Thursday

I can't beleive it's thusday already. I've been meaning to post for the last few days but we've all just been so tired this week and it's easy to putt things off for tomorrow.

The babies are doing well; we've had a nice week. The most hectic day was when some of Chip's "youngsters" (high school students) came to help out. Dani -our overly energetic tourguide from the first weekend- was worn out half way through the day.

Alina is more energetic this week and is loving spending a lot of time on the floor. She lifts her head so well, gets into a crawling position than lies back down on her tummy and rolls all over the place. We gave her a go in the jumperoo today but she is much to tiny for it still. I think she would really like it if it was her size. It's hard being a 7 pound baby at almost 8 months old.

Miruna has gotten better at sitting. and She had a lot of tummy time today -I lay down on the floor and she lay on top of me. for once she didn't fuss when on her belly. At one point she did drop about a pint of drool down my neck, but other than that it was a nice way to spend part of the afternoon. Our afternoons are lazy now. We all lie around with the babies and listen to music or sing song (the other day we sang all the kids songs that we all knew and today we sang the oscar mayer weiner comercials).

It hasn't really sunk in yet that we're leaving in 2 days. We haven't gotten weepy yet, although I did nearly urst into tears when I accidentally clipped Ema's finger the other day while clipping her dangerously long nails. She cried for about half a minute and I felt guilty all day. She is of course fine and whenever she gets fussy we just do that leap frog move that Rebecca showed us (hold her in a standing postion then make her squat and stand over and over). It really calms her down, it's funny how much she likes it. Mostly though, she just likes to bounce gently in the bouncy seat and falls asleep all the time.

We took most of the kids outside in the morning and a bunch of them took turns swinging, which they all thoroughly enjoyed. Miruna fell asleep in the swing and Crist and Ionela shared one swing for a while -very cute. Hopefully the weather will stay nice and we can take them out again on our last day.

Monday week 3

Our first day back at the clinic (with only 6 volunteers now) went pretty well. We brought a bunch of the kids outside in the morning and had a whole group swingning on the swings. Adrian didn't want any pushes though, he just wanted to watch the work men build the fence. The toddlers were all outside with one of the aides who tried for a while to keep them inside the fenced play yard and than gave up and set them free. they all burst through the gate and headed down the path. Beatrice lost her shoe and Mirella put it back on for her -it was so cute. We were looking at their journals over the weekend (and taping them up because we finally found a store that sold tape!) and realized that Mirella is a little over a year older than Beatrice (even though Beatrice is larger) Mirella turned 3 over a month ago and Beatrice just turned 3 last month. Considerering this they are both about on target developmentally. Mirella is much more verbal and interactive whereas Beatrice usually engages in paralell play. They do play well together though and had a nice time tiking their dolls for a walk.

Back inside we listened to disney songs and jack Johnson's curious george soundtrack. The mobiles and non-mobile groups mixed quite a bit and we mostly hung out in the non-mobile room and the hallway. Maiastra was content in the walker for most of the afternoon , as was Alexandru who through only a few short fits today.

While the others babes were napping we visited those in the isolation room. Aside form Christina, who was probably hungry (she spits up most of what she eats) they were all in good spirits. Leia Celine (pictured above) is always so happy and doesn't seem to mind her leg casts (although we all think they look rather uncomfortable). WE think they will be letting them all out of the isolation room soon as most of them have been in there for about 2 weeks already. Maybe tomorrow a few of them can come out to the playroom.

The afternoon went well too. Miruna (at left) did some nice sitting when we propped her with some boppy pillows. Alina (below) was very active and scooted randomly about the room. She's getting better at standing too, and actually took one step that looked like it was on purpose. She is such an amazement everyday. We were remarking that she looked a bit bigger today. I'm going to weigh her at the end of the week and we're hoping she's gained a bit of weight. I think her cold is getting better too -her eyes were clear all through the morning and her nose didn't run once untill the afternoon. Hoepfully it will be gone by the time we leave, as she's had it for about a month now according to her journal.

Puddle time

I wanted to post more pictures from the puddle incident at the end of the first week. I beleive Marian (in blue) or Mirella (in yellow) discovered the puddle first but Beatie (in pink) enjoyed it the most. She did not however enjoy the bath that was required afterwards to wash all the mud off her.

The Twins

As requested, here are more pictures of Julian and Marian.

Ionela

This Is Ionela. I would bring her home with me if I could. She is 14 months old, weighs 14 and a half pounds and still needs a surgery to complete the process of correcting her cleft palate. She is a sweetheart and is alomst always in a good mood.

End of week 2

This week has flown by so fast. I can't beleive it's Friday already and over half our group is leaving tomorrow. Their will be only 6 of us left next week. We had some big acomplishments this week. Alexandru took 7 steps on his own. Florin entertained himself for an hour without fussing (he usually wants to be held non-stop and he's just too big to be carried around all the time -although Elaine does try). Alina scooted across the floor. Miruna discover has started kicking them. Beatrice spoke to me (she reached for me and called me mama -almost broke my heart). So much can happen in a week. I didn't wiehg Alina but I'm hoping she's gained weight. I think I might wait untill the last day so I see the most amount of change. I did weigh Ionela today and at 14 months she wieghs a slight 14 and a half pounds. At this point I can't remember what size "normal" kids are, but I'm not worried; she'll start gaining more wight when Her cleft palate is completely fixed.

We bought some doll strollers this week for the toddlers and the boys stole them away before the girls got a chance to play with them. They really liked pushing them around and were not about to give them back.

We're going to try and get 2 more so there's one for everyone. The toddlers are really having fun playing outside. They spend most of their day out there, exploring the hospital grounds, going for walks in the prams and getting into the dirt.

the kids love the swings but done of them no how to pump like you Jonathon. Tha's pretty cool that you learned how. You'll have to show me when I get back.

My time is about to run up on this computer but we'll be spending the weekend in Barlad so I'll post more soon and upload more photos. I've got more of the twins as well as Ionela (who is so sweet that she photographs very easily) as asked for along with a ton of others.

Hope you're all well. I'll talk to you later.

-Mela

Haircuts

They got hair cuts today. It always make me so sad when they chop off their beautiful hair, but luckily they only did a few kids today. Here are some before, after and during pictures -Mirela above, Paula below.

Tuesday

Today I was peed on, spit-up on, and covered in formula, dirt, and more. It was a really fun day.
When I got to the clinic Alina was wearing a cloth diaper (she usually wears pampers because she is so tiny and has a bad rash) that was pinned on all funny and without an elastic. She was propped with a bottle so I decided I'd finish feeding her and then change her. This was a mistake because half way through eating her botttle she peed and it soaked right through her lopsided diaper and onto both hers and my shirts. I would have changed but it seemed pointless since I knew I would get all covered in other various substances throughout the course of the day. Besides, it was only a small spot and it was hot so it dried quickly. The morning passed by and it was yogurt time and Alex only wanted to eat the blueberry yogurt out of the spoon that wasn't hers. After nap Alex was the first up and she joined us outside in the shade. I tickled her and made her giggle in between periods of mock seriousness. I played with Maiastra for a little while too. She sobbed when I tried to make her walk (I'm told she can but doesn't like to and I have yet to see her do it). She sobbed when I held her. She sobbed when I put her down. She was ok when I walked in one direction but not in the other. Than we tried out the swing and she sobbed when I tried to put her in it. However, once I started pushing her she calmed right down. She would have stayed in that swing all afternoon but it was sunny and I didn't want her to burn. After that beatrice and I went exploring and her hands got completely covered in dirt and grime. We found some really old strollers that looked more like shopping carts, some old cribs, and a lot of fallen fruit. She wanted to eat this fruit but I taught her to throw it instead. We had a lot of fun and I took a million photos. I can't wait to go back tomorrow.

I forgot to bring the USB cord today so I'll try and upload more photos tomorrow.

Monday week 2

We were back with our babies today and so excited to see them. Some of ourselves had to restrain ourselves from leaping of the buss and running into the clinic to see them. We had a nice day today. The babies were in pretty good spirits, although a bit tired -both Alexandra and Alexandru fell asleep in the bouncy chairs. Alina took forever to eat her second bottle (or more precisely about 1-1 1/2 hours) but was in a good mood for the rest of the day. We all sat outside on blankets in the warm weather.

Friday was also a good day. Beatrice (pictured at bottom), Marian, and Mirella got into a mud puddle and had a lot of fun. Beatrice really got the most out of the puddle and was covered head to toe in mud and she did not enjoy being bathed down when we were finished. This was a lot of fun and a nice end to the week. I was so glad she didn't leave over the weekend. I want to be able to get a chance to say goodbye. I'm hoping her grandparents or her aunt (we weren't really clear on which was taking her home) pick her up while we're there so we get to see her off.

And in response to Caitlins comments I will post pictures of the twins soon and but unfortuneatly not of Crina because she has fortunately been placed in a foster family. It's not the same family her older sister Andrea was placed with but they live in the same village so hopefully, they get to see each other. It probably doesn't matter much to them now as Andrea is only 4 and Crina 2 but soemday I think they will appreciate having a relationship.

Our weekend

Hello everyone. Well we had a wonderful weekend. We toured Transylvania and saw A few castles and did a bit of shopping. We stayed in Brasov the first night which is a beautiful city with the most gorgeus park. It was filled with so many roses you could smell them just walking down the path. It also had the most amazing playground with swings slides, bumpe-boats, an inflateable slide, a train, and clowns doing face paint and ballon animals. The picture is of Peles -the most beautiful castle ever. It cost 30 lei to take pictures (with no flash) inside so I skipped that but regretted the decision once I was inside. a DVD though on the way out that gives a video tour of all 3 floors, so that will be fun to watch when I get home. The weekend trip was fun but all weekend log we were missing the babies. I kept thinking "beatrice would love it here" or "mirella would have so much fun with us". It's too bad we couldn't bring them along for a field trip. We had a really funny tour guide for the weekend. His name was Daniel though we secretim the sheepdog because he kept hearding us aroungd like sheep. Their were 14 of us so when we walked down the street the person in fornt was about 20 feet or so from the people in back. This seemed to worry Dani and he kept stopping us every few minutes to let everyone "catch-up". Over time this got a little annoying and as afterall we are capable human beings not mindless sheep. Other than his controll issues over a group of women who would prefere to be more independent he was very nice. He told jokes and translated endlessly long menus and showed us interesting places. However, I would certainly not sign up for another tour with him. I'm not the type who likes to be bossed and hearded.

Pictures!

I've downloaded some pictures today. This is Alexandra, Beautiful as ever. I was so happy she looked at the camera; she usually plays it coy and ignores the fact of your existance whenever you pull out a camera.

The last few days at the clinic have been so nice. The weather has been great, though Ironically right as I typed those words I heard thunder outside. It was lovely out a few minutes ago. We've been taking the kids outside a lot. Ionela likes the swings. The toddlers like to roam free. All the kids were fascinated by the workmen who were doing some gardening and repairs outside the clinic.

We had a new baby arrive at the clinic today. His name is Andrei and he is trhee months old. He is very pretty and has the tiniest nose and lips. We also had visitors today. Beatrice's granparents came to see her and brought her some fruit (which she was very excited about). Dan told us that they are planning to take Beatrice Home soon and that either they, or Beatrices aunt is going to adopt her as they have no idea where her mother is. I don't know when they will take her home but they are in the process of filling out all the necessary forms and such. I'm glad she is going to go home but I will miss her if she leaves before I do. She is one of my very favorites.

Ionela has been eating well. She drank a whole bottle this morning and all her yogurt at lunch. Quite a bit of yogurt came back out her nose but she's making progress. Alina also ate well. She finished every one of her bottles today -which she has never done for us.

Tomorrow afternoon we wil leave for a weekend trip to Transylvania, which unfortunately means we will have to leave the clinic early. I would be ok with not going -I'd love to spend more time with the babies - but transylvania will be fun. I'd love to see Peles again and I was sick last time we went and didn't get to see Bran Castle (Dracula's castle). So that will be fun.

I'm going to try and upload a slide show of a few of my photos. Hop[efully it will work and you can see more of my cute babies.

TTFN

-Mela

Second day

Today they let Ionela and Maiastra out of the isolation room. Ionela was in their because she had just ben to the hospital to have a procedure for her cleft lip. Maiastra had also just ben to the hospital, I'm not sure what for. Maiastra is part of the mobile group although she is 4 years old now -older than most the toddlers. However, she is not walking much yet and she is not verbal like the toddlers. She suffered oxygen deprivation during birth and has some mental retardation. She was the secnd born of a set of triplets. Her birth parents kept the boy (Maiastro) who was born after her and her sister Maia, who was born first was at the clinic too until recently; Maia is now placed with a foster family but unfortunately they were not able to take Maiastra too. Maia was a very normal toddler -very friendly and interactive and the most talkative of her bunch. It's really sad that they couldn't be placed together. I wanted to bring the two of them (as well as about 6 others who became my favorites) home with me last time.

I played with Beatrice (one of the others I wanted to bring home last time) some more today. I took her outside and she played very nicely with Marion and Julian. They dug with a small rake and played with some rocks. They wanted nothing to do with the play area full of slides and swings and plastic toys. Beattie had on the cutest outfit today -a white onesie with red ginham bloomers and a pink sun hat. unfortunately my camera battery died before I got a picture of her today (I forgot to charge the battery this morning). There will be plenty of other chances but she did look so cute today I'm sorry I didn't get it on film -or on disk rather. I just bought myself a new digital camera as my lovely film one isn't working and I didn't have time to get it fixed before my trip. I think it's the flash that's broken on it so it might take fine pictures on a nice day outside; that's the best time to photograph anyway.

Tiny little Alina was dressed in a size 0-3 month outfit today and she was swimming in it. We're going to have to look for some newborn size clothing for her. She is taking her bottle a little better today. She only take about 2 to 2 1/2 ounces at each feeding and then fusses heartily untill the bottle is removed. I think she must get hungry in between feedings. If she was mine I would be feeding her more often and back in the states she would porbably be getting nutrients intervieiously or through a G-tube or something. She keeps amazing me with her strength. She sat for a few seconds on her own today and she holds her head up so well. I took her outside today and she slept out there in my arms. There was a warm breeze blowing and we sat with Hali, Rebecca, Elizabeth, and Bree (fellow volunteers) and watched the toddlers play. It was lovely.

It started to rain as we left today which felt so nice in the hot humidity. Hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow though so we can bring the kids outside again.

First day at the clinic

we just finished our first day at the clinic. There are a surprisingly small amount of kids there right now -only 23 compared to nearly 40 on both of my previous trips. This is very strange. Before the babies always outnumbered us by quite a lot; now in the non mobile group we have 6 volunteers and only 7 babies compared to 2-4 volunteers and 8 to 12 babies previously.
We have Alina who I was assigned to (although we all switched around frequently). She is 7 months old but weighs only 7 or 8 pounds. She was only 3 pounds at birth and was diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome and third degree malnutrition among other things. She is remarkably strong for her tiny sixe though. She and support her body in a standing postion when you hold her under her arms. She can hold up her own head and can sit with support but will fall over. She can also roll from back to front. pretty remarkbale considering she is smaller than I was when I was born.

In our group we also have:
Miruna who is is about a year but looks more like 6 months.
Cristi who has Downs Syndrome, not sure of his age, looks about 9 months but is probably older
Daniel who looks about 7 or 8 months, again not sure of real age, he's doing very well ans is probably the most "normal" of the group
Emma who is 5 months, looks like 3
Paula who is about a year and a half old. She can crawl but is overwhelmed by all the stimulation in the mobile group so she stays with us.
And Andrea who must be about 2 1/2 now but is still in the nonmobile group and doesn't seems to have made any progress since my last trip.

With so few kids we ended up kind of mixing our groups today and swapping back and forth as we saw fit. Our group is very easy so we'd often visit the other groups who are more rambunctios. Luckily the weather is nice so we were able to take the babies outside several times throughout the day. I spent some time with beatirice today who was in my group last time and is now in the toddler group. She was apparently the last oone to move up to that group and is still not quite as comfortable there as the other toddlers who have spent more time together. I also got to see Adrian who had his surgery since my last visit (to correct a cleft palate) and is looking great.

Our day seemed to go by too quickly and I can't wait to go back tomorrow.

First days in Romania

Hello Everyone.

We arrived in Barlad at about 10:00 yesterday (Sat.) evening. Quite a long time spent in Transit as we left our house at 4 am friday morning. Even with all the time changes (a few hours in New York then London and finally Bucharest) you really can't tell how much time has passed or when you should be eating again and whether it should be breakfast or dinner. Usually we stay in Bucharest the first night and take the 4-5 hour bus ride to Barlad the next morning but this time we boarded the bus about an hour after landing in Romania and headed straight there. This means that we had all day today (Sun.) free for orientation which is what we've been doing all morning.

The new hotel is very nice. It is only a block from the main street in town which is so nice. Right now I am at an internet cafe a few blocks from the hotel while we take a break from orientation. We spent the morning on introductions, GV (Blobal Volunteers) philosphy, info about our worksite, etc. This was a bit boring (especially since this is my third trip) and a few us, being still tired, were nearly nodding off. I've adjusted pretty well to the new time zone already but some of the other volunteers haven't made that internal shift yet. We're also all very anxious to actually go to the clinic and see the babies, which, unfortunately we don't get to do untill tommorrow. Our Team leaders name is Ciprian (Chip for short), and he's perfactly nice but a little quiet. I still miss my first Team leader Ramona who was firendly, talkative, well orginized, very clear about everything, and always anticipated our needs before we did. She moved out of the country over a year ago though and so she was only with us on my first trip.

Our team this time is made of 16 women all of whom will be volunteering at the clinic instead of the school. This is a younger group than either of my others. There are a few girls in high school and some college age as well as older volunteers. I've heard this is often the case on summer trips. We're all getting along well and trying to remember each others names.

I can't wait untill tommorrow when we get to go to the clinic. I'll post again after I see the babies. For those who've volunteered here before, let me know if you want updates about any particular kids. I'd be happy to let you know how their doing or inquire about where they've been placed if they are no longer at the clinic.

La Revedere.

-Mela

Two days 'till takeoff

There's only 2 days left until we board our plane. Hali and I are doing a bunch of last minute shopping and trying to fit everything we need into the two bags we're allowed to check for free. If there was no weight limit this wouldn't be such an issue but each bag can weigh no more than 50 pounds and it's hard to fit all the clothes and books (of which I'm bringing 12, some of them hard back) and things that I need for a 3 week trip as well as all the donations I'm bringing along for the clinic into a bag that can not exceed 50 pounds. Shopping for baby things brings me great joy and I bought a bunch of donations for the clinic (specifically about a million diaper wipes as they are always running out of them) back before the airlines changed their policy on how many bags you could check. Now I might have to leave them all here. It's not that the $25 charge for an extra bag is that much, it's just that I don't want to pay $25 to schlep a bunch of wipes halfway around the world when I could probably buy them in Romania for less than that. I wish the Airlines had announced their new rules earlier. I would have bought a bunch of smaller, lighter donations and brought money with me to buy the rest in Romania (which probably would have been smarter anyway, but I love to shop for baby things).

Anyhow, today will be filled with packing and errands and hopefully we'll be all set to go. Our plane leaves Seattle at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am Friday morning and, if all goes as scheduled, we'll be landing in Bucharest at 3:10 Saturday afternoon. Not bad considering the 10 hour time difference. last time I left at about the same time from Seattle and didn't arrive in Bucharest until 11:30 at night.

I can't wait to see my babies again. I'll be posting as often as I can but we're staying at a new hotel (right in the city of Barlad!) this year and I don't know how easy it will be to access the Internet this time. At the old Hotel had we had our own Internet room. However, the owner of the old hotel was also an overly "friendly" old Italian, who liked to come chat us up when he'd had a few too many to drink. Also, it took us about 45 minutes to get to and from the clinic from there, so Internet or no, I think the new hotel will be a trade up.

Anyway, I should get back to packing and such.

TTFN
-Mela