11th Day in Romania/Tuesday at the Clinic

Walking into the clinic each morning this is the sight that greets us! Babies, babies everywhere! You cannot imagine the overwhelming feeling of seeing that many babies and knowing that each and every one of them needs something from you. I have to commend the aides because most of them are wonderful to each and every child but I must admit one of my favorites is Nicoletta.
Nicoletta takes such good care of the babies.. even the ones that others sometimes don't feel have as much potential such as my little Ema and big Andreea. On this morning Nicoletta was in the room alone with all of the babies you saw above and she was trying to calm Ema instead of leaving her to lie in a bouncy crying! Nicoletta has a special spot in Heaven waiting for her -- I am sure of it!
Lea-Celine.. The sweet girl spends a lot of time with the aides and in the mobile room. She has had multiple surgeries on her feet and hips, I believe. She has a hard time crawling because of the special shoes they have her in AND because she has rubbed a raw spot on her knee. Stephanie, a future volunteer who is arriving on July 25 (hi, Stephanie!!), is going to try to find some baby knee pads made especially for crawling! Then Lea-Celine can finally get around without the aides worrying about her knees!

Ema and me -- in our matching colored outfits!

We also aren't getting to see a lot of Cristi in the non-mobile room. He is trying to hang out more with the big kids in hopes that it will encourage him to be a big kid too!

The girls just hanging out...

Gabriela.. awake and asleep... she is so not a morning person! :-) I told her we would start hanging out from 9pm until midnight because she is in such a good mood on our evening visits!

Alina, I love this little one even more now than I did in December!! She is so special! She took her first steps alone today!! YIPEE!!! Hopefully by the time I leave she will be walking with confidence.

Andre, need I say more?? This has got to be one of the cutest babies EVER! I am convinced that someone is lying about his birth date -- no way he is almost 1 year old! He looks like a perfect 5 month old!

Marius just couldn't handle all the fun! :-) He had to take a quick nap to recharge for afternoon fun!

Mihaela.. another one of those kiddos that I am even more crazy about than before... she is such a social butterfly and so interested in everything that is happening!

The clinic cow.. I love it.. it is so much fun to walk outside and see the cow RIGHT THERE LOL

When we left the clinic today we went into Barlad for a stroll through town, some shopping, and dinner out. Three strollers were purchased for the clinic. There are a few at the clinic but they are wobbly and on their last legs. People looked at us a little strange when they saw us pushing these empty strollers through the city! ;-)

Strollers... Lauren (in the middle) raised money to purchase one of the strollers.

Dan and I visited 4 pharmacies before finding the correct medicine that Dr. Delia had written a prescription for for sweet Maria. Maria has 2 patched areas on her head.. possibly for draining fluid? Two boxes of medicine are for that.. 2 boxes are eye medicine.. and the other boxes are teething gel... Can you imagine 19 babies teething at the same time?!? LOL

After shopping we had dinner at the Restaurant Alona... it is always done up so fancy! We have loved the flower arrangements both times we have visited.

We ate a traditional Romanian meal of stuffed cabbage, stuffed grape leaves, and polenta. It was DELICIOUS! You know the old saying though: "I love it, but it didn't love me." I was up sick to my stomach most of the night and had to miss the Wednesday morning session. After getting some sleep I was fine and have just decided to avoid the cabbage :-)