Welcome to Hyderabad!

We've been in Hyderabad for over three weeks now. And what a crazy three weeks it has been! Our first ten days here we were stranded in the basement of another SCH home because our house wasn't ready. The girls were stir crazy by the time we moved in! But the day finally came and we moved into our beautiful new home!

Our house (called Joy Home) is a giant two story house. We live on the first floor. Another group of kids that SCH will soon be getting from the government will live on the second. The amount of space we have is crazy! It's triple the size of our apartment in Ongole.Our house has four bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths. The older girls share one bedroom while the younger ones share another. The rooms are HUGE! Jackie, Heidi, Angel, Chelsea, Jeanette, Esther, Naomi, and Rebekah share the largest room of the house. They have more room than they've ever had in their lives! We are so thankful that SCH picked this beautiful house for our girls! The smallest bedroom in the house has been transformed into a school room where our girls do their homework. They have a tutor who comes every afternoon and helps with homework as well as catching them up in school as most of them are behind a couple years.

The best part of living in Hyderabad is our new schools! Having access to better schools is the main reason we moved. There were no special education resources in Ongole and our girls were not getting the education they needed or deserved. By the time we moved, four of our girls had been kicked out because they "didn't have any ability to learn". Getting all twelve enrolled in various schools was a long and stressful process, but we are thrilled to now see all twelve thriving in their new schools!

Esther, Jackie, Angel, and Chelsea are enrolled at Bachpan Playschool. Bachpan is a top notch preschool with one of the best academic programs in Hyderabad. Chelsea and Angel are in playgroup, the beginning class. Jackie is in nursery, the second level. We are really hoping they will soon see how smart she is and bump her up to LKG with Esther! Esther's class, LKG (lower kindergarten) focuses on learning to read and write small words as well as many other things. The girls love Bachpan and can't wait to put their uniforms on every morning!


Heidi started at Kangaroo Kids Playschool last week. I am so excited to see her thrive in their integrated program. I really think that attending a different school than her sisters will help her to develop appropriate social skills and become more attentive in an academic environment. Heidi loves going to school! She's the first one to leave in the morning (which is hard as she's the slowest of our bunch), but she can't wait to walk out the door and get on her bus every day!

Paula, Naomi, and Rebekah are attending Sparsh Special Education School. We absolutely love Sparsh and have been thrilled with the resources they have access to there! In addition to their education they each receive half an hour of speech therapy, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy every day! They come home with daily reports detailing what they learned and how their therapies went. Naomi and Rebekah have been learning how to jump in physiotherapy and Paula gets leg exercises every day! They are all learning phonics and how to pronounce their ABCs correctly. In occupational therapy they are learning how to correctly hold pencils and are working on fine motor skills.

Phoebe, Victoria, Stephanie, and Jeanette were recently enrolled at Devnar School for the Blind. Devnar is normally a boarding school, but they were happy to let our girls attend during their school day! They are all learning to read and write Braille as well as learning regular academics. They started them out in 1st Class since they didn't learn how to read Braille in Ongole. On the girls' first day we discovered that Phoebe had been enrolled at Devnar several years ago before she came to SCH! She learned Braille then and has continued with it on and off during her years at SCH. She's a really smart girl, and we are hoping she picks it back up quickly and can be promoted to a higher class! Devnar has amazing resources and education for children who are blind. We're really excited about the opportunities the girls will have here!


With school enrollment, comes heavy school fees. Thankfully, four of our girls get to attend school for free!! Victoria, Phoebe, Jeanette, and Stephanie have zero school fees! All they need is $25 a month each for transportation. Victoria and Phoebe's are already covered! Steph and Jeanette still need sponsors. You can become a $25 per month sponsor for Jeanette here and for Stephanie here. Just donate under the School Sponsorship link.

The rest of the girls have some pretty hefty school fees. All of the girls fees cover their tuition, enrollment fees, books, uniforms, field trips/special events, and transportation. We are currently fundraising to cover everything for this semester (now-May). Heidi needs $645. Chelsea, Angel, Jackie, and Esther each need $525. Paula, Naomi, and Rebecca each need $490.

We need $4,215 as soon as possible. I know that's a huge number, but every little bit helps! Could you please donate even just a simple $10 so our girls can go to school? You can donate at www.tinyurl.com/schjoyhomeschoolfees.

Enjoy our Shake It Off music video as you consider donating towards our girls' education!