ukraine: later part of week 1...

wednesday morning we arrived and went straight to group 4.  we got a chance to work with sweet lena, and we both really enjoyed our time with her. 

 we went back to the isolation area and slowly worked up to getting this sweet girl out of her bed and sitting.  she warmed up to us and we had such a special day with her.  we got lots of time to just hold and play with her during our day, and we both loved it.  

 just checking things out....

 aww, ok, i think i like these girls....

 we took her from her area to the gym and enjoyed getting to see her take in some new surroundings and enjoy music and snuggling with us! :)

 we brought a cake for lunch with the director, alex went shopping for it..and it was a winner!!  

 hot tea, cake and lots of yummy goodies for lunch time break.

 in the afternoon we got to see this little guy and abby did lots of education on motor development for the ladies in his room.  it went really well.  

 this cutie is in that same room....

 i loved getting her to smile...she was so cuddly.  

 ok, ok...we will do more work with her..not just hold her ;)

 that evening some friends invited us to dinner at their parents apartment.  his momma made us a traditional ukrainian meal of borsch and potato dumplings...and lots of yummy sides.  

a group picture from week one!

more of this sweet girl and her momma, beautiful stuff...

 we left this walker the year before, and he was barely able to take a step...he was doing so good in it and walking all around the room!

i just liked this picture with every one standing around, because it was common for this many people to be hanging out in a room...and little guy just holding his toy in the middle of the room :)

 getting our game plan together for this sweet little one...

ahh, out of that bed!

crinkly book toy

 ahhhhh.....sitting up!

 after lunch we went to a local parent run organization for children with special needs.  we spent the afternoon there and saw many of the children we saw last year!  i kept telling our translators "tell them I remember them from last year!"   

 waiting outside

 it was a group effort to get us ready....

paper-palooza

 our first sweet girl, she was so timid!  but decided she liked us! :)  we found that many of the children were very scared of us, afraid that what we would do would hurt. i think many of them have had painful experiences.  we did our best to let them know we would not hurt them and most of them warmed up to us quickly.  it wasn't always the case though, and sometimes...no matter what you do...kids just cry! 

 demonstration! :)

 we saw this girl last year as well, and could tell some major improvements in her behavior.  her mother asked lots of good questions and we got to do several examples of how we would do therapy here with her.  she is so cute, and moves a lot apparently, since most of the pictures i have of her, she is a blur...:)

i had to load this picture because, number 1, i have crazy eyes, number two "sah-ba-kah" meaning dog is probably on my top 5 list of most popular russian words of the two weeks...and i'm holding the sahbakah picture card! :)

 checking out those arms...

 ohhh sweet girl.  

 one of the little guys wasn't sure about us, so abby did his stretching demonstrations on me...and apparently i'm a little on the tight side as well.  

on another note a mom and her son came that we saw last year.  The mom had the little boy's feet stuffed in the same braces and shoes we had given him last year.  it was so heart breaking because she couldn't get any more, and knew she would have to wait until we came back.  those braces are vital to his walking.  i can't imagine wanting some thing so important for your child, and not having access to get it!  once again, what TEAMWorks is all about....

 oh, good stuff...

 familiar faces from our week, so nice to spend time and get to know these ladies.  

i truly feel like the effectiveness of TEAMWorks Ukraine rests on the growth of relationships with the people we work with there.  i feel like these relationships were definitely fostered during our time there and i look forward to watching them grow more in the future.  and every time i look back at these pictures my heart gets really full.