May 17, 2008 (Saturday)

This morning we woke up, went back to our apartment from the sleepover, and played Cinderella in our apartment. We cleaned and cleaned– it still didn’t feel real clean after we were done, but it made us feel better. Plus our tub won’t drain so every time someone takes a shower the next person has to stand in about a foot of dirty water from the person before. Gross. Then after we cleaned I decided to go with Elisa and Melissa to the hospital. We don’t have to go on the weekends, but we can if we want to. I wanted to see my little babes – so we took a nice walk over there. Tomorrow is going to be my break away from the kids. I figure I need at least one day to recover from all the sadness from the week.

Once I got to the hospital it seemed to be the day that everyone wanted to talk to me in Romanian... The first baby I visited was adorable Octavian. He was screaming bloody murder when I walked in the room. I’ve never seen any of the other moms in the room pick him up. It’s so weird. I wonder if it is a cultural rule that you don’t pick up orphans…so sad. I just know if I were in there, and I heard a baby crying I would pick it up. Who knows? Anyways, I started holding Octavian and a nurse walked in and started speaking to me very fast in Romanian. At least it felt fast because the only thing I could manage to pick from her sentences was “we go” and “two kids.” She was trying to motion to me what she wanted, but her acting wasn’t very good, so I made the motion that I would follow her with the baby. She nodded and I followed her. Then she went to pick up the other orphan baby from a few doors down. I followed her with Octavian in my arms even though I had no clue where we were going, but I figured there was some point to this adventure. We ended up going to a little room where a nurse handed us little masks like you would see at the dentist. They motioned for me to hold the petite mask over Octavian’s mouth. I put it over his nose and mouth and he was not a happy camper – neither was the other baby. Apparently it was some type of medicine that they breathe in. He was screaming, and I kept saying “I’m so sorry.” I just kept kissing him and hoping he would forgive me for holding the mask on his face. I think he did, because after we were done I rocked him back and forth and kept kissing him and he fell fast asleep.

Then I went to hold the blue baby and the nurse on that floor decided to talk to me like I spoke fluently once again. I must be really good at pretending I understand, but I would think that they would know by now that none of us girls are very good at the language. They don’t. So I just I just smiled and tried to pick out words I understood. She brought in a bottle and just sat it by the baby so I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to feed the baby or not. The only thing was that the bottle didn’t have a nipple, but it also didn’t have a little syringe so I could insert it into the feeding tube. I went out to attempt to ask the nurse what she wanted me to do and it turned into quite the ordeal. I think they thought I was saying that there was something wrong with the milk. The nurse called up to the doctor and was saying amounts of numbers and after chatting with the other nurse she acted like – this is the right amount of formula. Finally they got someone who spoke English to translate. I was like I just want to know if I’m supposed to feed the baby or if someone else will later. She said they would later, so I went back to the room and just held the baby until they came and fed her. Furthermore, I’ve decided that I’m becoming immune to gross stuff – I picked up Maria (the baby who needs heart surgery AKA the blue baby) and got a huge booger on my finger from her. It barely even phased me. I wiped it on the clean part of her dirty diaper and put hand sanitizer on. That must be the way moms feel.
Directly after the hospital Mindy and I had signed up to go on splits with the missionaries. I was pretty tired and dragging, but we said we would go so we did. After the experience I have to admit that being a missionary in a foreign country wasn’t real appealing to me. I admire their courage and strength, but talk about a tough job everyday. Mindy split off with Sister Rosenwall, and I went with Sister Betham. What we did was start at the top of each block and make our way down. The first door we went to we didn’t even get out good evening before the door was shut in our face. That pretty much sat the pattern for the rest of the night as well, but it’s okay. I just feel bad for the missionaries. That must be so frustrating to have something so special to you and no one will listen…grr…Most of the people we talked to were Orthodox. Yet ironically they never went to church – except for Easter and Christmas. Then after each door Sister Betham would look over and be like “did you understand?” Then I would smile and say “not really.” At one point Sister Betham was like I thought you understood because you smiled, nodded and laughed at all the right times. I just replied “I’m starting to get good at making people believe I understand what they’re saying to me. I just laugh when everyone else does.” She just laughed. Then we both had a good chat about our families and different situations that was going on with them. After we were done we met up with the other girls. They went street contacting. Mindy said some guy called them ugly, and then some guys were following them saying mean things about Mormons. Mindy just laughed about it – she’s such a good sport.

After splits with the missionaries us girls planned a relaxing ice cream and movie night. We went and got gelato which was so good – but I’m missing regular ice cream. Then we all turned on a movie, but everyone fell fast asleep after about 10 minutes. That seems to be what happens every time we turn on a movie now days. We’re all just so exhausted and tired from the day….I’m sure we’ll get used to the routine pretty quickly though.

The other day I wasn’t feeling real well, and I fervently prayed to feel better. I think it’s working. I’m feeling a lot better. I felt like I was getting hit hard with something, but I feel like the Lord has at least appeased the severity of my sickness.

One last item of business, my schedule has changed again for the 30th time. I'm not going to the apartments in the afternoon anymore - only the hospital. I'm kind of sad, but that's okay. In essence, I will be going to the hospital everyday unless they open the orphanage up in the afternoons.

P.S. We found cockroach #4…it wasn’t in our room this time! Annie and I were so excited!