26th Day in Romania/ Wednesday Morning at the Clinic

After dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays we usually stop at a grocery store to make purchases for either ourselves or the clinic. First thing Wednesday morning I loaded a suitcase with everything I had bought the night before for the clinic. Dan was so nice -- he rolled the suitcase over for me. LOL It weighed a ton!

The first item purchased (approximately 40 lei) was refill containers of mosquito repellent. They use these "plug-ins" similar to our air freshener plug-ins that put out a mosquito repellent into the air. As you can see from some baby pictures it is DEFINITELY needed in the bedrooms at night!

Large quantities of batteries are hard to find so I have been picking them up here and there as I see them. The batteries are used in the vibrating chairs and Ema's special swing! :-)

Baby wipes galore! this time instead of Pampers I was able to find a Romanian brand, Happy, that was a little bit cheaper. I bought over $50 US! And will probably be buying more on Thursday night. They are going through wipes like crazy!

Dan with some of the baby food I bought.

I was so proud of myself for asking for help with the baby food at the store. LOL Last time I just bought jar after jar from the shelf but this time I asked for help in Romanian and was able to get some jars still packaged in bulk! Around $50 US of baby food pictured here.

Maria Cleopatra

Nicole holding Maria. Nicole is a one week volunteer who offered to be Maria's one on one while she is here. I know Maria loves having someone hold her and talk to her.

Ionela came into the Isolation Room to check on Maria. She patted her and says "my-my" which would be similar to saying "nice, nice" in English.. it really means be gentle with the baby. Ionela, Lea-Celine, and Mihaela are all very familiar with this term and will respond appropriately when you say it to them.

We are spending most of each day outside and it is WONDERFUL!! Not sure how I will ever be able to come back in the winter again! LOL Being outside makes time fly though! Here is Gabriela enjoying her tummy time outside. I am so proud of Gabi -- she is crawling!! I have it on video! She loves to crawl over to the grass. LOL Funny how we have all tried to bribe her to crawl with every toy imaginable and all it took was a little grass! :-)

Alex having a giggle moment with Susan, a returning volunteer.

Marius and Cristi were playing together with the dog but I wasn't fast enough with the camera. Nice to see that these guys are still friends.. although they aren't the buddies they were in December and January.