Goodbyes

Andreea, Florin, and Andrei went home with their new foster families yesterday. They had them all bundled up in hats and scarves and a few coats (as is customary in Romania when taking children outside) and they all looked so cute. Andreea was looking especially stylish in her princess jeans and matching denim jacket with pink tenis shoes, pink hat, and a furry pink coat.
I brought Crina out to say goodbye to her. Hopefully she will get to join her soon.

The new parents all looked so happy and so did the kids. I'm sure they are all going to settle into their new homes just fine, although I'm sure it will be quite an adjustment for them as they've all been at the clinic since before they can remember. I got a good picture of Andreea with her new Mama (which I will post here if I can ever find a USB cord) She seemed like a really nice woman and from the look on her face I'm sure she already loves Miss Andreea as much as we do. I am so happy for them, but it is hard to say goodbye. I cried after Andreea left. Crina (her little sister) was overwhelmed by all the new people and started to cry as well so we walked up and down the halls crying together, and I admit, her tears stopped falling much sooner than mine did.

Dumi and Octavion will probably go home to their new families next week. Sorin was supposed to go home with a foster mother yesterday, but upon meeting him she refused to take him home. Dan (our team leader) tells us that Sorin has had surgery for his eyes and is now perfectly fine, but I believe otherwise. His eyes are not crossed as badly as last time but I still think he has trouble seeing. He holds everything up close to his face to look at it and can't make eye contact from across the room. Aside from that, just observing him next to the other kids it's obvious that he is delayed. While he is one of the oldest in his group he is probably the slowest to develop. All the other toddlers are interactive and communicative, but Sorin not so much. I'm sure that the foster mother came expecting a "normal" little boy and upon seeing Sorin it was clear that he was not "normal" and she was just not prepared for that. I feel sorry for Sorin, but better he stay here than go home with someone who won't be able to love him as he is.

Today was Jamie and Evans last day at the clinic. Next week I will be there by myself (with all the staff of course) and it will be very different. As many of you know, each day one of the volunteers provides us with a thought for the day (some inspirational quote or short poem). Next week when I am the only volunteer there will be no one else to come up with the thought for the day, so I ask anyone who is willing to send me your inspirational messages for me to have next week. You can either post them here or email them to me. I will very much appreciate receiving them. To give you an idea of what sort of quotes I'm referring to I will post some of ours form the past two weeks.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
-Mother Teresa

The world needs Dreamers, and the world needs Doers; but what the world needs most of all is Dreamers that Do.
-Anonymous

Half way point

We found out today that Andreea will also be going to a foster home this week. Her sister Crina is not ready to leave the clinic yet but will join her in the same foster family when she is ready. And yes Susan, the Andrei I was referring to is the same little special needs boy we worked with last time. I can't really tell you much about him because I haven't been working with him but I can tell you that he is usually in with the rest of the toddlers, not separated. In fact all of the special needs kids are incorporated into the regular groups this time. Alexandra (brittle bone disease) and Ramona (polysistic fibrosis) are with us in the Non mobile group; Maiastra (some sort of brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation during delivery) is in with the mobiles and Sorin (visually impaired) and Andrei (heart defect and cognitive delays) are in with the toddlers. Ana Maria (gastro esophageal reflux disease) has her own personal aid and they are sometimes separate and sometimes join in with the toddlers or come and visit us.

In other news we found out this week that the original birth dates we had for Daniella and Beatrice were wrong. They were both born in 2006 not 2005 so instead of coming up on 2 years they are not even one year old yet. This is very comforting as neither of them can sit or crawl or even has teeth yet. We've been saying all along that they look closer to 9 months than 2 years and we were glad to find that this is in fact so.

Speaking of Beatrice and Daniella, they were both crabby this afternoon. Daniella would not stop moaning and Beatrice would not stop wiggling. This isn't unusual for Beatrice -who I have never seen sit still for more than a second unless she was about to fall asleep- only today it was not happy wiggling. she kept fussing and fidgeting and pulling at the other babies hair. The problem is she's hard to comfort because she won't stop wiggling long enough for you to give her a cuddle. Silly girl. I finally found that if I lay on the ground and let her lie on my stomach (where she can wiggle away) than she was perfectly content. I swear the only reason this girl doesn't know how to sit yet is that she won't stop wiggling long enough to balance herself. (her birthday is in June, making her a Gemini, and those of you who follow astrology will know this explains a few things about Miss B. -she definitely fits the description)

We walked by the new hotel where (hopefully) the next group of volunteers will be staying. It's in a great location -only a few blocks from Alona (the restaurant we frequent), the travel agency, the bank, etc. in downtown Birlad. It's also right across the street from a grocery store so that will be convenient. I'm looking forward to being able to stay there on my next trip. :)

Many almost goodbyes

We found at today that Florin, Sorin, and Andrei (all from the toddler group) are all expected to go home to foster families in Birlad this week (possibly tomorrow). Dumitru and Octavian (twins, also in the toddler group) will also be going home to a foster family either this week or next week in a near by county (starts with a B, don't remember the name -they will be living in a big city though, 3 times the size of Birlad). We are happy for them, they will of course be able to receive more individual attention in a foster family than at the clinic. But we will miss them all.

Marian and Julian (twins from the mobile group) we also be leaving tomorrow to go to the hospital in Iasi for more tests. Their mother had TB so the boys need to be routinely screened to make sure they didn't contract it from her. This is their 5th screening and Dr. Delia doesn't expect them to find anything wrong, but better safe than sorry. I don't know how long they will be gone.

Denisa and Larisa's (5 month old twins) mother came to see them today planning to take them home. She had a note from her family doctor but apparently this wasn't good enough for Dr. Delia who decided the girls were not ready to leave, that they need more time to recover. Recover from what I don't know, they seem perfectly healthy except for the occasional cold. The only thing we've heard is that their lactose intolerant, but that's hardly something they need to recover from. Sometimes I don't completely understand the system. I trust Dr. Delia though, I'm sure she had a very good reason for keeping the girls here. I feel sorry for their mother though; that must have been so hard to come here all excited to bring her daughters home and than have to leave them here after all. Selfishly I'm glad they aren't leaving yet. They are such sweethearts. I group would feel in complete without them.

so all around, many almost goodbyes today. Makes you just want to give everyone extra hugs, you never know when they might be gone.

And we had another visitor this afternoon: A priest. He came through and blessed all the babies. Very much appreciated. These babies need all the blessings they can get.

Monday, week 2

The end of a wonderful Monday. Jamie was not feeling well so she stayed to rest at the hotel today. So it was just Evan, Dan, and me today and as always it amazes me how so few people are able to take care of so many babies. Crina was dressed in a cow suit today and was oh so cute! It had ears and a tail and everything. We were calling her "Miss Moo" all day.

Sorin and Andrei both had visits today from their soon-to-be foster parents. It's nice to see them easing them into this transition. I don't know when they will go home with their foster families but I hope it will work out well for them. Florin's foster mother looked like a nice woman. She came bearing snacks, which Florin was just loving. This will be a big change for Florin, He's probably about 3 years old now and had been at the clinic since he was just a little baby. Being part of a family will be a big change for him and I hope he doesn't have too much trouble adjusting. I know he will be missed at the clinic, he is the house jester, and the ring leader of the toddler group. We think he will grow up to be a comedian of some sort -he is quite the little actor.

Miss Maia was having trouble playing with the other toddlers today and ended up back in her bedroom where she through a fit until I came and brought her out. After singing a few songs and sitting on my lap for a while she felt much better and was happy to play out in the hall on the riding toys with Sylvia and Marian. They'd ride back and forth all afternoon stopping to say hello when they went past our doorway. So cute.

As always, I was sad to leave when that time came around. Can't wait to go back and see them all again tomorrow.

Sunday

Hello all,
It's day two of my weekend at the Giani (Yes, the new hotel was supposed to be ready a while ago. Mihaela is actually a bit peeved with the owner for taking so long. They expect it to be ready for the next team -although it appears they've been saying that for a while now). I've been having a nice relaxing weekend despite my cold (I've gone through about a thousand tissues, it's a good thing my roommate is out for the weekend -wouldn't want to get her sick).

I went through some of the old journals yesterday, reading up on the babies who are no longer at the clinic. Turns out Miss Andreea Nita (curly topped toddler) was placed in a foster family shortly after we left last time. There was one entry in her journal from the team right after ours stating that her new foster mother had come to visit her several times before taking her home. This makes me so happy, Andreea was such a sweetheart, she deserved a great home.
There was the most adorable picture of Sabianca in her journal, taken sometime last spring. She was outside on a sunny day wearing a short sailor dress with blue bloomers peeking out from beneath -so cute. She looked so grown up and had become really a beautiful little girl - black curls framing her face, dark eyes staring back at the camera. Looking at this picture anyone would want to scoop her up and take her home. The journal entry next to the photo was dated May '06 and it was the last one in her journal so I'm assuming she was placed in a foster family shortly after.

From what I'm told Romanian foster families are better than American ones in the sense that once a child is placed in one they stay there. Not like in the US where a child may be shuffled around multiple times in a single year. Here the placement in more permanent. Unless there is a real problem (or the birth family regains their rights) the child will stay with the family until adulthood, becoming a like a real member of the family. Of course there are good home and bad homes, just like in our system, but at least their is that stability that children need in order to be able to bond. Which is comforting as it seems most of the children at the clinic end up in foster families.

The idea behind the clinic is that parents can check in their babies for one year and than take them back home. the theory being that after receiving this year of proper nutrition and health care (something there parents could not give them) the babies will be stronger and have a better chance of surviving. So it was really not intended to be an orphanage, although, sadly, it has sort of become one as many of the parents are unable to return for their children.

Some of the parents do return though, and some of them come to visit. Mihaila, the two week old baby, her mother came for a visit on Friday. I was shocked at how young she was, she looked younger than Meggie (my 16 year old sister) and was so small. If I didn't know better I would have thought she was the big sister not the mama. She came with her own mother and only stayed for about 20 minutes. It was obvious from the smile on her face and the look in her eyes that she was completely in love with this baby, but I don't know if she will get to keep her. We had heard before that the father was 28 and the mother much younger but I had no idea how young. It makes me feel sad to see, she was still young enough to need looking after, I don't know how she'd look after a baby, especially with the economy the way it is.

I am praying for them all, and hope for good things to fill their futures. As for now, we will try to fill the present with good things for each of them. We're just trying to give them all the love we can before it's time for us to leave. Monday can't come soon enough, I can't wait to hold them in my arms again.

End of week one

Hello,

Well it's Saturday morning, the beginning of a quiet weekend for me. Stephani and Liz left for Bucharest early this morning, hopefully their flights will go smoothly tomorrow. We heard that parts of Germany are snowed in and there is snow in France too (Stephani's flight has connection in Frankfurt and Liz's in Paris) so we're keeping our fingers crossed that they don't meet any problems. And Evan and Jamie are off touring the painted monasteries; I could have gone with them but the painted monasteries -beautiful as they are- kind of bored me the last time. I really enjoyed seeing the first one but after that, it was like enough already. As Mihaela said "You've seen one painted monastery you've seen them all". So I decided to sit this trip out and have a restful weekend at the Giani. I have of course contracted a cold from our sweet babies and am trying to nip in the bud before Monday.

We had a great day at the clinic yesterday. I brought in two cute outfits to dress our twins Denisa and Larisa in for a photo session. They are both beautiful girls but the navy blue and red sleepers they've been wearing just doesn't bring it out in them. I was planning to upload some photos this weekend but, alas, I do not have the right cord. I thought I brought the usb cord but I actually brought the firewire; so for now, no photos. Maybe I'll be able to get ahold of a usb cord sometime next week. I hope so because I got some great photos of the kids I'd love to share. Miss Andreea R (who is now 2 years, 4 months) is quite the model. She did a bunch of silly poses for me, most of them just after I took a picture, but I did manage to capture some great ones.

Abel (the little cross eyed boy whom we called Nicu last time) started walking by himself this week and had been cruising the halls with little Mirella. He has had surgery on his eyes and I think since then his development has really been taking off. Last time, at seven months old, he couldn't even hold his head up and now he is walking all over the place.

It's so good to see such progress. The toddler group has amazed me with their abilities. They can talk a little bit and are very communicative. They are also very interactive, both with adults and with each other. They play together very well, and of course they fight with each other too (over toys mostly) just like regular toddlers. It was such a surprise to hear them talking. Last time I don't think any of the toddlers could tell you their own name, and this time little Florin can identify each of the toddlers by name. I believe their preschool teacher is now there everyday and I can tell this is doing them alot of good.

Oh and a question for Barbara Gray (or anyone who knows about dentistry) None of the children ever get their teeth brushed, in fact Alex's and Anna maria's (who are 4 and 5) teeth have actually rotted out. One of the volunteers left a few children's toothbrushes in the supply cabinet and I'm wondering: since these kids already all eat from the same spoon, drink from each others bottles, etc. is it going to cause any harm if we use the same toothbrush on more than one kid? And if so is the harm that would cause worse than not getting their teeth brushed at all? It seems to me sharing a toothbrush is better than not using one at all but I thought I'd check before we give it a try. I can already see the massive plaque build up on Ramona's teeth and I don't want them to rot out like Alex's.

Thursday

Buna Seara (good evening),

I'll start with a quick update about the babies who are no longer at the clinic. So far I've learned that Teo, Maria, Andreea, (unsure of her last name -the one who was in our toddler group in '05 but didn't walk), Bianca, and Sabianca have all been placed in foster families and Viorel (Micheal) and Marian are back at home. As far as we know they are all doing well. If anyone has questions about any other child I have yet to mention please let me know and I'll see what I can find out.

We had a lovely day at the clinic today. Daniella (who, it turns out, is 22 months old -shock) was very vocal today, just babbling away all day long. We are working with her on learning to sit up, we'll see how she progresses. In the afternoon Mirella, Sylvia, and Mihaela entertained us shooting up and down the hallways in walkers. As all three know how to walk the walkers were not used to assist in walking but more as bumper cars. It was a delight to see them all enjoying themselves so much.

The aids joined us for some playtime this afternoon and we attempted some conversation. We have learned how old Lili is and that she has 3 daughters and a husband. One daughter's name is Nicoletta and one of them is 8 years old but I don't remember the rest. We in turn tried to communicate our marital status, age and number of children. Unfortunately I come up short in all of these areas so my part in this conversation was mostly listening and helping my fellow volunteers try to interpret her questions. I don't speak much Romanian, but I do understand a bit more than some of my teammates. Still, I am always surprised at how well we can communicate even without sharing the same language. It's like a real life game of charades.

Two members of our group are leaving tomorrows: Stephani, who was here for three weeks before the rest of us arrived, and Liz. We will miss them very much and I'm sure our days will change very much next week in their absence. I am amazed at how fast the time has gone by, already it is almost the end of our first week. I know all too soon it is going to be time for me to leave.

On a happier note, I finally received my luggage today! Yippee! I have my own clothes! Although really what I was most anxious to receive was all my vitamins and herbs. Gotta fend off those colds that the babies always have so that I won't miss a day with them.

Meet the babies

Just got back to the hotel Giani (the new hotel in town is still not ready yet) after a great first day at the clinic. I am working with the non mobiles along with fellow volunteers Evan and Liz. We have about twice as many in the group as we did last time -16 babies, four of whom cannot come out of their bedrooms. Let me introduce you to our group:

Mihaela- our youngest baby at only 2 weeks old. She must stay in the "isolation" room until they are finished running tests on her to make sure she won't spread anything to the others.

Larisa and Denisa- 5 month old twins. they are both overly content to sit quietly and need to learn to assert themselves so that they will not be neglected.

Paula -6 months old, also in the isolation room. Is very cute, very small for her age, and has the biggest ears of any baby at the clinic.

Crina -7 months old, little sister of Andreea Romila -Lorna's special princess from our group last time. She looks very much like her sister but without the chubby cheeks. She is the only one in our group who is actually developmentally on target. She rolls over, scoots, is not quite sitting all by herself yet but is getting close. She responds very well to interaction and gives you the greatest smile and giggles when you toss her in the air.

Daniella -I'm not sure how old she is yet, it wasn't marked on her file so I will have to ask Mihaela. She is a real cutie but has very little muscle control -we have already nicknamed her "Flopsy". We will be working with her on developing neck control and strengthening her muscles.

Bogdan and Vasile -Twin boys, 1 year old, progressing toward crawling.

Florin -also unsure of his age, a real cutie though, big round cheeks.

Beatrice -21 months though you would guess she was closer to Crina's age. She doesn't sit up or crawl yet and she is much smaller than your average 21 month old. She is progressing though -scoots, rolls over, and is very interactive.

Ramona -2 1/2 years. She was my little favorite from last time. She has sever kidney problems so is developmentally behind. I was glad to see she has progressed since last time and now has much better neck control, can roll over and scoot about, and while she will topple over if sitting on her own she sits quite well in your lap.

Andreea -don't remember her age. She is very stiff though and is unable to role over sit up or even lift her head up when on her tummy.

Sammy -almost 2 years but looks much younger. He has down syndrome but is fairly high functioning. He lights up when you talk to him.

Stefan -2 months, also in the isolation room. (as you can see the "isolation" room does not provide much isolation as there are 3 babies currently residing there)

Adrian - don't recall his age but he is very small. He has a cleft palate and thus cannot be brought into the playroom with the other babies. He is the cutest little guy though and we try to go spend time with him whenever we get a chance as we don't like to leave him all alone in there.

And lastly, Alexandra -She is 4 1/2 years old but is still in our group because she has brittle bone disease (as well as dwarfism) and would not be safe among the toddlers. She still does not speak but she does communicate very well through her movements. She is much more mobile than last time, crawling all over the other babies as if they were part of the floor. Luckily most of them don't seem to mind (or even notice) when she does this, as she is very light weight.

They are a beautiful group of babies and look forward to spending more time with them. It will be much easier to learn everyone's names this time as, aside from my group (whose names I pretty much have down already) most of the babies were here last time so I already know there names. I will have more updates on the rest of them later, but now it is time for dinner so I must go.

Donations

I have had a few people ask me about how to make a donation towards this trip. For anyone who is still interested in doing so, donations can be made through my paypal account. These donations will go to cover the cost of my trip as well as provide various items (toys, food, medicine) for the children at the clinic.
To make a donation go to www.paypal.com/sendmoney log in, or sign up for an account and then you can make donations directly to my account by entering my email address (tigerlily_23@earthlink.net) in the TO field.

I thank you all for your continued generosity. Donations of any size are certainly appreciated and you can rest assured that the money is going directly towards this program.

The first few days in Romania

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well.
My trip has gotten off to a bit of a bumpy start due to problems with the airport. After waiting a few hours for my first flight we were informed that it had been delayed "indefinitely" because they were missing a bolt to secure one row of seats to the ground and because of new regulations they were not allowed to simply remove the problematic seats. Therefor the flight would not be able to take off until they found this obscure part, and apparently no one seemed to know where to find it. So I had to transfer to all new flights as there was no possible way to make my connection in San Fransisco. This in and of itself was not a big issue, it had me arriving in Romania about 3 hours later than originally planned, but that was no huge inconvenience (especially considering some of the other passengers on the my original flight ending up being delayed by a day or more) And as an added bonus they bumped me up to business class for the 7 hour flight from Chicago to London, which was very nice -lots of room to spread out and get comfortable. So none of that was a problem. The problem was they could not remove my luggage from the original flight so it did not arrive with me on Saturday. In fact I still do not have it today on Monday evening. It will hopefully be arriving at my hotel tomorrow but until then I have nothing except my carry-ons which included all of my camera equipment and several books but no extra clothing. Luckily the group of volunteers I am traveling with have all been very generous and have shared their clothing and toiletries etc. Lesson gained from this: Always carry enough clothing/supplies for a few days in your carry-on.

We have a much smaller team than on my last trip -five volunteers instead of twenty. They are a nice group of women and we are getting along well already. We finally got to visit the clinic today. I have been anxious to get there since boarding the plane but the first days were mostly spent in transit and then getting settled at our hotel and preparing as a team for our work assignment. For me this always seems unnecessary. I was ready to go the minute we got here. I always hate prep work. I always want to skip the whole process and get straight to the objective.

Our team leader this time is Mihaila's husband, Dan. He is very nice, but his is his first team and he is a bit nervous. Mihaila (who is the country manager for The global volunteers program) joined us today for our team meeting, and tour of the clinic. She brought their daughter Delia with her for lunch and the tour of the clinic. Delia is almost 4 now and She the most beautiful little girl. She doesn't speak English fluently, but the English she does know she pronounces perfectly. She is so adorable and we all enjoyed her immensely at lunch. Not a shy child, she provided us with entertainment until we reached the clinic.

When we finally got to the clinic I had to hold myself back from jumping up and down and running straight through the doors to the babies rooms. I was so excited to see them all again. Last time I worked with the non-mobile group and now many of them are in the toddler group. Denisa and Andreea (whose photos are on the right) are so big. Everyone has grown so much and of course there are many new babies as well. After touring the clinic and saying hello to all the little ones I went to each of the playrooms and found my kids from last time.
I'll get into more details later but for those of you who were here with me before Here's a list of the babies from our group in Sep '05 who are still at the clinic:
Ramona -who has barely grown at all
Lilliana Rosca -I tried to give her a hug for you Jennice but she is still very wary of new people and didn't want anything to do with me today. We'll have to give her some time to warm up to us.
Dumi, Ioana, Octavian, Andrei, Sorin, Maia, Andreea Rusu, Denisa, and Andreea Romila are all in the toddler group now. Andree Romila has a little sister now (Crina, born in August) who is in the non mobile group.
Mirella, Abel (whom we called Nicu last time), Maiastra, and Mihaila are all in the mobile group now. Mirella is walking now and Abel and Mihaila give you the biggest smiles, especially when you toss them in the air.
Alexandra, and Ana Maria are still here as well, and I think that is everyone from our last group, the rest are new, including another little Mihaila who is only two weeks old -so precious.

I will again be working with the non mobile group this time, although I'm sure I will have to visit all the kids from last time on a regular basis. After all, they are still my babies.

I will have more updates after I really get a chance to work with them. Today was really just introductions, not a full day (unfortunately). We never get to stay long enough the first day.

Tomorrow we really start working at the clinic and I will be sure to keep you updated as things progress.

My Graditude

I want to thank everyone who donated money and goods towards this trip. Your generous donations have helped me to be able to return to the Tutova Infant Clinic (and with an entire suitcase full of baby items to be donated to the kids). Me and the babies truly appreciate your generosity.

I will be posting on this blog as often as I am able so check back for updates. I wish you all well while I am gone, and hope to see you all again when I get back.