Friday, December 30, 2016

Make-A-Wish Grants First Ever Adoption Wish to Our Hopscotch Family: Abigail’s Wish Came True!

WITH AN UNPRECENTED WISH, A FAMILY IS MADE COMPLETE

Just in time for the holidays, Make-A-Wish® North Texas makes Abigail’s one true wish come true.

dde0e9d0cda1d53c099f21a084f18aa1 IRVING, TEXAS –– Make-A-Wish® is known for moving mountains to help fulfill the most heartfelt wishes for Wish Kids around the world. For Abigail, this was particularly true. Her wish is the first of its kind for Make-A-Wish and has been nearly two years in the making. It required stars aligning in a profoundly moving and certainly life-altering way.

Abigail was adopted from a Bulgarian orphanage by her parents Dorcas and Tony in 2013. She was 13 at the time and while she was obviously elated to join her new family in the United States, it was also bittersweet as she had to leave Caroline, her roommate and closest friend in the world, behind.

But that was not to be the end of their story. Diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis Abigail was granted a wish by Make-A-Wish North Texas. She deliberated only briefly. Would it be a trip to Hollywood or something else…something she had in mind with deep personal meaning? With her parents’ blessing, Abigail wished for them to adopt Caroline, still dreaming of a family. Make-A-Wish North Texas agreed to help facilitate and manage the logistics surrounding this most unusual wish. People around the world got involved to help, including the teams at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth and Hopscotch Adoptions.

Now, just in time for the holidays, Abigail’s wish is coming true. The girls will be reunited, now as sisters. Abigail summed up her feelings when she wrote, “Thank you God for telling me that I needed a sister!”
“How truly wonderful to be able to grant Abigail’s wish and at the same time make dreams come true for Caroline,” said Scotty Landry, President and CEO of Make-A-Wish North Texas. “This unique wish has been life-altering for all involved. We are honored to be able to help bring this family together for the holidays.”

“We were honored when the Grubaugh family chose Hopscotch to help bring their first daughter home from Bulgaria and when we were asked to be their placing agency for their second daughter, we were elated!” said Robin Sizemore, Executive Director of Hopscotch Adoptions,Inc. “We learned later on that their adoption was going to be realized through the support of Make-A-Wish North Texas chapter and that this was the first adoption, much less intercountry adoption, wish ever granted. The Make-A-Wish North Texas chapter is incredibly generous and truly listened to Abigail’s one true wish… to be the sister to her best friend left behind in Bulgaria. We cannot think of a more beautiful wish to be granted. We are ever grateful to everyone that generously supports Make-A-Wish, this is truly one of the most rewarding experiences for everyone involved.”

Update:
On December 21st, the family arrived in Dallas after a very long and exhausting day of travel. As Caroline stepped off the plane, she became a United States citizen and began her new life.

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Facebook:
After two years in the making, Abigail’s wish is now a reality! Click here for photos.

Live from DFW Airport for a heartwarming homecoming! We celebrate Abigail’s wish for her family to adopt her best friend from the same Bulgarian orphanage she was adopted from 3 years ago. Join us in welcoming this new family of 4 home!

Welcome home Abigail and Caroline! We wish everyone a very happy holiday season. We know this will be one to remember for this family!

About Make-A-Wish® North Texas
Make-A-Wish North Texas grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Since our inception in 1982, more than 9,500 wishes have been granted throughout the 161 counties we serve. Our goal is to be a unique part of the treatment process. With doctors providing the medicine, and Make-A-Wish supplying the magic, we strive to create miracles in the lives of some very extraordinary children. For more information on Make-A-Wish North Texas, please visit www.ntx.wish.org.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Past Still Haunts Bulgaria’s Disabled Children by Maria Milkova

Source: www.balkaninsight.com

By Maria Milkova

Milkova_1 
Tsonka and Tenyo Tenevi with their daughter Teodora, six years after they were reunited under a programme to move disabled children out of isolated state institutions. Photo: Maria Milkova.

The residential home was new, the rooms clean and airy. But the lift to the second-floor bedrooms had not been working for months, so the children spent nights sleeping in their wheelchairs or on the sofa.

There were toys, too, but it was the television on the wall that captivated the children, while at the table, an elderly carer briefly, clumsily, held a child by the hair to keep her head steady as she fed her.

The carer was not rough or abusive. But there it was, in her untrained hand, in the broken elevator and the boredom, a reminder of the recent past, a period Bulgaria is trying to leave behind.

The house, in the Benkovski suburb of the capital Sofia, was one of almost 150 built in Bulgaria over the past six years to house up to 12 disabled children each, replacing the isolated, over-crowded and under-funded state institutions where such children were once held far from the wary eye of society.

Continue reading.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

The Kids who Need the Most Love Will Ask for it in the Most Unloving Ways by Katie Malinski

Source: http://katiemalinski.com

By Katie Malinski

kids-who-need-love-quote I snapped a picture of this quote on the wall at the Magellan International School the other day, and posted it on Facebook.  A week or so later, it had been shared by 68 people, and viewed by nearly 7000.  Obviously, this quote resonates for many of us.

One of the first things I tell most parents that I work with is that behavior is a communication, and that understanding the message in a child’s behavior is incredibly helpful for changing those behaviors.  To put it another way, something is behind or underneath unwanted behavior; triggering or motivating or strengthening it.  Those hidden drivers are usually unmet needs of some variety.  When parents can identify what those unmet needs are, they typically find that those underlying needs are needs they want to support.  In other words: the behaviors are unwanted, but the needs driving those behaviors are understandable!

Continue reading.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Breaking News for Babies: Congress Passes Mental Health Reform

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Congress Passes Mental Health Reform
Legislation Includes Grants for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health

Huge news for infant and toddler advocates! Today, Congress passed broad mental health reform legislation, including new grants to promote infant and early childhood mental health! Rolled into the larger 21st Century Cures Act, the legislation was passed along bipartisan lines.

Spearheaded by ZERO TO THREE and advocates across the country, the inclusion of the infant and early childhood mental health grants signals that Congress has now recognized the need to begin comprehensive mental health reform where the foundations of strong mental health are laid – with young children, starting from birth. Specifically, the provision:
  • Authorizes $20 million for grants to develop, maintain or enhance infant and early childhood mental health promotion, intervention, and treatment programs.
  • Ensures that funded programs are grounded in evidence and are culturally and linguistically appropriate.
  • Allows funds to support:
    • age-appropriate promotion, early intervention, and treatment services;
    • training mental health clinicians in infant and early childhood mental health;
    • training for infant and early childhood mental health clinicians to integrate with other providers who work with young children and families; and
    • mental health consultation in early care and education programs. 
“This is an important victory toward improved infant mental health prevention, identification and treatment – and the first time the needs of very young children have been recognized by Congress,” said Matthew Melmed, Executive Director of ZERO TO THREE. “We are extremely grateful to the Congressional champions on this issue, including Senators Bill Cassidy and Chris Murphy, Chairman Lamar Alexander and Ranking Member Patty Murray, and Chairman Fred Upton and Ranking Member Frank Pallone for recognizing that babies’ mental health matters and fighting for them throughout this process.”

Click here to read ZERO TO THREE’s full statement.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law soon.