The Joy of Service

My love for these kids is growing ever so. I didn't think it was possible to feel this way about people that aren't family but I love these kids so much. They are starting to feel more like my own every day. I walk threw the door into my room and all I see are those children smiling at me. Their big beautiful eyes staring back at me. When I am at the orphanage, they are all that matter to me. At first I didn't feel like I had a bond/ relationship with them. I felt more like I was babysitting. But now the bond has definitely came. I love these kids with all my heart.

At the hospital I met 2 nice ladies on floor 2. They spoke good english. It was just me in the room holding a precious little baby boy. He was adorable. The one lady asked me if I was his mom. I told her no I'm just a volunteer. I talked a lot with them. They asked if I wanted to adopt this little boy and I of course said yes! They said its so hard to adopt here in Romania. It is so true. Even for Romanians it is hard. They said there are lots of rules. I wish it wasn't that way. The one lady in the room said she didn't know anything about the baby but felt bad for him since he didn't have a mom or dad. She said where is his mom? On the 5th floor in the room Lori is in I met Mihaela. Very nice lady. Told me I must like kids if I am doing this work. Lori is my little girl. She really likes me. She cried a bunch when I put her back in her crib. I felt so sad leaving her there. She didn't even want to let go of me. We left the hospital early to make it to the relief society activity at 6. We ate at KFC on the way.

This is Katelyn's little boy. He likes her so much. This little boy has a cowlick in the front! I have never seen that before, it's cute. We tried to take a picture of it but you can't really see it.

This little cutie is the cousin of Mr. Girl. Not really but he is a very pretty boy! He is adorable and oh so ticklish. He is always so happy to see us. He gets very excited when he sees us! 

The Martisor Tradition

La Multi Ani! 1 Martie

At the activity for relief society we made crafts for Martisor "Little March." This tradition started with a girl giving a martisor amulet to a special boy in her life on March 1st. On March 8th, Women's Day, the boy gives a martisor amulet to a special girl in his life. It is a token of friendship and love. The red stands for love and the white stands for purity. People normally give the martisor amulet with something. This gives the amulet individual character. Now people give martisor amulets to anyone that is important in their life. It doesn't have to be a boy if you are a girl or the other way around. Giving the martisor amulet to a person means they are important to you and the thread is a symbol for that importance.

That night after the relief society activity, Aurelia and Andreea came over. Karaoke all night! I thought it was a perfect night. It was so fun singing songs with these girls. We would take turns singing the verses and picking songs. I am surprised no one pounding on the walls letting us know we were too loud, because we were. We were all singing very loudly! Andreea didn't feel like singing and made flowers for the children's hair while we sang.

"In all of living have much of fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured." -Gordon B. Hinckley

Orthodox Baptism at the Orphanage

Today at the orphanage 2 children got baptized. Of course it was an Orthodox baptism since everyone here is Romanian Orthodox. This was the first time I have seen a baptism other than my religion. It was very interesting. I had a weird feeling during the baptism and the feeling just made me realize how grateful I am for having the gospel in my life and knowing the truth. It was an interesting service to watch. Very different than baptisms I have seen before. The weirdest part of it all is that they were babies! They were so young. Giovani, he is in my room, was the oldest of the two getting baptized and he is younger than two. The other baby girl was not even a year old! The baptism lasted probably a little over an hour. Shortly after the baptism Andrei left for the apartments. I am torn about this situation. This boy has been so naughty for me! He climbs on chairs and runs out the door and NEVER listens to me. He pulls my hair, hits me and also throws every toy he gets his hands on. You can see he is a little stinker, but this boy just wants love and attention. When he isn't doing all that naughty stuff, he is very lovable. He was always one of the first to greet me when I walked into the door. I am going to miss this little boy, evening the pulling hair part. He was a wonderful little boy who I hope finds a family someday! The orphanage was definitely different after he left. It made me so sad realizing I gave him the last hug I would ever give him. Telling him "pa" made me realize I need to treasure every moment I have with these kids. I want to savor every memory of them.

Giovani is the little boy. The little girl is in Sarahy and Katelyn's room

Between the orphanage and the hospital we met up with Andreea and Aurelia to get Petru's for lunch. Petru's is a pretzel place that is so good. I got a Covrigking! Think of a ham and cheese hot pocket but the ham and cheese is inside a pretzel. It is a hundred times better! I also got covrigi cu ciocolata. That is a pretzel with chocolate inside. It was good but not as good as covrigi cu mere (apple filled pretzel). That is what I normally get. It is super good! I love pretzels.

At the hospital we were able to go into ICU again. Andreea seemed to be doing much better. Same with the other babies. We spent a good amount of time with Eliana and Marian. Marian is from the orphanage and has kidney problems. He mostly played on Sarahy's phone. He loved it. He helped me remember again how smart children truly are. He had no problem figuring out Sarahy's phone. Katelyn painted Eliana's nails. That was fun, plus Eliana liked it. At first she was a little unsure and didn't want her other hand done. Katelyn painted my thumbs to show her it was okay on both hands. I saw Lori again. We don't know her name so we just decided to call her Lori. She hasn't been in the hospital for awhile but we saw her today! It made me happy seeing her again but her diaper was so full. I don't know how long she had been in that diaper but it had gone threw her clothes. Her clothes were wet. Lori also had a bad diaper rash too. It didn't help that she has a bad rash all over stomach, back, arms, and legs too. It was sad seeing her sitting in that wet diaper. Poor baby girl. After the hospital I went to institute. The lesson was taught by Monica. She did a great job! We talked about the characteristics of Christ: humbly, faith, hope, charity, knowledge.

"You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it." -Unknown

Relationships

"Fixing and helping create a distance between people, but we cannot serve at a distance. We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected."

For a long time in the orphanage today it was just me, Denisa, and Mirela.  We played so much from acting like animals and roaring at each other to just laying there. Mirela and me had our heads on the mattress and Denisa was laying on me. It was so peaceful to be laying there with these 2 kids. I love them both so much! I also had some one on one time with Mirela. Oh how I have came to love that girl! Sometimes she will come up to me and say "tickle tickle tickle" and start tickling me. It's oh so cute.

Mirela

Also at the orphanage Teo and me were dancing and copying each other. She would do something and then I would do the same thing. She thought it was so funny. She had a blast doing something and then watching me do the same thing. We had some pretty crazy dance moves going on!

Mihai is one of the higher up people at the orphanage. I forget what he does, I think he might be the speech therapist but I'm not sure. He came into my room today and talked to me for a good half hour or so. He is wonderful and speaks good english! He comes into my room almost every day but until today I never really talked to him. Teo sat in my lap the whole time Mihai talked to me. He told me the importance of one on one time with the kids in orphanage. He said relationships form during that time. He also said that this is affecting the kids' future so much. It was really nice to hear that from him. To know that the days I spend in this orphanage are helping the kids' future! It was great to talk to Mihai and hear his opinion about everything. He is very sweet and gentle with the kids. He understands them well and the kids all love him.

Sometimes when we go to the hospital the nurses will let us go into ICU. Today they did! They were seven small kids in there. Most of them were babies. We saw Andreea in there. She was doing worse and did not look so good. There were a couple other children we have seen before that looked worse today. That was hard seeing some of the children get worse. We didn't get to spend time with that many children today because most of the children were sleeping when we went to see them.

"Serving requires us to know that our humanity is more powerful than our expertise."

Muzeul Oului

The Egg Museum in Vama- Bucovina

The painted eggs are incredible! They are beautiful. The amount of detail on the eggs was just straight up amazing. Seeing all of the painted eggs makes me want to start collecting eggs! The big eggs take a month to paint! Painting them must take great patience. And most of them are actual egg shells so they are very fragile. The lady had a variation of eggs. The smallest one she had was from a gecko! It was so small, around the size of a nickel! 

She had so many cabinets full of eggs from all around the world!

This is the wonderful lady who told us all about the eggs! She has 2 daughters that also help her. It took them 15 years to gather all the eggs they have. Her and her daughters made the eggs on the table.

"You're a wizard Harry" 

I thought this picture was funny because at the end of her stick there is light. It's like she is a wizard!

After the egg museum we headed home. Mario, Dr. Nelson and his son Josh came over for dinner and stayed at our apartment until they left for there train. They are heading to Ukraine next! What a lucky boy to be traveling at age 11. Before Dr. Nelson left, he offered to give us all blessings. He ended up giving me a blessing and I am grateful he could give me one.

He blessed me with comfort and reassurance. That I would come to understand how service brings forth love. Also that I'm a great example to the people I work with and my friends. Blessed me to feel Heavenly Fathers love for me and that I would be guided with the spirit in all that I do.

Painted Monastery

Mănăstirii Voronet. This is one of the most famous painted monasteries from Southern Bukovina in Suceava County.

This monastery is famous for the final judgement painting and the color of the monastery. It is the same color as the sky. Mario said,"God liked this one so much he took a part of the sky and put it on the building."

Lit a candle for Grandma Cindy. There you can lit a candle for someone living or someone who has passed away. Mario told us it brings blessings to them.

All the monasteries in Romania! There is so many.

Work Break... Day Trip

When the professor comes to visit they take the interns on a day trip. Dr. Nelson and Mario took us to a  salt mine first. After that we went to a painted monastery and then an egg museum. We rented a van to get around. We traveled about 3 hours outside of Iasi. 

Mina Cacica

We toured a salt mine! Look at all the salt. There was so much! Shadow would have loved it. There was also a ton of stairs. We went far down- 600 meters. It seemed far because of all the stairs! Katelyn counted 192 steps from the Orthodox chapel and up! Going down wasn't bad but going up was a work out. We didn't even count all the steps before the Orthodox chapel. I'm guessing I went down and climbed over 500 steps.

The Catholic chapel. This was the first place we saw.

The Orthodox chapel. On the way back up this is where Katelyn started counting.

Dr. Nelson and his son Josh.

Jesus Christ and Mary

This is at the bottom. The farthest we went down. A little pond with a crystal fountain in the middle. There was a place to play soccer and basketball. I guess on the workers break they had some fun!

Dance floor! I think they ate here too.

Water with crystals on the outside!

Beautiful view