Noticing the little things...

Sunday morning we got to sleep in a little bit!

We went over to meet up with all of the girls at their place. They put on a small little song worship service. It was a really cool experience. Raelene played piano, Steffi played guitar, and Sarah played a little drum while we all sang. Then we just talked about what things that we like about being here and working in the hospital with the children. They are honestly some of nicest, most kind-hearted, and giving people that I have ever met. They have all given up so much to live out here and work with the children in the hospital full time. I truly admire their work here. I love being here and getting to spend time with all of them and work with the children, but it is not something that I could see myself doing long-term or full-time here. I am so glad that I was given the opportunity to get to come out here and meet all of them and see what it is exactly that they do, and who they are. They have taken what could be such a hard and depressing life, and turned it into something positive. They are always laughing and doing whatever they can to have a good time and make the best of every situation. But at the same time they are able to run an amazing organization and give so much of their time, energy, and money.

Before church we decided to head over to the Town Square and check out if we could find any shops that had some little souvenirs. It was a very interesting experience. Some of the shops did have little things that could work; but, the other stuff was so random. They had these really cute little hand-made photo albums. I got really excited and picked one up, and it said "THAILAND!"..... not really sure why it said that. I was expecting it to say Romania... but after seeing the way that everything is done here, it kind of made sense haha. Things are just, outdated and odd here.

The only way to describe it is that they looked at everything that was "cool" in America from 1980-2000. And they took all of those things, and try to implement them, but don't exactly know how, where, or when to use it. Some examples would be the way that they dress, they take different items of clothes that were once the "it" clothing and combine them together...wrongly. It is actually really funny.

Which leads me to my next story. Steffi, one of the leaders, has adopted 3 children here. (I think I have mentioned this in a beginning post). The kids are so cute! Roxy is 7 with dark hair, dark eyes, and a ton of personality. She reminded me a lot of Kiley. I told her about Ki and she started asking a bunch of questions about her, it was really sweet. Crystel is 6 and he is full of energy and on the go all the time! He is really funny though! And last is Beca. Sunday was Beca's 6th birthday! So they had decided to have her birthday party at this place called ZaoPark.

There is no possible way for me to fully describe exactly what ZaoPark is, but the closest I can think of is.... It's like Chuck-e-cheese, 15 years ago, on drugs. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I am being completely honest. It was one of the weirdest places I have ever been!!!! Hahahaha. I took video so that I can show everyone when I get back home, but even the video doesn't do it justice. When I first walked in, there was a bunch of toys for sale, not necessarily brand new. Then I passed by everyone's coats hung up on hangers with their boots underneath, and a boy about 10 years old blow-drying his hair. Yes, you read that right, blow-drying his hair. I couldn't believe my eyes. Where on earth did he get a blow-dryer?!? WHY is there a blow-dryer there?? He is a TEN YEAR OLD BOY what is he doing?! It was so odd.

Once I passed the blow-drying section of this place, to my left there was a little white picket fence about 7 feet long, not connected to any walls, so i'm not too sure what it's purpose was. But behind the fence there were about 3 little-tyke type houses for the kids to play in. Then passing that I walked through an archway with golden Pharaohs on each side and Hieroglyphics all around. When I entered into the next room, there was a little stage about 3 steps high in the center with a girl singing a song in Romanian (that I recognized from Camp Rock 2....). There were strobe lights, lasers, fog machines, bubble machines, streamers, and a wanna-be Shrek-type character dancing around. I'm pretty sure the head on Shrek was just a left over caterpillar head.

To the far left of all of this there was about 4 bounce houses smashed together. Then there was a trampoline a little in front of those. Next to that there was a bunch of hula-hoops. And constantly about to run over your toes were tricycles and those balls that you sit and bounce on. They finally led us over to our table and Sarah pulled out a large bag of food and snacks. Apparently you can bring your own food here, which makes sense after looking at the menu and seeing that they have pizza with things like corn, spinach, and tuna on them. They sat all the kids down at little tables in the area next to us and brought them little pizzas and Mountain Dew. What the heck?! Mountain Dew?? Kids??

There were multiple birthdays there that day, and so when it was Beca's turn she went up and stood on the stage. The lady with the microphone came over and made them all chant "cake, cake, cake, cake" before Tom & Jerry brought her the cake out for everyone to sing. They brought out the cake, which Mary had made and brought with us, and it had a little candle number 6 on it and two GIANT sparklers. These were not fun little kid sized ones, they were SHOOTING sparks everywhere!!!

I honestly felt like I was in a time warp!!!!!!! The only saving grace was that there were High School Musical posters all over!!!! But all in all, even though this place was one of the weirdest things to ever have existed, we all had a ton of fun and the kids had a blast! So I guess you can call it a success!

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Today we worked the afternoon shift in the hospital. And Jenna and I dedicated today to getting pictures and videos of the kids. At first it was a very fun and exciting thing. The babies were laughing and smiling and the pictures were so cute. They made us all feel so good inside, etc. But then came the time to put those children down and move to the next room. And this is the hardest part of being here. All the babies want to do is be held and played with. The second that you put them back in their crib, or jail as I like to call it, they scream and cry. It is so heartbreaking to have to hear. And the pictures of them holding onto the bars of the "jail", crying out, can tug at just about anyone's heartstrings. This is where they say that the volunteering becomes so important. Because the more volunteers, the more babies get to be held and played with. I'm really thankful that I have gotten this opportunity. And it makes me especially thankful for the life that I, and so many of my friends, have gotten to grow-up and live in back home.

It was a hard day leaving the hospital with those images in my mind.

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We got some dinner and ice cream and headed home. Where we have gotten quite accustomed and apparently addicted to Romanian TV. They play most things in English which is nice. And we have decided that the US must have sent over all the shows that they didn't think would make it there. Because there are some of the weirdest, yet most addicting shows here!! Hahaha. Jenna sat down to turn on the tv and got really excited when one of the shows that she likes was on. We laughed at the fact that we like Romanian tv.

We are trying to book flights to London this weekend so we can visit some of Jenna's friends there! So I will keep you posted with all of that!

I miss you all so much!!

And I just wanted to give a special shout out to my Laura because it is her birthday :) And I love her so much!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!