Connections - Ishy's story, part 2

With all the obstacles - money, doctors, facilities, travel, visas - many people thought this quest was impossible. Elaine is a bit like the U.S. Marines: "The difficult we do right away. The impossible takes a little longer." "Can't" just isn't in her vocabulary. It's a challenge.

In November, Elaine traveled from St. Lucia to Chicago for the yearly national convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). There she met with Dr. Helen Sharp, a friend and colleague from her days teaching at Western Michigan University. Helen is the president of the Michigan State Cleft Palate Association (she is also now president of the national organization)

 Dr. Helen Sharp with Annelta in Hazel's House of Hope

Elaine described Ishy and Annelta's situation to Helen. Helen called her good friend, Dr. Richard Kirschner, who just happens to be one of the best cleft-palate surgeons in the world, at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "Yeah, I think we can do that," was his immediate response.
He needed approval from the hospital's international relations committee. No problem, except...it would take some time (January approval at the earliest) and they require that patients have a local (i.e., Columbus, Ohio) host family.

On Thanksgiving Day Elaine (now back in St. Lucia) called her sister in northern Ohio to wish her happy Thanksgiving and oh, by the way, you belong to that huge church - can you ask if anyone has contacts in Columbus that could be a host family. Her sister, Amy, said, "sure we can ask. But we're going to our daughter Shawna's for dinner and her husband's sister (I told you this was about connections) goes to Columbus all the time. Maybe she knows someone."

So at Thanksgiving dinner, Amy told Ishy's story to Kendra (the son-in-law's sister). Kendra said, "I know just the person." Kendra picked up the phone - on Thanksgiving Day - and called Cindi Gremling in Columbus. Cindi immediately said, "Yes! No problem" (That's Cindi's MO, her SOP - "Say yes and we'll figure it out later." She's a whole 'nother story.) It turned out that a four-year-old boy Cindi and her husband Dan adopted the previous year had cleft-palate surgery in the same hospital just a few months before. And, Cindi and Dan run Hazel's House of Hope, an organization that has lived-in houses in very poor, "bad," neighborhoods where the house residents reach out and provide food, shelter, encouragement, guidance, and help to anyone in the neighborhood.

 Cindi Gremling carries Ishy from Hazel's House of Hope

Within two hours of Elaine's call to Amy - did I mention it was Thanksgiving Day - the connections came through with a host family, no cost, and in a house a twelve-block straight shot away from the hospital with a family that had just gone through the same surgery.

Now all they needed was money.