My First Blog

I tried to remember so many of the powerful feelings I had around my departure until my arrival in Romania. To prepare myself, I often tried to imagine being in Romania (using my memory as an aid) and what that would be like as I was preparing to go. Only eight months ago I left Romania. With the exception of a very few, very brief conversations, I didn't speak Romanian for the past 8 monthes.

While in London I heard two people speaking Romanian together. I tried to concel from them that i was listening to their converstion, and then pressed myself with the question, "Do I understand?" Of course I understood something, but the content of their speech wasn't exciting to me, talking digital cameras. I also had to recognise that though I could understand the general idea of what they were saying, there were many words I wasn't sure what the meaning was.

I arrived in Romania around 1am, slept a few hours and then went to the orphanage. I have considered that my favorite boy, Vasile, would be mad when he saw me because I had left him, or I feared he woudn't recoginise me. These were the responses I feared as I saw him walking toward the kitchen. But instead he instatly recognised me with what seemed a spontanious joyous reaction. He grabbed my had and tried to take me to the classroom where we had spent time learning in the past, but I told him we couldn't enter and that he needed to eat lunch. He wanted me to tickel him and wanted me to run my fingers across his head. He remembered "the Alphabet Game" we had made up. Oddly, I had to tell him to eat, because he didn't seem to notice his food. He just sat there with a big smile. I coudn't spend the time with him that I wanted because a worker told me to feed another boy who had stitches in his chin from getting many beatings, I think from another orphan. I often wonder if Vasile notices that he is special to me. I think he must see it in my eyes and smile. I want to especially spend time with him in the next months.

Through one converstion and one observation I thinking I would like to focus on ministering to a few children in particular, rather then trying to spend time with everybody. This is not easy to do because as soon as you have one kid in your arms, you notice another kid that wants to be held.

There is a new girl here who is about 1.5 years old. She doesn't talk, but is fascinated by my mouth when I hold her and speak. She touches my lips. She also has trouble waking. She had tiny braces for her feet (AFOs), but I'm not sure which brace is for the right foot an dwhich brace is for the left. I discovered that she loves it when i dance with her in my arms. She seemed so serious and grave until a radio caused me to start dancing a bit. Then she couldn't stop giggling.

There are some Dutch college girls who are studying social work that have come to volunteer at the orphanage for 10 weeks. It wqas an extreem blessing to watch them care for the kids. They had such sweet love for the children. In them I saw prayers answered. Also I saw the director of the school who invited me to the mountains during the children's camping trip. The timeing is perfect. The trip will happen right before my return to the US.