Last days...

We were only in London for a short period of time, but I feel like we got to see so much!! We went and saw Big Ben, The London Eye, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, Double-decker buses, little red phone booths, the old-school black cabs, and so much more! I couldn't have asked for nicer people to show us around either. Mark was so kind in letting us stay at his place while we were there. He even went grocery shopping for us before we got there! I think I mentioned this in my last post, but when we arrived there were flowers in our room and chocolates on our pillows! It was incredibly generous and thoughtful. I drank tea like a crazy person! I LOVED IT! It reminded me of visits to Grandma Joan's when I was little. I would go and sit at the counter in the kitchen and she would turn on the kettle. Then she would bring over two little tiny cups, that looked like they were meant for dolls, and put tea bags in them. Then when the water was ready she would pour it in and I would watch the tea seep out of the bag and fill the cup. We would add a little bit of milk, and way too much sugar, but boy did I love it! I honestly probably drank about 7 cups of tea a day while I was there. Thankfully, I brought my own tea bags to Romania so I have been able to keep up my addiction now that I am back!
Sunday in London we went for a walk around this "near-by" lake. Call me crazy, but when it takes 1.5 hours to walk TO the lake, and 1.5 hours to walk back from the lake, it is not considered "near-by"!!!!! hahahaha. It was really cold out, but it was still fun. I tried to sneak into the back of a picture (as always) that Jenna was taking of Mark, Laura, and Simon, and I almost fell into the lake!!!! (I would like you to immediately take back the "Ha! That's what you deserve" thought that you just had). It was really funny though! It would NOT have been so fun to walk back soaking wet in the freezing cold though! Thankfully just my boot went in and I caught myself with my arms before the rest of me fell in too!
Monday morning we had to get up early because we had to leave the house by "half six" as Mark called it. From there we had to walk to the "tube" (underground train), and take that to the train (above ground), and then take a bus to the airport. You should have seen our faces as Mark was trying to explain this to us. He might as well have been speaking..... Romanian! Hahaha. I basically have never taken public transportation in my life, and he wanted us to figure this out?! Well, after looking at it, it wasn't that complicated. They have done a great job of making it very simple and easy. The only problem was that the amount of time Jenna and I would have taken in between transitions would have caused us to have to wait for the next train each time. Mark finally decided that he would just come with us until the last train and then we would have to figure out the bus (which turned out to just be a shuttle so it was simple!) for ourselves. We made it all the way there safely and got on the plane back to Romania! Thankfully, most of our time was spent in the London airport not in that crazy little Romanian one again!!!
Our flight was somehow delayed mid-air, or just took longer to get there than they had planned, I'm not sure haha because I slept the whole time. I just know that when we landed it was 3:48 and we were supposed to get there at 3:10. (Mini panic attack set in because our driver was picking us up at 3:10 and I know there aren't any screens that say the arrival times of flights for him to see). We get through customs and walk out and there is a crowd of people at the arrival gate. We make our way through looking for a sign with my name on it. Nothing. We look around again thinking maybe we missed it. Nothing. No sign with "Cissy Butler" on it anywhere to be seen. Panic is really starting to set in. This is NOT a nice airport at all, and not in the greatest area. Jenna and I walk over to an area against the wall in order to get out the phone that we have here to call Sarah or one of the girls to ask what we should do. I turn and start walking just as Jenna almost bumps into a man running up with a sign in his hand that says my name!!! He quickly apologized for being so late (it was about 3:55 now... there was only 2 minutes of panic time, but boy oh boy it felt like forever). We told him about how our flight got in late and that it actually worked out that he was late too! We decided that we were all hungry so we stopped at a McDonalds on the way home and went in and had some lunch. It started snowing pretty hard on the drive back, but we made it home safely. Then we headed over to the girls house to say by to Jen because it was her last night here. We all sang some karaoke and hung out. It was fun! I really miss Jen, she is so much fun. We (Jenna, Hollie, Jen, and I) all decided that we need to plan some sort of yearly meet-up. We are thinking that maybe next year we can all meet in Kentucky and stay at my Grandparents and go to the Kentucky Derby together! How fun would that be?!?!? Okay fine Laura my love, you can come too!! :)
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I received a package in the mail from Kiley and Bradyn!!!!!! It was full of Skittles (yum!), Reeses (delicious!!), Starbusrt (yayy!!), Crazy socks, crayons, chapstick, a deck of cards, a packet of gum (apparently Ki must think my breath smells from thousands of miles away), and a hand drawn note by Ki that says "We Miss You, Love Kiley & Bray." It brought such a smile to my face. Jenna didn't come into the Hospital today because she has a cough, so I was there by myself a bit early. Then out of no where appeared Joe! So we sat on the floor outside the Volunteer changing room and decided to play some cards. We played Texas Hold'em, but then realized it's much more fun when you get to bet. So I pulled out some of the candy from the package and we used Starburst and Skittles as our money. A Starburst was worth 2 Skittles. It was a lot of fun! A couple of the nurses and doctors walked by and laughed and smiled at us.
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Tomorrow is our last day at the Hospital and in Romania. It is a weird bittersweet type feeling. I so badly want to come home, back to my comfortable, easy life. I want my cell phone, my car, my bed, to play soccer, the beach, and to play dance games on the Wii. I want food that I actually enjoy eating, not things that I eat just to stay nourished and alive. I want to see my family and my friends. I want to understand the language that is being spoken around me. I want to know where I am and if it is safe to walk somewhere or not. I want all of these things, and yet, wanting them makes me feel selfish. Being here has taught me to be so thankful for the things that I have, and for the life that I have been blessed with. The people and babies that I have gotten the opportunity to work with and meet will always hold a special place in my heart. There really is no other feeling better in the world for me than holding, playing with, or making a baby smile. And knowing that the babies here don't get that one-on-one attention all the time is heartbreaking. I am so glad that I have such generous and giving people in my life that made this opportunity possible for me. Without your help I wouldn't have been able to do it. This experience has changed a part of me forever. It has allowed me to open up my eyes, mind, and heart to so many different places, things, and people. I wish that I could fully and in detail explain everything that I have learned or seen here, but some of it you truly just have to experience in order to understand it. I tried to take as much video footage as I could while here, so once I compile that all together you will get to see more of everything. I am so happy to go home, and so sad to leave. Knowing that I am leaving and that I will no longer be here to help out with the babies is difficult. They are so little, innocent, and just want someone to love them. Thankfully there are all of the girls from FFR and other volunteers that are still here running this organization and working with them daily.
Bradyn every once in a while will talk about how he wishes that there were more of one person. For example he wishes that he could have two mommy's so that one could stay with him and one could go to work. And he wishes that he had two Cissy's so that one could hang out with him and the other could go to her house. I find myself wishing that I had two of myself too. One that could stay here and continue to impact these children's lives, and one that can go back home and hopefully impact everyone's life there for the better as well. I am going to keep in contact with everyone that I have met while here and see what I can try and do back home in order to still try and help out in any way that I can. Whether that be by continuing to raise money or even just talking about my experience to others in order to help get more volunteers over their way.
One major thing that I have learned here is how even the smallest act of kindness can mean so much to someone else. A simple smile from another person here, truly would change my whole day around. I like to think that this same concept can be applied to the babies. I may not have been here that long, but hopefully, the smiles that I gave them changed at least one of their days around, if not more. The little boy that I worked with that made the kissy sounds, was still doing it today when I went in to see him. I found out that his name is Alex! Knowing that from working with him for just one day, for one hour, and he still remembers what we did, puts the biggest smile on my face and fills my heart with joy. I hope that other people were impacted from my time, I know that they all have changed my life, and I hope that even if it was the smallest amount that I changed theirs as well.
I want to thank all of the people from FFR for making this such an amazing trip. You were all so welcoming, helpful, loving, and fun to be around. I look up to each of you and love what you are doing here. I hope that I get to see you all again sometime soon!
And I want to thank everyone that followed along with reading my blogs and sent me their continuous love while i've been gone. Being away from home wasn't easy for me, but knowing that you were all there supporting me made it so much better. I am looking forward to getting to see you all and getting to tell you all about my trip.
Tomorrow is the last day, and then off to the airport for hours of traveling, and then home to a nice delicious burrito. If I have time tomorrow I will do another post about saying goodbye to everyone and all the babies and letting you know how that goes. Thank you for reading this far sorry it was so long!

I love you and I can't wait to see you!!!!