June 10, 2008 (Tuesday)

It was really hot outside today. I’m scared of what next month will bring. I have a feeling we’re only getting a small glimpse of the horror weather that is to come…especially since no one believes in opening windows.

Whitney and I were the only ones in the Mickey Mouse room today. Elisa went to Bambi because Mary needed a break today and they needed one more worker in the room. My kids were a joy today. Valentina finally said the word “mama” and “tata” which means “mom” and “dad” in English. I was so proud of my little vampire! One may wonder why I would teach her those words since she doesn’t have parents, but the kids often call the workers “mama.” Then Irina was a happy camper today. I took her out of her seat and tickled her. The second you touch her or pay her any attention to her she comes to life. I feel bad because sometimes the other kids require more of my attention and it easily distracts from the quality attention I can spend with her, but today I felt like we had good one-on-one time together. I wish I could have taken pictures of Irina and Christina today because they had bright, purple matching bows placed directly on top of their head. Sometimes the outfits the workers put on them are interesting. Maybe that’s all they have. Whitney and I were cracking up though so we had no complaints.

Maria is so smart. She is becoming excellent at throwing the ball back and forth to me. Sometimes it takes her a minute to process certain commands I say to her, but she definitely understands. Today she scooted over to me and grabbed my arm when I was holding the other kids. I think she does that when she feels like she needs a little bit of love. I cuddled her for a couple of minutes…Iulia and I had fun playing with objects that have different feels to them. Iulia loves sensory items. Her favorite thing in the world is to hold a paper bag or a random piece of plastic in her hand. I don’t know why she likes it so much but she does! Today I brought this really soft scarf and ironically she wasn’t a huge fan of it…I tried giving it to her a time before but she didn’t like it then either. I thought she’d love it. Nope.

I played with Ghiocel a bit today. He’s one of Whitney Scott’s kids. He is a little sweetheart, but boy does he scream loud. Today a company came and gave gift baskets to all the kids in the orphanage. In the bag they had a juice box, puzzle, stuff like that…Anyways, the man handed me a juice box to Ghiocel, and Ghiocel ended up squeezing the box and the juice squirted all over his face. I was laughing…He looked a little stunned. Oh well. Kids will be kids.

Today I only got to see Andrei for a few minute because he was napping, but when he woke up he ran directly to me as usual. I danced with him for a while and he just rested his head on my shoulder. I love it when they are cuddly right after their naps and not jumping off the walls. It’s great!

I saw Sera outside today. I just tried to ignore him, because I didn’t have any energy to deal with any situations with him. Lets just say it was awkward.

Today I haven’t felt real well. My stomach and head have been bothering me. Annie wasn’t feeling well today either. I think we are all getting a little worn out from the heat and working with sick kids all day. I need to pray that my health will be good enough that I can take care of the kids…

At the hospital we took Florine outside…he was so excited! He zoomed out of that room to the elevator. Kenz and I practically had to jog to catch up with him. I guess being outside is a big deal when you are stuck inside all day. I take being outside for granted. In fact lately being outside is quite miserable because it’s getting so hot.

Today my little Claudio looked like he was feeling much better. I don’t know what is wrong with him but his little stomach is huge and hard. He looks like he has the stomach of one of the starving African children you see on Feed the Children. I was so excited when we got him to smile. He is normally so serious. It takes genuine effort to get him to smile, but he did it! I got an entire video on him smiling. It was sooo cute…babies just melt me.

After those kiddos I went and visited Valentine and the boys on the sixth floor. Mindy and Annie brought their laptop so the boys could watch the movie “Cars.” They loved it. I chatted with Valentine for a while. It was so cute because Valentine was like “Are there more nice girls in America like you girls?” We said “yes.” Then he replied “So it’s not just a dream. Oh my goodness…” I quickly informed him that not all the girls in America were nice, but that there were lots of nice girls.” He was so excited. Then the boys were laughing at Mindy, Annie and I because we were sitting on the ground while the movie was playing. Here they believe if a girl sits on the cold ground your ovaries will freeze and you won’t be able to have kids. It sounds ridiculous, but they believe it. When the nurses walked in and saw us sitting there they kept giving us weird looks. However, I’m not too concerned about it.

Annie and Mindy left a bit early because Annie wasn’t feeling well so I tried to keep the crew entertained. Valentine loves rap music – so I pulled out my Ipod and found some clean rap songs. He was like “this is so cool…” The two boys had a blast listening to it. Valentine kept singing to the song, but he’d say the wrong words. So cute.

Right before I left there is this little 11-year-old boy named Ionut who is friends with Valentine who timidly asked for my phone number. He had to have Valentine translate because he can’t speak English. I told him I didn’t know my phone number so he gave me his. Haha…Of course I’m not going to do anything with it, but that’s adorable. He looked a little embarrassed when Valentine was translating for him. Then Valentine was like “I want to get Mindy’s number because she is really cute.” Oh these little boys and their little crushes.

As we were leaving the hospital the crazy security guard came up to me. He is always outside whenever we take Florine outside and he always asks me if I can go for a picnic with him. He’s like my dad’s age…gross…Anyways, I always tell him “no,” but he still asks me everyday. He grabbed my hand and kissed it in front of all the girls when I left...men in general are interesting here.