Saturday and Sunday On our way home

Saturday at 8:00 we were scheduled to leave Tutova for Bucharest. We started out with breakfast and then we were on the road. After a 4-5 hour van ride we arrived at the airport. Amy and I were the only two who had a flight out on Saturday. The rest of the group were either staying a couple of days in Bucharest of leaving the next morning. We got dropped off at the departure gate so we got off the bus with a wave and a goodbye. We were not happy with that so we decided to cut across the airport to the arrival gate to catch them before they caught their taxis. We made it and said our real goodbyes to Amy and Alex before they went into the city. We met up with some of the new people coming. And then we decided to get something to eat. We had 3 hours to kill before our plane took off. We then flew into Amsterdam. Luckily we packed a change of clothes in our carry on because we found out our bags would be checked straight through.

Our first order of business upon landing was to pick up Trent's suitcase. So we caught the shuttle to his hotel and ran in picked up the suitcase and rode back to the airport to catch our train to the the central train station. Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the station and it was heaven! Feather beds and pillows and down comforters. So soft and comfortable. We were tempted to stay in but we had other plans. So we went our to see the sights. It is a hopping city after dark. Full of men! And Pot! We wanted to go the Dam Square and as we were walking we happened upon the Anne Frank house. It was already closed but now we knew where it was for the next morning. We explored some more, found Dam square and the Red Light District. We stopped at a McDonalds for dinner and then we went back to the hotel for an early morning.

Sunday morning we got up at 7:30 to go out and explore. We walked back to Dam Square and it was a totally different city! Not a whole lot of people out at that hour. By 8:40 we went to the Anne Frank House. There was already a line at that hour but not too long. The self-guided tour was awe inspiring. It was heart-wrenching to know we were walking on the same floor boards that that amazing girl had once tread. We also were privileged to be able to see the actual diary on loan for the 80th birthday of Anne Frank. We stopped for a breakfast of Omelet and Pannekuchen. We had just enough time to shower and get to the train. We made it back to the airport and caught our plane home.

canals in Amsterdam

Madam Toussoud's wax museum

Canal during the day

Statue of Anne Frank

Friday Aug 14th Last day with the babies

Today- our last day at the clinic. :( We came in to find the Aide frantically cleaning. They also took all the diapers we use as burp rags and changed them out for washcloths. Susan asked if inspectors were coming and they laughed at her for picking up on the cleaning. It turned out they were expecting Dr. Delia. They just didn't know when she was expected. We started out by taking all the kids outside after bottles. But it was a cooler day and so the babies had to be covered in blankets. We had all of the non-mobiles outside but the mobiles were with Malika. She had come in the morning instead of the afternoon. It seemed like so many babies were missing. But of course the two we missed the most were Andrei and Alina. We put them down for naps and then went off to our lunch. The teachers came back to Tutova early and so our last lunch was as a group. It was nice. They told us how their Halloween party went. We then went to the clinic early to have our party. It is Alex's birthday on Sunday so Mihaela got a cake and candies for the aides and volunteers. Alex was not to sure about the candles and she went to touch one of them! No harm done but she would not blow out the candles. Delia helped with that. Soon it was time to say goodbye to Susan, who had an early flight on Saturday. In the afternoon Mihaela had saved a slice of cake for the kids, so two days in a row they got to have sweets. Ion must have known we were going to and wanted to be held and cuddled, so not like him. We stayed late with the kids and at 6 PM I said my final goodbyes to the kids. Petre was kind enough to send me off with a 3 ounce present on my shoulder!! As we put the kids down in their cribs I went around and kissed them all. and then we had our last meal as a group. Soon everyone went up to their rooms to start packing. Alex, Delta, and Trevor went back to the clinic to say final goodbyes and then Alex wanted to play a game. We waited for Trevor to shower up but it got late so we all retired for the night.

I don't think Petre wants me to leave!

Miha blowing me kisses


Ema having a good day

Happy 7th Birthday on Sunday Alex

Even Ion must have sensed we were leaving. He got cuddly!

Gabi checking out her reflection

Sami Walking!

He gets this expression on his face like he can hardly believe he is walking!

Thursday Aug 13

Today was bittersweet. It was both happy and sad because we are down to the wire. Only one more day at the clinic after this. We took all the kids outside right after morning bottles. It was a beautiful day and we spent it taking pictures and videos. The kids were all in a good mood. After Ionela and Trevor were playing in the sand yesterday she tried to reenact it. So I was playing in the sand with her. While I was doing that I was picking some of the weeds from the sand. The next thing I knew, two aides came out with gloves and garbage bags. They started to finish the job I started. I hate to think I added to their already busy day.
After lunch we came back and Mihaela had a special treat for the kids. She brought cookies and juice for the kids to sample. She started with the older kids and then came to the non-mobile room. Ion, "little" Andreea, and Cristi were immediate fans of the cookies (mostly the frosting.) She then gave the boys some of the juice. She started with orange juice and Cristi let her know he didn't like it by turning his back to her. Ion loved it, but when she went to put the apple juice in a bottle for him he wouldn't drink it.
For dinner tonight Mihaela invited us to her apartment. Her mom would cook for us. Before we went though Mihaela arranged for Susan to meet up with a girl who was at the clinic when she first started going. Ioanna is in foster care and Mihaela teaches her foster sister. It was nice to see a good result from the clinic, a happy well adjusted girl.
We arrived to Mihaela's apartment- a true communist era apartment. They are small. We sat in the living room around a table set for 10. Mihaela sat on a lazy boy chair. It was very homey. On the table were the most wonderful plums (tasting just like the ones we had last year) and grapes. We sat and Mihaela brought out the Suica- homemade by her uncle. She had 2 different kinds. One in fruit juices- that was supposed to be sweeter. And the pure Suica. She recommended we add the pure Suica to the fruit juice one if it was too sweet. It was not necessary. It was strong enough without adding the other. Her mom brought out the mamaliguita and Romanian meatballs, with the most wonderful tasting tomatoes. We stuffed ourselves on them. And then she asked if we were ready for the next course. Holy Cow! She brought out two roasted chickens and veggies to go with it. And then a wonderful cake for dessert. We had to roll ourselves out the door. We went back to Tutova and prepared ourselves for the reality of the next morning.

Lea-Celene and Amy with a Cal (horse)


Ion trying out some cookies

Cristi notwanting to be outdone got in on the act too.

Daniela

Ema really missing Terri- I am just kidding Terri.

She was upset because I stopped her swing for the picture.




Delia, Mihaela, and her mother at their apartment

Wednesday Aug 12 Pa Alina and Andrei!

Pa Andrei! Pa Alina!

Today we woke up dragging. It seemed the whole breakfast table was yawning the entire meal. I think finally the three weeks have caught up with us. We are all coming to the realization too that there are only 2 days left after today. We went over to the clinic and the kids were all in such cranky moods. It made for a long morning. The saving grace was that it was gorgeous out today! A beautiful breeze made it a perfect blanket day. While we we sitting outside the aides were inside cleaning like crazy. It turned out that people from Child Protection were making an inspection. The aides sat outside with us again, I think as the group gets smaller they are more comfortable taking with us. It is really nice to have that. This morning I had noticed little Andrei's lips had a bit of a blue tint to them. He has a heart condition they are waiting to do surgery on. (I don't remember if I mentioned this last week but he and Marius were a bit under the weather. Andrei ended up getting some medicine and when he threw that up he got a shot in the butt.) When we took the kids in for diaper changes and noon bottles I picked up Andrei and I got worried. He had wheezing I could hear without any stethoscope. When I lifted up his shirt he had retractions! I brought him into the nurse's office. She could hear him breathing from across the room. She got up and yelled for Ramona- the social worker that speaks English well. The nurse told me that Andrei was going to go to Barlad to the hospital for his wheezing. They were expecting the driver in about an hour. She then gave him some kind of medicine and gave him a Neb. We all said our goodbyes because we knew would not be seeing them before the week was up.

When we came back from lunch he was still there. The driver was detained. While we were happy that we got to say goodbye again, he needed to go. He sounded tons better but he still had the wheeze. We also learned Alina was going to be going with him as well- for a routine check up. Now we had to say our goodbyes to two of our babies. I was sad to see them go but I knew it was for the best for Andrei. And at least he has someone to keep him company in the hospital. While we were outside in the late afternoon three older women from the Adult section of the hospital came by for a walk. Ionela, ever the clinic diplomat, went right up to the fence to talk to them.

After dinner, we went up to our rooms and decided to play a card game in Delta and Trevor's room. So Alex, the Amys, Delta, Trevor and I learned to play Swap. It is a little like Uno but there is slapping involved! Susan joined us later, she had gone into Barlad to have dinner with a friend she met a few years back. She did say she ran into Ramona, the Social Worker who went to Barlad with the babies, and that the kids were OK there.

AmyStretch and Sami playing in the sand

Alex trying to stop Delta from whistling into the toys

Miaestera supervising the demolition of the archives building

Andrei getting ready for the hospital

They need to bring a bag of clothes and Pampers with them

Alina's turn to get ready

I don't know if I mentioned this but Romanians hate drafts. Because it was breezy out all the kids had to wear long sleeves and socks. The babies had to wear hats as well. Poor Petre! He was already wearing a Cutest Cowgirl jumper and now a pink hat as well!

Ionela managed to get away sporting only long socks for a bit.

The three women. I was reminded of Grandma Sirek

Ionela taking to the women

Tuesday Aug 11

So today the kids made up for our good day yesterday! They just were a bit "off." Crabby and not the same as yesterday. We are all trying to jam pack a bunch of love into these last couple of days. The aides in the morning sat down with us and helped with the snacks and gave an impromptu Romanian lesson. Colors and animal are now added to my list of words. And the most wonderful part of today was- Petre puked his entire bottle on me. Now he had been doing so good for me that I relaxed and did not turn him facing away from me as I had in the past. NO I put him up to my shoulder and there he let it rip. Did I mention the best part?? It was his bottle with the cooked carrots in it!! Yep just when I think I have had the worst of the cooked carrots. It went down my back all the way to my shorts, down my front and it even managed to hit the chair I was sitting on. Thank you Petre!!!

We went to Alona for supper after our "mandatory" trip to the Penny Mart. Dinner was wonderful- all of my favorite Romanian dishes, even the Romanian Doughnuts for dessert. We enjoyed nice conversation. As our group becomes smaller and closer it seems that we are more free with our jokes back and forth! We stopped again at the Interex and then we were on our way back to Tutova. Alin was our bus driver and he was giving us a language lesson on our way back. He was trying to teach us the word for bogyman and it is something like bow-bow. He laughed at us and said it sounded like we were trying to learn Japanese. He warned Amy once again to be careful with her words because it could sound like bad words in Spanish.

There is a old Tutova sign that I have wanted to take a picture of for the last year, the sign I was trying to get to when Amy and I went for our walk on Sunday. It is way out of walking distance. Amy asked Alin to stop so I could take the picture. He did- but he said only I could get out to take it. He said if the police came he could get in trouble. While I was taking the picture he told the bus I asked him a year ago to stop. I got my picture sign! While in town Susan found a bottle of Suica (a really strong plum brandy.) She offered to share it with us. Delta went into the hotel restaurant and asked Bogdan #1 for 6 small glasses. He asked what for and she said something to drink. He said "you mean 7 glasses" He came out to look at the bottle, went inside and came back with a little water bottle with some home brew! The bottle that Susan bought was 68 proof, his was 120 proof. After taste testing the two I am now convinced his brew dissolved one of my tonsils!!! And I only had a sip! We chatted for a bit and retired to our rooms.

Amystretch and Maria chillin' in the corner




Cristi in a really good mood

Finally, the sign I wanted to take a picture of!

Dangerous

Enjoying the Tuica


A man sitting across the street bumming the wireless internet from the hotel

Monday Aug 10th

Today is the last Monday at the clinic. It was a beautiful day too. The kids were all in a good mood when we got there. Even Miaestera. Dan went camping this last weekend and has not returned yet, and since Mihaela usually goes to the school with the teachers we were on our own in the morning. We walked over and got down to business. We are now down to 6.5 volunteers at the clinic. Trevor goes to the school in the mornings and comes over in the afternoons to help. We decided to split the team into 4 and 2. 4 of us with the non-mobiles since there are more of them and they need more help and 2 with the mobiles. We got all the bottles fed and decided to go outside since it was so beautiful out. We set up and the one remaining puppy decided to try and join us. Some of the kids were fine with that but Ionella and Lea-Celene were not the biggest fan of the puppy. All of a sudden the aides swept up the majority of the mobiles. We were a little worried because they hadn't done that before. They were just taking them all for a walk- Whew!!

We fed the kids their snacks and all of them ate easily- even Miaestera, she would tap on the jar when she was ready for more food. Susan wanted a picture taken of her with Alex for the Global blog and as I was taking the pictures Alex leaned in and planted a kiss on her cheek! Amazing! We fed bottles and changed diapers and put them all down for naps. The ones that have been taking early morning naps stayed up until almost bottle time so it was easier to put them down. Maria-Cleopatra refused both morning bottles which is so not like her, it got us a little worried.

After a lunch of tomatoes and cucumbers and a chicken stew we were treated to watermelon that Stan and Carol brought back from their weekend trip.

We went back to the clinic and and Mihaela gave us the option of just staying at the clinic through 6 PM instead of doing the evening shift thing. We agreed- it meant the kids would be out of their cribs for a longer period of time. I think they all enjoyed it as well. Apparently because it is cooler today the aides started dressing the kids in pyjamas (over their clothes.) We lined up all of the little ones for a group shot and soon it was time to feed them and put them to bed. Maria took her 3 o'clock bottle but refused her 6 o'clock one.

Dinner tonight was an unusual one- We were served all of our courses within 15 minutes of each other. We felt very rushed. The best part of dinner was the dessert- Finally chocolate crepes. No prune surprise inside! We usually sit down to dinner at 6:30 and it is typically an hour ordeal. Today we were done before 7 PM. We were joking that Bogdan #1 must have had a show on TV he wanted to watch! This extra time allowed Amy and I to get our showers done and come sit outside to catch up on the computer.

Lea-Celene Riding a horsey

Alexandra giving a surprised Susan a Kiss

Little Andreea and the only puppy left making friends

Ema enjoying some quiet time after nap

Each room has the kids' bathtubs mounted on the wall

Most of the non-mobiles in their pyjamas

AmyStretch with Maria and "big" Andreea


"little" Andreea in her crib

Marius in his crib

Sunday Aug 9th

We decided to sleep until we woke up this morning. We talked yesterday about coming back to Barlad to go to church for the 10:00 mass and then going to some of the museums. We were awakened by our "surrogate" Mom Delta knocking on our door to make sure we were alive and back at the hotel. We got up and went down for breakfast at about 9 am. The restaurant was still decorated from last night's wedding reception. It luckily was a lot tamer than the one that was going on our first night here. Since we missed the morning bottles and we missed the bus to go in to mass we decided to be lazy today and not even go into town. At about 11:30 we went for a walk. We were on a mission to find a sunflower field. Chip told us to take the road the clinic was on and there "might be a field there." We took off walking to see what we could see. Not much! So we turned down one road and ended up walking through a little village. We got on the main road and still no sunflower fields. We decided to go on a quest to see if we could walk to the Tutova sign. That was accomplished, but it was not the sign I was looking for. We came back to eat lunch from the menu again. when we got into the restaurant we were a little worried because we were there a bit later than normal and Bogdan #2 was not around. Just as we were about to get up to see if someone was in the kitchen he popped up out of nowhere. We think he had fallen asleep stretched across some chairs. and then we decided to play a game. I taught Delta and Alex how to play Canasta with 5 players and three hours later Alex and I lost. Susan and Stan and Carol got back from their respective weekends and we all sat down to dinner to eat. We were treated with wine and chocolates Susan brought back from Moldova. Dinner once again consisted of a wonderful game of guess the news headlines! Near as I can tell there was a set of twins born somewhere and they are on ventilators, some soccer player from Spain died and the soccer teams in Romania are doing good this year. Now it is 11:30 pm and AmyStretch just got back from Bucharest and is telling us about her weekend. Not too many pictures today, it was a lazy Sunday.

Boys playing soccer on a field in Tutova

Notice the horses grazing in the background

Saturday Aug 8

If a baby cries it doesn't matter if you are already carrying one to them! That is why you have 2 arms!




Babies everywhere!

Today was our day to sleep in. We were not expected at the clinic and we hadn't made any other definite plans. But I was awake at 6 AM all slept out. At 6:30 we got the hear a pounding on the door next to us and "Trent" being yelled. Turns out he missed his alarm and got a "gentle" wake up call from Miheala. I tried to fall back asleep but it would not come so I got up and played on the computer. At 8 am we finally went down to breakfast and the 5 of us that stayed behind decided to go over to the clinic and help with the morning. We got there and the "good" nurse was there- Valli. She is always working with the kids and pushing them to do what needs to be done to get caught up. We decided to play a little zone defense and split into 2 rooms with the kids. Two adults per room and a "floater." We got the bottles fed and cereals given and then it was play time. And a wonderful game for us adults- "who has the smelly diaper?" After changing a few kids we managed to keep all of them mostly happy. The toddlers escaped down the hall and were soon rounded up. We gave the kids their snacks and soon it was time to give them their noon bottles. We had managed to keep all of the babies awake until about half of them petered out and fell asleep about 10 minutes before diaper change time! After giving them all bottles and good night kisses we put them down for naps and walked back to the hotel. Amy and I had checked out the bus schedule to Barlad to meet up with our last year's country leader Ciprian. We were going to meet him after we caught the 1 PM bus but during the weekends we get to order off the menu. That takes a bit longer to do. We decided to catch the 3:15 bus. The rest of the group was going to ride in with us but Delta and Trevor stayed behind to take a nap. Alex came along. We were standing at the bus stop getting a little worried because the bus was late. A "local" girl came and was standing there as well. We felt a little better. We rode the bus into Barlad and then we were unsure where to get off. I knew where we wanted to end up and as we were getting closer to our destination I figured I would ask her where we got off. I told her we wanted the Occident hotel and she said "this is the stop"- as we were pulling away. She said something to the bus driver and he said something back- I am not sure what because it had nothing to do with dirty diapers or bottles- about the gist of my Romanian. The next thing she said was "englishers" Which caused the whole bus to turn and chuckle at us. Apparently the bus driver then told Amy we should have told him that when we got on the bus! But no worries we got there and it was a $1 to ride it.
We met up with Ciprain and he took us to the Public Garden. He tried to take our group there last year but it was a hot day and many of the group were too tired to go. We walked the whole length again and caught up on our lives. We stopped in the Barlad Zoo. It cost 1 Lei (33 cents) to get in. It was so worth every penny! LOL The marine exhibit was smaller than a fish display at a pet store in the States. We then walked around and saw an ostrich, goats, two bears, and Parakeets. We got to the Tiger exhibit and there were 3 tigers, all in separate cages and it was just that- cages. There was a "barricade" to keep people away from the cages. It came up to my shins. We then moved a bit further down and got to the lions in their cages. They apparently ran out of money when they were building those barricades because the entire corner was not barricaded off. And the best part of it was that the cages were rebar. The rebar was loose- Amy was about to put her arm into the cage for a wonderful photo op and Chip yelled at her. Seriously- does he not know a great picture when it is smack dab in front of him! We vowed to come the next day to reenact the photo. As we walked farther we came across about 5 dogs in separate cages. They were caged and chicken wired around the cage. We saw some sort of rat-like creature as well. Amy thought they reminded her of a scene in The Princess Bride. There were cages full of guinea pigs, rabbits, and Siamese cats too.

We sat on a bench and people watched and talked. Chip gave us the low-down on what guys are thinking and how to "convince" them to make changes in their lives. After some confusion as to whether Chip's pants were appropriate for dinner (Amy asked if he had plans for dinner, he heard "pants" for dinner) we started walking to someplace for dinner. But first we had to stop and get ice cream- it was along the way. We went to the Hotel Premiere for dinner. The food was good. Amy and I ordered chicken and ratatouille style vegetable on a hot plate. The food came in a 9x13 sized pan with a baking stone that was sizzling! It was good but we broke out in a sweat eating it. Chip had his glass of beer by my pan and it warmed it up. We ordered the premiere dessert with no idea as to what it was and it turned out to be ice cream as well. Happy day- Ice cream twice in 4 hours. We sat and talked and caught up some more. It was good to talk to him again. I missed his insight into what is what. After a 3 1/2 hour dinner we figured it was time to get going. Alex was quite bored! We talked about going back into Barlad the next day and Chip put us in a cab and sent us on our way.

Our fantastic dinner still sizzling

Amy with the Premiere Dessert.

Notice the redness in her face- it was caused by the dinner.