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.