July 14, 2008 (Monday)
The Lord’s Hand in my Life: My conviction in my faith.

Today I got to see my kiddos! I especially missed them because I hadn’t seen them since Thursday. When I walked into the orphanage most of the kids were outside so we headed out there. Sadly Andrei wasn’t out there – he was upstairs sleeping once again. Later in the morning he stumbled out. It made me kind of sad, because he didn’t seem as excited to see me as usual. I don’t know if he was upset that I hadn’t been there for a few days or what. After a few minutes he warmed up to me and immediately grabbed my hand to play with him.

Outside my pink streak in my hair was immediately noticed. Sera called me over and looked at me and was like “why?” I told him that I felt like it. Obviously it wasn’t a good enough answer because he just shook his head and said “There is a reason you’ve done that. You aren’t telling me something. It is symbolism for something.” Whitney S. and I were cracking up. I kept telling him there was no symbolism, but he didn’t believe me. Then Whitney S. and I decided to play with him and ask him to guess why we did it. He never stated he didn’t like it, but he pretty much did with his facial language. Then when Florine saw my hair he was like “wow – rosi” (wow pink). I was loving the reactions. Dr. Pantezescu also came over and said it was beautiful and started playing with my hair. I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or just mocking me.

As were were playing outside Sera was being kind of a jerk. He started saying something to Florine and looked at me and started laughing. When I asked him what he said all he said was “men.” Then he kept talking to him in Romanian. I told him he was being rude. Romanians are so annoying sometimes.

When we went inside with the kids Andrei started throwing a fit and once again they put him in his crib. I was like “not again!” Every time he has cried in the past week they throw him in there for the rest of the morning. After he was in there a few minutes I asked Maria if he could get out. Luckily she said yes. I was so glad.

We got a new child in our room today. His name is Vali. It’s sad because you can tell he has been badly abused. Every time you raise your hand he cringes and cowers like you are going to hit him. Even when you are just going to touch him softly…it’s so sad. I cuddled him for a while. He just laid in my arms quite content. Later on though he got upset and flung a toy across the room. It seems like he is extremely passive aggressive. Sad.

In the room Andrei got a little annoyed this new little boy was taking my attention. He gets so protective of me. He was trying to hit the other little boy, and I kept telling him “nu” (no). He is so funny, because he gets this mean look on his face if he doesn’t like what another little kid is doing. If looks could kill man…wow.

Maria was so cute today. I just adore her. She has not wanted to play lately. She just wants to cuddle. Today once again she just flopped herself into my lap, and I cuddled her. She got the cutest little grin of satisfaction when I held her in my arms. She just needs love - like they all do.

When we left the orphanage Mindy and MacKenzie came in fuming. Sera is often in their room working with the babies and apparently he started going off about the church. He told them he has read The Book of Mormon, and he doesn’t believe it is true. I guess he had a bunch of stuff underlined that he didn’t agree with, but he wouldn’t even let them explain the reasoning behind certain things. The girls said he wouldn’t listen to one word they had to say, and at one point they said he said he shook The Book of Mormon and exclaimed “it’s bull s***.” The girls were both upset. I don’t blame them. Our religion is important to us, and when someone disrespects that it is huge. Sera can be a total jerk sometimes. I asked them if they told him to talk to the missionaries because they would best be able to answer any questions he had, and they said they had but he didn’t want to. It’s one thing to disagree, but when you are disrespectful that’s a whole new ball game. I told them it sounds like he just wants to Bible bash. Then I told them not to play into his game. In high school if my friends started saying rude things about my religion or started asking questions in a disrespectful way I would simply say “My religion is too important for me to argue about it. I know what is true. If you want to have a discussion about the church I am more than happy to talk to you, but if you are just going to be disrespectful I will not talk to you.” They usually shut up after I said that.

Outside we waited for Annie. She said Melissa and her can’t leave any earlier. We’re trying to find a solution so our time isn’t wasted and she can get home…we are going to brainstorm. While we were sitting out there waiting these Romanian guys started yelling from their window at us. They were like “What language do you speak? Where are you from?” We all ignored them, but of course they continued. Then they were like “I like your eyes. I like your smile,” and then they continued with a list of simple phrases they knew in English. Soooo obnoxious.

At the hospital Annie and I had a funny situation happen. The nurse showed us to a room that had two little disabled kids, and we went in and started holding them. Then Annie turned on some Michael Buble music and we started dancing with them. After playing with them for almost an hour all of a sudden a lady walked into the room and looked very confused. Apparently it was the mother for both of them. We told her we were sorry and left. She didn’t seemed bothered. She actually said “merci” (thank you). After all we had played with her kids and changed their diapers. Haha…Annie and I were cracking up. How random would that be if you left the hospital room for a few minutes, walk back into the room and see two girls that don’t speak your language holding and dancing with them – not to mention have their backpacks on your bed. Oh Romania.

After those kids I played with a little boy named Mihai. He is absolutely adorable. He is sooo ticklish, and he has the cutest laugh. He has bright blue eyes and blonde hair. He definitely doesn’t look like he is Romanian. It’s so cute because he absolutely loves it when we come. He hates when we leave. The second we go near his crib he freaks out because he knows we are going to leave soon. I just played with him for a while and swang him around. He loved it.

When we got home I cooked dinner because I didn’t get to last week. I made stuffed French toast and fruit salad. Annie showed me how to make the stuffed French toast and boy oh boy it was delicious. I’m so excited to make food when I get home. I’m learning so many cooking skills it’s great.

For FHE Mary was in charge of the activity, and we played a quick game of charades. We were laughing because every time we thought a word would be hard to act out it was guessed immediately. It was fun though. Everyone had a good time.

The rest of the evening I cleaned dishes from dinner, wrote in my journal and organized pictures. Oh there are never enough hours in the day for everything.