Her voice was aching with frustration, and the stress of her job was etched into the lines on her face... “Sometimes she just wakes up in the middle of the night and starts screaming and scratching herself.” We stood in the middle of the activity room listening to this seasoned nanny as she described her struggles in caring for Riley. Battling with blindness and obvious yet undiagnosed nutritional issues, young Riley sits in the corner of the activity room all day, every day, covering her ears. Without warning, she will start screaming, scratching the back of her neck until it bleeds, and biting the edge of the table. “We can’t ask her what’s wrong, she doesn’t speak,” the nanny said. “Sometimes she wakes up screaming and scratching at night and rolls out of her bed. We have to tie her into bed to keep her from hurting herself.” Oh mercy. My heart aches for Riley, as she battles alone in her head. And my heart aches for Nanny Y who just wants her kids to be safe but feels completely out of options. There is a better way. We listened to Nanny Y and affirmed her heart for Riley. And then we got to open her eyes a little bit more to the great sea of solutions in special needs care. So she’s scratching herself in the night… How about some mittens so she can’t break the skin when she scratches? So she covers her ears all day long… Maybe she doesn’t like the loud sounds in the room, let’s try some noise cancelling headphones. So she has aggressive outbursts and she can’t tell you what’s wrong… Let’s take some time to notice her situation and surroundings during her outbursts and imagine ourselves in her position. We’ll see what that can tell us about what she’s feeling. This is real life here. Hope Station is all about raising up champions who are motivated by love and equipped to care, and it happens through nanny training every. single. week. Nanny training looks like coming alongside these brave ones and looking at the situation with eyes and hearts wide open. That’s where the real impact happens. Help a child and you’ve changed a life. Help a nanny and you’ve changed all the lives she’ll ever touch.
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A note from Rebekah...If you've ever wondered what it would be like to start a nonprofit from the ground up, to open a home for ORPHANS with special needs in Asia, you've come to the right place. Archives
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