Staff Blog

Recently we have taken in several sibling groups to replace some of the children who have left for adoption. The decision-making process for these admissions is quite extensive, and involves lots of people. Our social workers handle the referrals and make recommendations on whether they feel the child meets our criteria for need. They gather collateral information, interview the people who made the referral and get an idea of what the preparation of birth documents might entail. A referral meeting is held with representatives from the medical, social work and child care teams. The child care team and counselors will observe and, if the child old enough, talk with the child. We try to find out the types of experiences that the child(ren) may have had and what they have been exposed to. This might involve several visits with the child.  If the child is school age one or more of our teachers will do an assessment to try and determine cognitive issues and where the child might fit in at our school. Each child undergoes a medical examination and a battery of tests before we make a decision about whether to admit the child.

I am always encouraged and delighted by the positive approach of our staff with all of our referrals. We really want to say yes to all of them. Our teachers are always excited to bring in new students. Our social workers make positive recommendations and are excited when we are able to admit a child or a sibling group. Though we know that there are some kids we just can't take in, we  consider their cases carefully, prayerfully and compassionately. We've got a great team of people here in Cebu!

If a photo is worth a thousand words...this will be a long blog post.

Each of the kids had to tell me something that a farmer would do while wearing this hat.   Planting rice and plowing a field with a Caribao (water buffalo) were the most common answers.  

We do have one young man who said that a farmer would use a hammer.....I believe that was because farmer and hammer rhymed,  he also told me that  the farmer might use a  stick.  Hmmmm.  

Enjoy the CSC smiles!

The other day Marlys and I were waiting to talk to Jenny's doctor. We had been told that she was in and that we could see her at 3:00. We waited and waited. It wasn't until 4:50 that we finally were able to see the doctor, after almost two hours of agonizing boredom.

As I was sitting there on the hard bench, I thought about Marlys, and the hundreds and thousands of hours that she has spent waiting in doctors' offices, laboroatories,  hospital rooms and various other waiting rooms over the years. The number of times that she waited for several hours would be too many to count. Most doctors in the Philippines do not take appointments, so its first come, first served. And many times the doctors get delayed and are very late in arriving. Another factor is that we have always tried to provide our children with the very best doctors available in Cebu City. And these quality doctors are usually the busiest. So she often had to wait. Sometimes for most of a day. These days we have several nurses on our medical team that can share the waiting time. But Marlys still is one of our "waiters," sitting in crowded and noisy waiting rooms, holding babies or trying to keep active children occupied. She does it for the sake of these kids, and I'm amazed at how she has been able to do that for all these years.

The best time to visit CSC is between 3:30 pm (kids get out of school) and 5:00 pm (the bells ring for the kids to do chores or go in the house for bathtime and getting ready for supper.)   If you are here between these times you  will see a yard full of kids doing an amazing number of  different things.   It never ceases to impress me how many things can be going on in our playground at one time!  

I took a few minutes to take some photos this afternoon.  I know I missed some of the action but we had kids busy playing with basketballs, soccerballs,  foam bats and  baseballs,  frisbees,  playing the infamous "rubber band game", catching bugs,  swinging,  climbing,  practising their gymnastic skills,  biking,  taking some time to be alone,  visiting,  and last, but certainly not least,  trying to decide if a tantrum was in order or not....    

Spoiler alert - apparently it was.

Our kids have been opening up a lot lately. A dental team from Lindstrom, Minnesota has been here taking care of their teeth, and it has been an interesting time of bravery, fear, trembling and lots of hard work. Dentist and great friend of CSC Matt Struve, reports that they treated 250 teeth, with fillings and extractions, and cleaned the teeth of most of the children. All in all Dr. Struve and his team did thousands of dollars of free dental work and blessed us all with their compassion, generosity and friendship. On their last night at CSC, Matt gave demonstrations to the kids and staff on proper brushing technique, and gave out awards in three categories: Clean Mouth Club, Bravest and Most Helpful. Many thanks to Matt Struve, his son, Evan, and his two assistants, Anne Renaker and Brenda Birk. Anne, Brenda and the Struves attend Lakes Evangelical Free Church in Lindstrom.

Check out some additional photos posted by Matt Struve.