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INSANE!  That’s what today was!  We were overloaded with kids and had a waiting list and all the kids were super hyped-up!  We had a record number of 63 kids total by closing time. I took a short break to swollow some food in a different part of the building and I was shocked to […]

We had a slower day for the most part today so I want to take this chance to give you an idea of our play center. Patty took these pictures early one morning before opening time. Most of our supplies come from large suit cases CDS calls “Kits of Comfort”: In these suit cases are

I feel like I’m kind of over-it with all the devistation around us. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it’s all still here and I don’t like it!  And why is it that it seemed worse than ever this morning?!  Everything just looked so terrible. My new team-mate Kathy who has lots of

Week one is completed and I’m exhausted!  What’s the best way to end week one? Getting moved to a hotel with our own rooms and bathrooms!! It’s amazing how good that feels! Patty and I TP’d Pearl’s door and now it’s time to crash. More kid stories another night. 🙂

This morning I was able to take some time and go to Oklahoma City Children’s Hospital and meet with the Child Life Manager, Erin. She gave me a really good idea of the tornado disaster from inside the hospital and how their child life department handled it.  It was an exciting conversation as we brainstormed

Our team: Jane, Patty, Myrna, me, and Pearl. (Vivian and John are missing from this picture.) We had another team-mate, Kerri who got pink eye and had to leave us and Myrna was only able to stay until yesterday. We had about 50 kids today which is what we had last Friday when I first

I really wanted to go see the hospital that was hit by the tornado. So, here it is: It’s just hard to imagine all the staff and patients who were in there and what it was like for them. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt. This was next door to the hospital. Can you figure

First, I want to give you a better idea of where we’re working. This high school has become the main hub for all things-disaster. Besides the Red Cross and FEMA, there’s every other imaginable disaster service and some insurance companies here too. Anyone in the area who has suffered any type of loss/damage from the

Here it is……the best toy on earth!: The kids have been completely absorbed in the cardboard boxes. Some of the toddlers will crawl in the small boxes and I wish I had a picture to show you that!  It’s not just one kid either, several of them have been doing it. It calms the little

Yep, it’s official (at least for me)!  Pearl and I are Best-ies. Pearl is one of the 6 other CDS volunteers on my team and we spent a lot of time together today. We exchanged book titles over breakfast this morning cause we discovered we love the same kind of books, she was just as