Buna ziua! Our time here in Romania is almost over...in fact, we have exactly nine days left. Nine!! That is so crazy! I am having a hard time even picturing myself in America in nine days. It will definitely be incredible to be with my family again! I am worried about the goodbyes though...part of me doesn't want to leave! Here are some updates from my time here!
Our schedule has been a little different without the school..We are now at the orphanage every morning, then two afternoons I go to the hospital and the other three are spent in the orphanage. I love the work we do here. The hospital was never my top choice, but I have learned to enjoy my time there. I think the atmosphere is hard to be in...it is kind of a sketchy place...but when you focus on the kids it can be a ton of fun! We find all sorts of children, all there for different reasons, and almost every age. One day Cammy, Morgan, and I found three tiny babies! Ahh they were so cute! We just sat there and rocked them and loved them until they fell asleep! Then another day Anya and I found an eight year old boy. It was so cool hearing her speak Romanian to him! It turns out that he is a pretty sassy boy, but super funny and cute! Then recently we found a 15 year old boy who has a mom, but we just like to chat with him because he can speak english! We are even Facebook friends now(shoutout to him if he ever reads this haha). So you never really know who you will find, but we are loving our time there!
Going to the orphanage in the afternoon has been so great! I just want to spend all my time with those kids. In the afternoon, some of the kids in my room get to go to the bigger playground with some more active kids from other rooms and it has been great! Monica and our other girl, who used to have two casts, are both out there. Earlier this week, the two of them and a couple toddlers were sitting on a picnic blanket so Cammy and I sat down with them and it was just a moment I want to remember. We probably had six or seven kids sitting around us and Monica has been trying to sing "If you're happy and you know it" with us so we started singing it and all of the kids joined in! Some tried copying our words, some just clapped, and some laughed...it was precious! I have also loved getting to know some of the kids from other rooms. There are some older ones and they were just sitting around, so I wanted to teach them how to play hide and go seek. Surprisingly...it worked! "Inchide Ochii" is how you say close your eyes..so I would tell one girl that then hide, then she would find me and take a turn hiding and it was so cute! Those afternoons are just so happy!
Our mornings are just as great though! Hannah, Cammy, and I all love it! Chloe, an amazing person who has spent the summer with us, came up with a name for our little guy...baby human. And so that is now what we call him and I just adore him! Rocking him and holding him is wonderful! Most of the kids love having music! One of our favorite workers, Cami, brought in a country CD that previous volunteers had made for her and it turned into a party. Seeing little Jake, our toddler with autism, dance to country music made us all laugh...so cute! I don't think I will ever be able to accurately describe our room or what it feels like to be with those kids. It is so special. We sit there and sing and talk and there is such a great amount of love. I wish everyone from home could spend just one day with these amazing kids! I don't even want to think about saying goodbye to them Friday...that will be so hard. I feel so close to them! We sat there this afternoon and looked up ways to get around the adoption laws...haha I love them so much!
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| We love Cami |
Xavier is still in love with Hannah! So sweet...he waits for her to come and if she isn't there he pouts. He cracks me up. He just adores her...but that means that I am not good enough haha he thinks it is hilarious to tell me to get out of the room(keep in mind that he can't talk, he points with his mouth and eyes). So I make a big deal of pouting and walking out and he laughs. And when Hannah is holding a kid and he wants to play with her, he will tell me to take the kid so her hands are free. He is so sassy, but we love him! He is great and so smart and I will definitely miss him so much when we leave!
Going to church here has been amazing! The members are such a great example. They have so much faith and are so kind and generous! We went to a relief society last Saturday and I loved it! It was at this scrapbooking place that looked like it came right out of Pinterest! They taught us how to make little flowers. We had such a great time!
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| Relief Society Activity |
One of the best parts about being in the branch here has been getting to know the missionaries. The friendship we have made with the Soras is so great!! I love seeing them every week! There are four Soras in the branch here and I am so close to each one of them. They are so fun and such a great example to me! Family home evening ends up being about four girls from my group, the four soras, two elders, and a couple members or investigators...and we have so much fun! Sora Weaver and Sora Padgett have taken some of their free time to teach us Romanian! It has been so helpful! I love learning the language....I am still terrible, but this past week we worked on saying our testimonies in Romanian and I am getting better! After each of our lessons they share a spiritual thought...this week they shared D&C 24:8...look it up if you get the chance, it is so powerful! I am so grateful for the missionaries and all of their hard work! I have learned so much from them and I know that I will be friends with them for a long time!
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| We love the Soras |
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| Love love love Sora Weaver |
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| Sora Kitchen and I like to match |
Today was our last Sunday here...it was a little sad. I really have enjoyed church here. The members are wonderful and the spirit is so strong! I love singing hymns in Romanian and even being completely confused during sacrament meeting is fun sometimes. Did I mention we got headsets for the missionaries to translate into? The Iasi branch is really progressing! Our closing hymn in relief society was "God be with you till we meet again" and I tried really hard not to cry...then Anya prayed and started crying, and by the time she said amen we were all crying. I will miss it so much!
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| Last Sunday |
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| In front of the church |
Emma Wright in our group is getting married in October and we are so excited for her!! She is wonderful! To celebrate, we went out for pizza and bowling last night! Fun fact...the pizza hut here is a pretty nice sit down restaurant! It was super fun! And the Palas mall has a bowling alley...it was only 10 Lei to bowl! Yay! It was definitely a fun night!
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| Pizza Hut |
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| Bowling with the best |
And here are some more Romanian pop songs that we hear very often...if anyone is interested:
Cum ne noi by Carla's dreams- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8-g8CpXdO8
Oarecare by Smiley- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnwlRoFoLXs
Gandesc cu voce tare by Matteo- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyqvn5-zuPA
I guess that is it! Hopefully I will get one more final Romanian blog post in later this week...I can't believe that I am going home next week. It is so bittersweet....I love this country and the people so much! I am so grateful for all of our experiences here! I will see everyone in nine days!
Cu Draga,
Madeline
Baby human!! Haha I wish every future group would know that he should be called that :)
ReplyDeleteHe is so cute!