July 21, 2008 (Monday)
The Lord’s Hand in my Life: Giving a gift to the people of Andrieseni from our hearts.

I missed my kids while I was at the Black Sea! It was so good to see them today. When we arrived they were all outside playing so we automatically ventured outside. Andrei came outside a little bit later, and he saw me from across the playground. One of the workers was holding his hand as she walked him through the door leading to outside, and he started jumping up and down and waving at me. Then the second she let go of his hand he came running at me full throttle and hugged me and jumped into my arms. I love it love it love it. It makes me feel so good – especially to know that he enjoys my company. Whitney S. said he saw me before I had seen him and that he started getting all excited and was trying to get my attention. So dang cute!

As I was hugging him I just kept thinking about I have to leave him in a few weeks. I wonder how he’s going to feel when I just disappear…I mean he’s three – he won’t understand why I’ve gone. I’m praying he won’t think I just abandoned him or don’t love him anymore. I’m having a hard time with this leaving thing, and I still have three weeks left. I try not to think about leaving, but all us girls are…it’s impossible not to. Plus we need to prepare ourselves for leaving. Our professor said it’s much harder on the girls to adjust when they leave than when they come to Romania. Apparently sometimes girls will go into deep depression because they miss their kids. I sure hope I don’t have that hard of a time. But I feel really guilty leaving Andrei and the rest of my kids. I feel like I’m leaving my children behind…and even though more girls are coming next semester I’m afraid they won’t love them like I do.

I did talk to Teo today about Andrei’s situation. Once again it was reiterated that he cannot be adopted or fostered out until he has implants put in. However, once again they have moved his surgery back. When I first came they said July, then they said September, and now they said they want to wait a few more months to see how much he can hear with his hearing aid. I’m a bit frustrated! I want them to do the surgery soon so he can be fostered to a good family.

On the other hand I did find out some good news today in regards to Andrei’s situation. I asked Teo if they have any deaf schools in Romania and she said they did. Then I asked her what needed to be done to get him into the school, and she said they just have to fill out some paperwork and have it approved. She said they are going to try and put him in a school in September. That made me SOOO happy to hear! If he goes to an all deaf school he will be able to learn how to sign and communicate, and he needs to so badly. The orphanage isn’t doing him any good here. After I leave I’m going to email Teo about his progress and make sure he is put into a deaf school.

There were a ton of little babies at the hospital today. I loved holding each and every one of them. There is something so satisfying in holding a baby and being able to transform their crying into expressions of smile and laughter. I love it.

There was one baby in particular that caught my eye. It was a little baby girl about 1 ½ to 2 months old. Right when I picked her up and looked at her I looked over at Annie and said “She has a special light in her eye – a special twinkle.” She just had a little sparkle of goodness that I sensed. Ironically a few seconds after I started holding her I laughed and she immediately started laughing. Then I laughed again and she immediately copied me. It was the cutest thing ever and highly unexpected. She was so little – she didn’t look like she was old enough to be able to smile. Annie and I both looked at each other like “is she really laughing?” She continued to laugh whenever I would laugh for about five minutes. It seriously made my year! I only wish I could have gotten it on video, but my camera is officially broken again…that’s a whole other story.

The second we got home I started taking my laundry down from the line outside, and we got a phone call. Apparently Teo (the Priest’s daughter from Andrieseni) was coming to play and stay with us for the night, and she was coming in 15 minutes. I love having no notice – oh well – Annie and I made it work. We cleaned and ran around like mad for about 15 minutes. It was amazing…

When the girls arrived we all decided to take her out to eat for Pizza at a little place outside. We ordered a ton of food and had fun chatting. We found out that Teo isn’t going to spend the night tonight – so we were glad we cleaned furiously right before she came…oh well…

After we ate Teo came with us to FHE. The activity part of FHE was quite humorous. The missionaries were in charge of the activity, but they were having an extremely hard time keeping control of the situation. They wanted to play Mafia, and they were trying to explain the rules in Romanian and English. Boy was that funny to watch. It took forever for them to explain in both languages, and therefore everyone got bored and was talking and chatting. After about one round they gave up and started a new game. This time we played Water in the Face. The game is just like it sounds. What happens is one person stands in the middle and picks a category – for example cars. Then everyone else is sitting in a circle and each person has to say a type of car. If the person guesses the car the person in the middle is thinking then you get a cup of water thrown in your face. I was lucky enough to get water in my face twice, but we all had a good time – including Teo. Then after FHE was done the water game led to a water fight. Normally I’m the person that starts water fights, but I didn’t feel like joining for some reason. I just went outside and looked at the clouds. A thunderstorm was coming and I LOVE thunderstorms. They are so powerful and strong. Plus I love the way the air smells when a storm is coming…

After FHE we went and finished putting together a gift we had for Teo and her family and gifts for the people of Andrieseni. We wrote cards and printed out photos of the people we took pictures with for them to have. We thought they’d enjoy them, and it’s an inexpensive way for us to show our appreciation. Teo was so excited. She kept saying “thank you” over and over again. It was so cute how she got so excited about something so simple. I loved it.

After FHE I tried calling Sony about my camera that is not functioning. I was sooooo annoyed because this is the second problem I have had with that camera in less than three months, and it is the same problem I had with the first one. When I called I basically got the run around about calling another place yadda yadda…then I couldn’t call the Europe line because my phone card is from Romania to the U.S. In desperation I called my Mom Mia and asked her if she could call them and see if I could return it. I told her I DON’T want to exchange it, but that I want my money back. In Europe they don’t really return things – just exchange – but maybe they will if I put up a fight…I’m going to talk to her tomorrow night to see what they say. Hopefully there is something they can do. I can’t afford to lose several hundred dollars for another camera…I already don’t know how I’m going to make it when I go home…I’ll have to take out a loan for school I guess… no good…my goal has been to get out of school debt free. So far so good – until my last semester. Stinks…oh well at least I was blessed to get this far without debt. I need to focus on the positive, but it’s so hard sometimes!