31st Day in Romania/Monday at the Clinic

I cannot believe I am starting my last week at the clinic. :-( Just trying to avoid thinking about it... The weather is definitely warming up again. We spent the morning outside but there was almost no breeze! :-( The afternoon and evening shifts were spent inside!

Maiastra and her favorite swing -- she actually smiled for the camera! Yea, progress!

Andreea and Marius swinging double

Cristi

Mihaela

Ionela -- I swear this kid has more personality than you can imagine!

Nurse Amy and Lea-Celine... Amy just sent me her blog website.... I am *loving* the layout!
www.backtoromania.shutterfly.com

Alina

Cristi

Sami

Vallie feeding Maiastra and Sami yogurt.

Ema-Elena

poor Ema's foot...

Gabriela

Becca combing Ionela's hair

Maria

Marius -- crying and sleeping... the 2 things he does most, poor kiddo

Ema

Petre

Ion (above) and Andre (below) -- both boys are supposed to be able to come back outside on Tuesday!

Alexandra

Susan and Alex.. I am so happy to see Alex walking!

Becca was tickling Gabi for me so I could get a picture of her front teeth. She has the largest gap I have ever seen! It just enhances her beauty! I told her Madonna paid lots of money for the gap in her teeth :-)

Andreea playing with Becca's foot

Daniela

Daniela in the size 5 shorts I bought with Maiastra in mind! LOL

Lea-Celine screaming and crying... I've mentioned how spoiled she is a couple of times so I thought I had better get a shot of it! :-)

Cristi in the swing in the mobile room

Gabi

Petre and Gabi... they look like they are trying to make a train LOL

Petre wasn't too sure about the train idea... he has the most precious pouty lip! My camera battery was about to die and so the pic is blurry! :-(

30th Day in Romania... Sunday

I cannot believe I have been in Romania for a month! After my last team left it was amazing to see the reactions of the nurses and aides when they realized I hadn't gone home. I think they almost accept me as one of their own now! LOL Bogdan #2 isn't back from his honeymoon yet but Bogdan #1 is also much nicer to me :-)

Sunday was a lazy day for me. I slept until I woke up rather than setting an alarm. Then I just bummed around the hotel... read, napped, ate :-) I have a slight cold or maybe just allergies but thought that it might be good to stay away from the babies for a day. So NO PICTURES at all for Sunday... can you believe that??

Hard to believe that this is my last week... not sure how I will leave Ema-Elena... I'm just trying not to think about it until I have to on Friday!

More soon...

Gabriela

Gabriela Laughing 7/24/09

Gabriela Crawling... YES, crawling! 7/29/09

Even the Sunflowers are Sad

Remember the pictures of the beautiful sunflower fields... I didn't see any of them today.. in their place I saw these droopy, 'sadflowers' instead. Although I know logically that it must be harvesting time I did think to myself that even the sunflowers are sad that it is almost time for me to leave. I am so thankful I was here when the sunflowers were standing tall and proud and gorgeous!

29th Day in Romania.. Saturday at the Beach

After traveling about 45 minutes in the direction of Transylvania (we drove along the same road we took to Bran a couple of weeks ago) we can to a gravel road with this sign (which using a free translation website means: "area craft, beach losing" LOL). I should have asked Mihaela for a translation! Since Mihaela knew that I had hoped to make it to the Black Sea during this trip but wasn't going to be able to.. she arranged a BBQ at this lake beach.

We paid 5 lei (less than $2 US) each to get into the beach area.

The sand was more like a fine dirt but the sun was hot and the water was cool! I am still in shock that I swam in a Romanian lake. LOL I don't even swim in lakes in the States!

a boat that occasionally went out into the lake and was paddled around...

Delia after she got out of the water for the first time... the wind was blowing quite a bit making it almost chill when you were wet

Delia getting ready to play in the sand

Delia with 2 of Dan and Mihaela's friends who joined us for our BBQ

There was a restaurant on the property.. up the hill from the beach.. Mihaela bought us cups of ice cream there after lunch.

This was our picnic spot (or BBQ spot as they call it in Romania). Dan and his friend remained here and cooked for us. It was delicious! We had pork, chicken, and the Romanian sausages that are so yummy with garlic sauce.

Although some people come for the day, others camp here.. or even rent small cabins... It honestly was a nice get away from the hotel. The only thing I regret is not putting on sunscreen soon enough! LOL I have a nice Romanian sunburn! LOL I'm just praying it turns to tan before my 20 hours of traveling to get home next weekend!! LOL

The OctoMom Has NOTHING on me -- 29th Day in Romania Saturday at the Clinic

I honestly didn't hear too much about the OctoMom (Although I did hear a news report where her grandmother said in a tired and defeated voice, "I wish she had just been a kindergarten teacher." LMAO!!)... I tried not to be curious... anyone who willingly has 8+ babies as a single mother is a nut case in my opinion... but today she had nothing on me! LOL Me and 9 babies alone.. yep, that's right bottle time for 9 LOL It was actually fun being alone with the kiddos until Dan came and rescued me but more on that later....

Here are my 9... Petre, Daniela and Marius were still sleeping. Paula is still at the hospital. Notice Mihaela joined us but was stuck in the jumper after bottles because all she wants to do is climb on other babies! LOL

Andreea with the rattle I brought with her in mind -- she can fit her fingers through it and doesn't drop it as quickly as some other noise makers

Gabriela bouncing herself in her favorite bouncy

Alina feeling much better.. she actually ate 2/3 of her bottle without being forced! :-)

Lea-Celine (or just Celine since that is what the nurses and aides call her)
She wanted me to pick her up several times but since I was the only volunteer I just tried to amuse her in her chair. Since she didn't have her braces on she couldn't get down on the floor. And once you pick her up she is yours for the day! LOL Just a wee bit spoiled :-)

Andreea... such a big healthy baby girl...
she is starting to crawl more and more each day

Ion and Andre with their love-hate relationship
Ion always wants the toys that any other kid has... *or*
he wants the volunteers' cameras! :-)

Sweet Ema... her bites are looking much better


Around 10:45 Dan walked in the room and asked me how I was. LOL Very unusual because they don't usually show up on the weekends BUT Mihaela had invited me to go swimming with her and Delia so although I didn't expect them at this time I was excited to try out the new pool in Barlad. Dan drove me back to the hotel and I quickly changed into my swimsuit grabbed the hotel towel and ran out the door. Mihaela, Delia, and some family friends were waiting in the restaurant for me. We jumped into cars and pulled out of the hotel -- we started heading AWAY from Barlad. It was at this moment that I knew I was in for an adventure....