help with trunk/neck strengthening. Nicole, Kelly, and Carol were sent to the pediatric wing where there were approximately 100 children in wheelchairs. This was obviously an overwhelming situation and due to time constraints and scheduling we were not able to do as much as we would have liked; however, at the last minute Nicole and Kelly were able to provide a wheelchair to a little girl who had been living at the hospital for two weeks without one. It is our impression that because she did not have a chair she was mostly bed-ridden unless a volunteer got her out of her crib to hold her. The chair fit PERFECTLY! God really provides for those in need and Nicole and Kelly were so humbled and grateful to be His hands. Carol spent time loving on as many kiddos at she could and was able to briefly go to the baby room to spend some time with them. We are truly grateful for this new relationship and are looking forward to future trips where we can build on it.

After Hermano Pedro we headed to San Lucas to a feeding center where we were able to help a boy from the village whom had cerebral palsy. Nicole was able to fit him with night stretching splints to help gain enough range for an AFO for the next trip. Kelly was able to fit a Benik and give oral sensory ideas for increased food and oral structure awareness. Paige was able to give him oral motor exercises to decrease drooling and Carol taught his mom how to better cue him to swallow. It truly was a TEAM effort! Additionally, Nicole assessed a young girl who had a significant leg length discrepancy and we are hoping to get her a lifted shoe by our next trip. The feeding center was filled with sweet children and we enjoyed playing with them before we left.

We then went to Hogar Amor del Niño’s and spoke with their director who has many connections throughout Guatemala and is willing to help us on future trips reach out to those in significant need.

We look forward to seeing where all our new connections lead us!

TEAMworks Guatemala- Sunday September 28, 2014

Just call us TEAMworks Towing Company! Today we traveled out to Mama Carmen’s farm village to visit some familiar faces. We were able to see a few of our kiddos but road conditions made it difficult to see them all. We began by picking up the local pastor’s son who has always been such a great help in navigating the village and finding the kiddos with the most need. He took us to see Keyla, a sweet teenage girl we have been keeping up with over the past 4 years. Wow, has she grown up! She is still attending school, and she blessed us with the reading of a poem. While she was reading, we noticed she was skipping lines and she told us her eyes occasionally got tired during her school work. Kelly was able to give some visual scanning exercises and Carol worked on adaptive strategies for keeping her place. Due to her difficulty with visual scanning and systematic sounding out of words, Paige noticed she did not comprehend what she was reading and gave some strategies to retain the information. Leo, Nicole, and Kelly worked on stabilizing the wheels on the walker she was using for showering. Because it was rusting, Nicole was able to find a new one that fit and worked perfectly. She was also able to find her some new shoes.

We then went to Benicio’s house. Unfortunately, his mother reported that he had started having increased seizure activity and the group was collectively able to educate her about the symptoms of seizures and safety. His mother was very welcoming this time and told us that she had been bribing him with the new shoes he may get from us in exchange for doing his oral motor exercises. It must have worked because those of us who had seen him before noticed a significant decrease in drooling. We attempted to give him some of the donated shoes but we were unable to find a pair that fit…but we are a generous group and Nicole selflessly stepped up to give him her shoes. They weren’t the perfect fit but with a few modifications they worked and Benicio was very happy!

We know you are not supposed to have favorites but there is one TEAM Guatemala favorite, Wilder. His smile and infectious joy just makes you want to see and help him as much as you can; however, he was out with his family. We were able to leave a bag of things we know he really likes including adaptive materials to help him draw and write. 

Now, at the beginning of the blog you were probably wondering why you might call us TEAMworks Towing Company?...well here is why…we are EXCELLENT at pushing cars out of the mud! Please see the evidence below.