Hat #2

Beautician- Tonight after Claudia took her bath I said, "If you let me cut your nails I'll paint them for you." Hey, I'm not above a little bribery. We ended up doing her toes in a red to match the flowers on her bathing suit and her fingernails in a transparent, glittery number. Mama Gabi helped me so that we could work quickly.

Happy feet at Casa Ana!

What a blessing for all of our kids to receive new shoes from the States. Thanks to Andrew Vidal for letting people know the need and being our point person.

Hat #1

What does it mean to be "coordinator of education" for a group home? I ask myself this question weekly and people ask me all the time, "What do you do?" It covers a wide range of responsibilities and a new aspect of my blog will be letting all my fans (did I really just write that?) know what those responsibilities are. These "hats" will be presented in no particular order of importance and will not be presented on a regular weekly basis, as all blog topics come when time is available.

Hat #1-English tutor All of our kids are learning English at school and a couple times a week I get called in for homework duty. A few days ago Daniel had to learn to count from one to twenty. He really already knew up to ten, so we got cracking on making the connections and making it stick for the rest of the numbers. The next day he said, "I need to learn to 26," so we started again. Now it's our little game. I say "one" and he starts counting.

Spring is in the air

Warm weather has been blowing in and out of Targu Mures, Romania the last week. What a blessing. The snow has melted and the ground is drying up. At the first sign of sun and a little warmth (I think it was about 58 degrees), the boys took full advantage of it. They were off to the soccer field down the road to play.
Just a couple action shots of the boys playing with David (part-time tutor/mentor). In spite of the chill in the air, a couple of them were in shorts. What can I say, I would have done the same thing when I was their age.

Girls just wanna have fun

In spite of all the hard work we do, every once in a while we get to giggle and joke around. At our most recent leadership of both houses meeting (really no way of giving that a catchier name), Cristina pulled out a lollypop and we all decided that we wanted one too. She had back-ups. We goofed off for a few minutes and took a picture before getting back down to serious business.

This is our "we're laughing so hard we can't sit still because we're taking a picture of us eating lollypops sitting on the floor" picture.

Take two worked out much better. Bethany, Angela, Elena and Cristina.

A family reunion

Wednesday morning I was able to go with Catalina to visit her 3 brothers at Ludus. Each of them stayed home from school for this visit and she was so excited to see Trandafir, 14 (which means Rose), Gerian, 10 and Corado, 8. I know I have shared about this family before, especially the two little boys. She and Trandafir talked quite abit and he shared that their older sister, Rebana, 17 just gave birth to a little girl (she is not at the orphanage). All of the boys talked about the fact they they are going home after Easter. I can never quite figure the younger boys out. From what I understand they were at home for the first several years of life, but rock in the typical orphan manner as though they have had no stimulation or comfort in their lives. I can never tell what is rumor and what is truth in stories, but I have also heard they lived with the dogs at home. Apparently mom has a new man and that is why they are in the orphange. The boys were never in school, even though Catalina was, and Geri and Corado are both in the first grade now. I asked them how it is and Geri said in Romainan "Ugly." The caregiver that was in the room with us was very kind, but shared that they only get into trouble at school. Older brother also shared some of the trouble they get into and how he is always having to protect them from getting beat up (Geri definitely had the tail-end of a black eye as it was a bit swollen and he had scratches next to it).

When Catalina and I arrived home everyone asked how it was. I told them it was good for her. As I was talking with Bethany last night she shared that she's never seen me so attached to kids before. I guess I just have a heart for the underdog. I think about their lives and how they are at Ludus and I think about how they'll be at home...neither of the situations are very pretty. Geri and I played with some stuffed animals for a long time (10 year old playing like a 5 year old if that tells you anything) and our interactions were wonderful. Corado just sat back and watched, as he just has lower language and social skills. These boys were filthy, needing a bath and clean clothes and boots without holes in them.

As I looked at them though, I could see two things--the battle it would be to bring change into their lives, the daily fight of discipline and a future and a hope. Please continue to pray with me for these boys and their futures.

Happy Birthday Claudia

Our baby turned 8 on Sunday the 12th. She had a great day and has been playing with her new toys. She got a Jasmine doll from the movie Aladin so we're going to watch that tonight.

Blowing out her birthday candles.

Look at these beautiful kiddos!

Sometimes taking pictures is fun, especially when some of them actually turn out. Bruce is getting ready for fundraising in the States and asked us to prepare some sponsorship cards with the kids pics on them so I went into picture taking action.

Elis
Claudia
Catalina and Maria
Cornel
Mama Julieta with Simona

Happy Birthday Maria

14-the age of adulthood in Romania. Well they get their bullentins--government issued IDs--but that's about it. Maria enjoyed her day and we celebrated and they they watched movies all afternoon.

An unexpected event was the whipped cream fight. Poor Daniel was covered, but he loved every minute of it.

language mix-up

So the other day Simona and I were sitting together having a nice lunch when she asked me about bread in America. I mentioned a few things and then said what I thought was, "It has preservatives." She looked at me with wide eyes and asked me to repeat myself and so I said it again...and then I remembered that the word preservative in Romanian is the word for condom. Oops! I can't remember exactly how I learned that Romanian word, but we laughed a little and I turned 17 shades of red and told her that our bread is not like that and nevermind.

Movie night

6 months ago just the idea of having 9 kids in my apartment at once would have been thrown out the window. But I braved it on Friday night and it went great. All the kids came over after dinner and we watched Homeward Bound and I made popcorn for them (I wouldn't have done that for 3 kids 6 months ago...popcorn is messy).

The month of never-ending birthday parties

2 down and 2 to go. Last weekend Cornel celebrated his 12th bday and today Catalina her 11th. I have got to give Becky credit...she knows how to throw a party. Cornel loves soccer and the whole party was soccer related, even the table was a field. For Catalina's day Madagascar was playing in town so we all went to watch it.

Cornel opening up his Ronaldinio jersey (I didn't know who it was until Cornel told me)

Catalina opening her wedding "Barbie" doll.

Tuesdays' Meetings and Movies

I think my favorite day at the house is going to be Tuesdays. For the last two weeks I've taken a child into town for a snack and then to rent a video. This week I went with Claudia. She got dressed in her "going out" clothes and we fixed her hair (it's just getting long enough for some really cute pig tails). We went to McD's for an ice cream and drink (even though it had snowed the day before). We walked hand-in-hand through the center to the movie store where she picked out Black Beauty. After dinner that evening all the kids piled on the couch and we had our family meeting. We have been taking about how to solve problems (thank you Kelso the frog and Ballenger for inspiring me) and I've been sharing some verses with them. It was just GOOD. They were all listening and interacting. I was able to joke a little with them as I gave them examples about problems we've seen in the house and even Cornel laughed (he's a great kid, but his attitude is not always wonderful when we have meetings). Then I asked them if there was anyone they thought we should pray for and they listed off several people (including sponsors) and then several of us prayed. It's turning out to be an evening that we enjoy spending together. Pray for this time to be effective and fruitful each week.

And then there were 9

I think most everyone got my email about our big change last week. Claudiu has moved back home due to an unfortunate incident. He was visited by one of our staff members earlier in the week and seemed excited to see him at first, but then (and I'm sure defensively) made jokes about the foundation and said he was glad to be home; and maybe he is.
Things have been quiet on the home front of Casa Ana. Most of the kids enjoy playing Uno these days. We're working on letting them find things to entertain themselves. Before most things were "under lock and key," as they would be destroyed or stolen. But we are beginning to put games and toys and books out for them to use whenever.