THANKSGIVING NO. 4

2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018... Fourth Thanksgiving post! I am thankful just for that alone. Reflecting this year, Summer's has experienced much and so have I... 

On the Personal Front

2018 is another year of plenty of overseas travels, but the trips are personal trips, not just work trips. I have made eight personal trips and connected and reconnected with people whom I hold dearly in my heart.

In February, I was in Yangon for a day to attend the wedding of one of the teachers at New World Therapuetic Center for Special Needs Children. It was my honour to be invited to share the joy. These teachers are more than 'only people whom I work with'.

In March, Mag invited me to join her life group to visit Israel. Her life group makes up of people closest to her, who have walked through life with her for nearly twenty years. This Israel trip did not only bring the Bible to life, it also brought Mag and I closer.

Bible sharing at the Sea of Galilee

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Mag and I floating on the Dead Sea

In April, my family and I went to Tokyo, Japan. It was fantastic to spend time with my mum, my brother, my sister-in-law and of course, my niece. Like my brother always says, she is such a blessing to the family. And I always say, she is such a bundle of joy.

My niece plucking and feasting on strawberries at a strawberry farm

My niece and my brother and sister-in-law (in the background) at Disneyland!

In July, I spent a few days in Miri, Malaysia with a friend whom I met on a Cycle and Cruise trip in 2014. She loves taking the less traveled roads. We trekked two caves in Miri and had great fun cycling around the town. Another amazing happening was meeting the mother of one of my Brunei kids. She was from Miri and had married off to Brunei. Coincidentally, she was back in Miri when I visited. She brought us to a couple of nice restaurants and even packed the infamous kolo mee for us to bring back. She is a parent-turned-friend; all started from her loving attitude and hospitality during my initial days travelling to Brunei.

In October, I revisited Melbourne, Australia. It was a ten year anniversary celebratory trip to retrace my days in Melbourne. This is the city in which I had spent fours years, a city which had grounded me in my Speech Therapy career. In this trip, catching up with my old school and classmates was the best part!

I stayed at Tse Yee. my ex-schoolmate's apartment and like during our uni days, home-made chicken wings are a must-have! 

Tse Yee sending me off on the airport bus. We had so much crazy fun!

In November, I spent three weeks in Myanmar, traveling a week with my friend from Ireland and another week with my best friend. We had so much fun catching up and exploring new places. I also connected with new friends whom I would like to visit again. Do check out the previous blog entry for more details about the three weeks. 

In December, I had a short trip with my extended family, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is one of the rare times that I got to spend time with my brother, niece,  Mum, cousins and Aunty. Savouring good food with people I love was the feature of this trip!

Taking a wefie with the family of three generations is not easy! My niece has given on us and refused to join in. Hah!

And now, I am spending the last two days of the year with two of my friends in Batam, Indonesia. One of them was my old classmate from my Junior College days! And I shall not mention how many years ago that was. Old friendships are the best, journeying through life together.

As a Company

In 2018, overseas consultation and training in Myanmar, Jakarta and Brunei continues. It gives me great joy to see how the children are improving with continual and regular support and how the teachers and therapists are growing in knowledge and skills. Sustainability is very important for me and I am thankful that the consultation and training has continued and will continue into 2019!

In June, we also saw a new addition to the Summer's family - Melissa Lubbe! Despite not having practiced for a while, Melissa was on the roll quickly. The best thing about her is her calm and poised personality, which has definitely co-regulated many of our children.

Since Melissa's joining, the three of us, i.e. Mag, Melissa and I started a formal in-house platform for professional development. We have regular case discussion and journal sharing. More importantly, we spent time sharing life, getting to know each other better. I am sure this work culture will be helpful for us to work as a team.

The three beauties of Summer's!

In June, I also moved into my own apartment. In it, I have a little therapy room in which therapy sessions can be conducted. This is very helpful for our overseas clients who usually stay in hotels and may need a more conducive environment for therapy. 

In July, we also started a collaboration with Lumiere Montessori House, a beautiful preschool with dedicated teachers. We simply love how the principal welcomes children with special needs and tries her best to support their learning needs. Read up more about the principal, Serene Bak here. 

https://www.facebook.com/lumieremontessorihouse/

In October, we also started revamping our Sing To Talk App. Many of our pre-verbal children love the catchy tunes and are motivated to sing along. Their parents are interested to get the App for home practice but it has become unavailable since the beginning of the year due to some technical issues. As such, we have engaged our IT support to look into it. Looking forward to seeing the new version in first quarter 2019!

Another noteworthy happening of 2018 is the reconnection with a few of my old students from 10 years ago!

First, I reconnected with NZ through a Facebook post. Later, I bumped into her mother at Philips warehouse sale. She had wanted to contact me after she saw that I had liked the post featuring NZ. We exchanged numbers and soon NZ was having Speech Therapy with us!

Second, I bumped into RF at Toa Payoh Central. I did not recognise him as he was only 7 years old when I had worked with him in Rainbow Center in 2008. However, I do remember Mum vividly. She is this tiny lady with the strength of Herculus... mental and emotional strength I mean. She had shared very openly about her struggles with RF and also other family issues. She was not complaining; she had shared in a matter-of-fact manner. She had resilience in her eyes and tone of voice. RF was totally non-verbal in 2008 and now he still is. I will always keep this family in prayers.

Looking Ahead into 2019

As the cliché saying goes "New year new hopes".

In 2019, Summer's hopes to expand its capacity by taking on more therapists and cutting down on the waiting time for the children. We will also be having more in-house and external sharing/training so that we can keep abreast with the latest therapy approaches and research.

We will also be working on our Sing To Talk App: (1) Revamping our current books (and hopefully relaunch it soon!) and (2) Adding new books. So stay tune!

As for my role in Summer's, I will continue to work towards more frequent visits to all our children, so that we can learn from each other and grow as a team. I am also working towards doing more supervision, consultation and training, instead of therapy sessions. This is so that our therapists can be well-supported and more children can be well-served. There is only so many children I can take under my caseload; if I move towards supervision, consultation and training, more children can be served. Looking forward to passing on my knowledge and experience. 

On the personal front, I will like to spend more time in Singapore. There are many friends whom I have not catch up with for a while due to my frequent overseas travels, both for work and personal reasons. Can't wait to see them soon in 2019!

Ending off this long post, I wish everyone a very blessed 2019, full of love, joy, peace, hope and health.