July 3, 2008 (Thursday)
The Lord’s Hand In My Life: Talking with a good friend.

We celebrated Andrea’s birthday. She turned one. They had her in the most adorable little pink outfit with a little white hat. She looked so cute. I love birthdays because the workers are more nice to the kids. It was a great morning. Five of us BYU girls sat outside on a blanket with our kids, and the workers sat close by and talked. Then we sang happy birthday in Romanian and English.

The apartments were quite interesting. At the 3rd floor we were able to take them outside to play. That was the first time I had been to the playground located outside their apartment. It was horrible. There was trash everywhere – in and outside the garbage bins. Weeds were growing in the cracks of the ground, swings were missing the part you sit on, and they squeaked so bad that I could barely swing because I couldn’t stand the high pitched squeal with every rock. It was ridiculous. Apparently we are doing a service project with church for that little park in a week…I’m glad because it desperately needs it.

While we were playing outside Sergio went around tearing up pieces of trash he found everywhere. Then he kept reaching into the trash can to find more than what was on the ground. It was soooo gross. He loves tearing things up. Then Alina kept trying to escape the playground. There is a wire fence that surrounds it, but apparently there are holes throughout it. I turned around for a second and all of a sudden Alina was stepping through the hole and attempting to run into the street. I had to do a hundred yard dash to reach her. It got my blood running. Then for the rest of the time she went around pulling wrappers off of old bottles. I know I’ve already said it but there really is a ton of trash. I couldn’t believe kids played there. Then Cosmina was her usual sedate self, but the poor thing is so heavy it took her about 15 minutes to get up the stairs. I could try carrying her, but she needs the exercise – so I slowly and patiently walked be her side up the stairs. She made it to the top and that’s all that matters. Then Madalin kept coming up to me to swing him around. He also loved looking underneath this toy on the playground that you stand on and it goes round and round. He is fascinated by something about it. He’s such a cutie.

At 7th floor apartment the kids were really well behaved today. I brought a game of Go Fish that had “My Little Petshop” characters on it. I tried explaining the rules in my best Romanian. I think the girls (Catalina and Laura) got the jist of the game, but I don’t know if they really understood the concept. Oh well. We had fun playing it anyways. Costica was acting really strange today. Normally he is really cuddly, but today he didn’t want anyone to touch him, and he would randomly burst into tears. It was really strange. I hope he is okay. Maybe he was just having an off day?

Right before we were about to leave Catalina and Laura started doing our hair and Laura ended up getting a rubber band tangled in Elyse’s hair. I couldn’t get it out at the apartment – it was too snarled there was nothing I could do. She had to wear it in her hair until we got back to the apartment where we cut the rubberband out. Then we tried to wash and put conditioner on the knot to untangle it. That didn’t work either. As a last resort one of the girls had to cut it out of her hair. I felt bad for Elyse. She fell down the steps earlier in the afternoon then she got a rubber band stuck in her hair. Poor thing.

When we got back to Elyse’s apartment Mario was over cooking. She told us she would make a treat for us. It was fried cucumbers – very good. I like Mario. She is a good woman. The only thing is that sometimes she jokes a little harshly.

I got to talk to my friend Kristi tonight. It was soo great! I loved it! When she answered the phone I was like “Kristi” and she was like “who is this?” Then I said “Whitney,” and she got so excited. It made me feel good. I love it when friends are excited to hear from me. I told her I missed her, and she said she missed me. I love that girl. Then she caught me up on her relationship with her boyfriend Todd. Apparently it is getting pretty serious because they went ring shopping. Mary and I decided our theme song is going to be “Another One Bites the Dust” whenever we hear another one of our friends are getting married. It’s a vicious circle haha…