Im Summer Harrison, the owner of Hale Pohaku. Im the voice on the other end of the phone when you call for reservations, so I thought Id take a few moments to introduce myself. Ive been living on Kauai since 1989. After coming here on business trips twice, and vacations two more times after that, I finally just decided to make the move. The last time I was here on vacation, I managed to put 1200 miles on the rental car in ten days (if youve been to Kauai, you know how hard that is!), went home, gave notice at my job in Washington, D.C., packed up my things, put them in the basement, got friends to promise to mail them to me as soon as I found a place to live, and two months later I was back on Kauai. It was essentially starting life over at the age of 35, and Ive never regretted it for an instant. The defining element of my life is my daughter Hannah. I adopted her from Cambodia in 2000, when she was six months old. After having received numerous written reports from the adoption agency telling me she was a normal, healthy baby, you can only imagine what I went through when, two months after bringing her home, I was told that her brain damage was so severe it was possible shed never develop beyond the level of a two month old infant. After years of medical testing and trips to specialists on the mainland (including Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and Stanford Universitys childrens hospital), I know that she suffered a stroke before she was born. Hannahs list of diagnoses include microcephaly (an abnormally small brain), blindness (she has limited occasional vision, as the source of the problem is the destruction of the brain tissue, not her eyes themselves), cerebral palsy, and uncontrollable seizures (she has subclinical seizure activity in her brain every one to two seconds). She has severe cognitive impairment and global developmental delays, so that she cannot take food by mouth but feeds through a tube that was surgically implanted in her tummy. With lots of love, therapy and medical treatments, she is doing so much better than the doctors ever predicted. On Mothers Day of 2004, she began walking. Her physical and visual therapists say she has an incredible mental mapping capability, so that she has learned how to navigate herself through the house. Ive color coded the walls so she can tell when she goes from one room into another (the only vision she has is peripheral), and everyone makes sure we keep her paths clear of obstructions. She is considered medically fragile, and I have a nurse who lives with me to help take care of her. On occasion, Hannahs nurse, Nyoka, may also pick up the phone when you call for a reservation. Managing Hale Pohaku by phone and email allows me to stay home with Hannah. It can also mean that there are times that Im not able to return phone calls as quickly as I would like, for which I apologize in advance. I have two incredible people working for me to help with Hale Pohaku, Yvonne Carveiro who is in charge of housekeeping, and Reuben Yadao, my maintenance person. Both are lifetime residents of Kauai. When you make a reservation with us, youll get an email with their cell phone numbers as well, so that you can always contact somebody immediately if you need to.

Address: 2231 Pane Rd. Koloa, HI 96756
Telephone: 1-866-742-6462
Website: http://www.vacationrental-kauai.com/