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.