June 18, 2008 (Wednesday)

The Lord’s Hand in My Life: One of my kids learned something I have been trying to teach them for the past couple of months!

At the orphanage several of the kids in my room had little red dots all over their face. They looked like little pimples. I asked the worker what they were, and she said they were flea bites. The must have been in the room where Andrei and Maria and Andrea slept because they had them on the sides of their face and ears. I felt so bad for them. Poor Andrei’s ears were all red from so many bites. I guess fleas are pretty normal here. That was a nice reminder for us to spray our apartment before they have a chance to invade.

There were some new developments today. Valentina jumped with me holding her. Normally she keeps her legs stick straight. I have been trying to get her to understand how to bend her legs and jump for the past month, and she finally understands the motion of jumping! I was ecstatic! She definitely can’t jump on her own, but with a little more practice she will be able to soon. I kept hugging her and telling her how proud I was of her. It was amazing to see her attempt to do something that I have been teaching her.

Andrei was really clingy today – more so than usual. He would barely wander more than a foot away from me, and I had to hold him as tight as possible in my arms at all times. I don’t know why he was so clingy. Every once in a while he will get that way. I’m positive he has attachment disorders. Poor thing – he cares about me and just like all the other people in his life I’m going to leave him in a month and a half. I’m going to feel like the worst person in the world when I do. It’s going to be really hard – really, really hard.

We had a visitor at the orphanage today. His name is Mihai, and he was adopted by Doamna Maria’s daughter. Doamna Maria is a worker at the orphanage, and she is usually in the Mickey Mouse room with us. She is the nicest worker in the world. She is our little grandma who loves each child and is so patient and gentle with everyone. I’ve never once seen her raise her voice or treat the children unkindly. All the BYU girls adore her. Anyways back to the story, Mihai is about 15-years-old, and he has fetal alcohol syndrome and was adopted by Doamna Maria’s daughter. Mihai lived in the orphanage until a year ago. It’s nice to see a happy ending. They don’t happen very often around here. When Mihai came into the room it was the cutest thing ever, because he started kissing Irina’s hand and stroking her face. Apparently they were friends when he was at the orphanage. I was fascinated that they remembered one another even though it’s been a while since they’ve seen one another – not to mention the fact that Irina can’t talk and Mihai is only able to mumble a few phrases. Friendship is an amazing thing – it doesn’t even require words.

Nothing too exciting happened at the hospital today. Poor Claudio looked horrible when we walked into his room. He had snot pouring down his nose so bad that it was running into his mouth. Then when I picked him up to clean him off he spit up what looked like a mixture of snot and vomit. It was lovely…