Report on Romania

I found this on the US Embassy's sight. They just released this in March and it is part of their report on Romania's progress/status in 2007. Verrrry interesting.

While the law protects children from abuse and neglect, the government has not established a mechanism to identify and treat abused and neglected children and their families. The abandonment of children in maternity hospitals remained a problem with over 2,216 left in hospitals by their parents in 2006, according to official statistics. NGOs claimed the official statistics did not accurately account for many abandoned children; many children living in state institutions were never officially recognized as abandoned.

The National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights (ANPDC), in coordination with the Ministry of Health, made some progress in discouraging child abandonment through prenatal counseling and training of hospital personnel. However, children's rights NGOs and local child welfare officials reported that these efforts were insufficient to resolve the continued high number of abandonment cases, resulting in many essentially healthy children being kept in hospitals because family reintegration or foster placement was unavailable. According to the Children's High Level Group study on the prevention of child abandonment, 60 percent of children abandoned by their parents were left in hospitals, while the remaining 40 percent were abandoned in other places, including on the street.

The 2005 child welfare law and its implementation continued to create confusion among entities responsible for child welfare and to prolong the time that a child spent in the child welfare system before being reunited with biological parents or being adopted. NGOs and child protection authorities continued to report that judges, police, and social workers generally lacked clear instructions from the central government, training, and the resources necessary to implement the legislation. During the year the decision-making process improved slightly due to a better working relationship between courts and county child welfare departments. But thousands of children remained institutionalized or in foster care rather than legally approved for adoption. There were credible reports of attempts to force family reunification for abandoned children in cases where biological family members explicitly stated they did not want the children or in which there was a high risk of child abuse or child labor.

There were many reports of abandoned children being forced to wait for several years in institutions or foster care while authorities searched for their biological parents to formalize their abandonment in court. The government claimed there were only 883 children available for adoption in the country in December 2006, and over 1,680 families that wanted to adopt children. However, this number represented only a fraction of the estimated 6,000 children placed in state care each year. These low figures were due to the state's non-recognition of the physical abandonment of children. There was no time limit on parents' absence for the children to be legally recognized as abandoned. Instead, government policy aimed to reintegrate children into biological families even years after physical abandonment. Many foster parents wishing to adopt children already in their care were forced to wait for the abandoning parents' statement of abandonment in court before the children could be declared legally adoptable. Some expressed fears that the foster children who had spent years in their care could be taken back by the biological parent or relatives and forced into begging on the street.

The public child welfare system tracked approximately 102,000 children. More than half of these lived with extended families or in foster care, and approximately 26,600 lived in public and private institutions. The government continued to build smaller residential units for children in need of protection, including children with disabilities. The number of children in institutions continued to drop, from 31,000 in 2005 to 25,580 by September. The foster care system expanded to care for 20,120 children as of September compared with 16,800 children in 2005.

Abandoned children under two years of age were only allowed to be placed in foster care, or placed with other families, including for adoption, if reunification with biological parents failed. Roma children, who were disproportionately represented among abandoned children, continued to suffer racial discrimination and were rarely adopted by Romanian families.

Peanut Butter and Pregnancy?

I know, interesting combination. Not two things that you would normally think about at the same time. Yet, when I was at Casa Alba orphanage yesterday it came up constantly.
My good friends are here right now (we met as they began coming here to serve on their summer vacations and Christmas breaks...) and they brought me a book that shows you how to make crazy stuff out of food. So, I decided to do something from the book yesterday with Pink Room and Green Room. We made cows - and they looked awesome!
The face of the cow was covered in Peanut Butter. All of the Romanian staff went "what is that incredible smell?" (Peanut Butter isn't sold here, and even if you randomly find it on a shelf it isn't eaten at all. Their equivalent of Peanut Butter is either Pork, Chicken or Vegetable Pate that they spread on bread in the same fashion.)
I said that it was Peanut Butter..."would you like to try some?"

"No, I'm not pregnant."

Huh?

The next staff person - same thing.

The next staff - SAME ANSWER.

I had told them that it was high in protein, and yes, that fat content is high as well....but if you don't eat a lot of it then it's not so bad for you. And, HELLO, it tastes amazing.

"No thank you, I'm not pregnant."

I'm still confused...I really don't want to think that they believe they only need extra protein when they are pregnant or something.

Yeah...not getting this one at all. : )

Happy Easter!

My camera battery died in the middle of me trying to take a nice picture of Caleb and I for Easter. So, you're left with the one from the park the other day instead : )
Romanians don't celebrate Easter for another few weeks; they follow the Orthodox calendar. But, Hungarians did celebrate today. Which, meant, that my neighbor stood at her window watching for my car to pull into the parking area in front of our apartment so that she could serve Easter dinner to Caleb and I. I was a bit confused because we had confirmed that this would happen tomorrow, not today. So, when I went to drop off the bouquet of flowers I had bought for her she opened the door and said "You're right on time! Come on in, the dinner is ready!"
I ended up missing my team's Easter celebration because of the unexpected dinner but I really felt that God wanted me with her and her husband today. I just wish I hadn't been confused about the day because I had eaten a lunch of pasta salad in the car on the way home from church, and Caleb and ham and cheese sandwich. Then, spread in front of me were 4 different kinds of ham, 2 types of roasted lamb, chicken snitzel, homemade crackers, goulash soup with lamb, meatballs, spicy hot dogs, bread, cabbage rolls...the list could keep going. I tried to stop eating at least 4 different times and she was so offended that I finally stopped trying to eat. Instead, I began praying (and no, I'm not joking) that God would somehow help me eat all that she wanted me to without throwing up. My stomach still hurts now...and we ate some hours ago.
Ha!
It was wonderful though to be taken into their home and be shown such incredible hospitality.
I prayed for a year for an open door in this building and they were the ones who responded after a year of praying. I will not complain about my stomach - I will praise God for what He did during that meal today!
Happy Easter all!

I just couldn't help myself....

I know I already put a post up for today. But, I mean, just look at her. She's so beautiful, Aranka.
I couldn't help myself - had to share her joy from the park this afternoon with all of you!
She so needs a Mom and Dad...oh Jesus, can you please bring her one?

Good Friday

This morning our team met at 9am and then we drove up to the apple hill. It's a pretty good sized hill which has loads of apple trees on it. This hill is a place where a lot of us go, when it's not freezing cold and windy like today, to get away and get some exercise. The hill overlooks Marghita, this picture can show you from how high. Still though, we headed up today (just in cars instead of pe jos ) in order to understand more Jesus' journey to the Garden of Gethsemane the night He was betrayed. I picked a different version of scripture (ESV) and pieced together the night in the Garden, His trials, beatings and crucifixion from the 4 gospels. After printing those out I handed it to different team members to read. We stood in a circle and tried to keep warm - it was so cold and windy! Being 'out' of Marghita, being outside, hearing the words of what had happened...I don't know, it was really powerful for me. We then sang a hymn "Where you there?" and took communion. I had asked each to be quiet after taking communion and remain silent until back down into Marghita. Again, it was something to hear just silence... My Dad, who's a pastor, always did this same thing at all of the Good Friday services that he led when I was growing up. I guess the tradition grew on me!

Most of Romania isn't celebrating Easter this weekend. Even my church in Oradea won't celebrate until April - they all follow the Orthodox calendar. Just the Hungarians celebrating with 'us' this weekend!

Kissing Random People on the Street...

Not me. Caleb.
Today a woman started speaking English with Caleb's good friend Dani. Caleb ran up to her and said "I want to give you a hug!" Then he proceeded to plant a big kiss on her cheek.
It was hilarious and strange at the same time.
He and Dani had run up ahead of us, me and Dani's Mom - Helena, so I wasn't able to stop him in time. We found out, after she had passed, that she was Dani's English teacher at his pre-school.
She comes a couple of times a week and does English lessons with the kids.
As I was just laughing about it all Helena says, "Well, maybe she needed a hug today!"

I was reminded of this story because Caleb just came up to me and said "Mom, I want to give you a hug" (a ruse he uses often to get out of his bed during rest time - he knows how to work it!) Then he gave me like 10 kisses in a row.

Sigh. I love this stage. Can't it be the same at 15?

A look at today....

Well, after an interesting night of close to no sleep and a very strange situation of Caleb having a fever yet wide awake wanting to talk....Monday morning still arrived!
By the way, one of the staff at our group home for disabled children said that the reason why I, and almost everyone I spoke with today, didn't sleep last night as because it was a full moon.
Not really sure what to make of that to be honest!

Anyway, Caleb and I got going and headed to the store to buy food, at 8:15am, because it was my cooking day for the team! Lunch has to be ready to go at 12:30pm so it's a bit of a race. Today we had 34 people to cook for. So, I headed to Sebi Com, the 2nd largest grocery store with 2 aisles! I picked up 10 pounds of chicken breasts, cream cheese with herbs, mozzarella cheese, a bottle of sunflower oil and 50 small slices of ham. Everything else I needed for cooking was either a leftover in our volunteer house fridge, or in one of our cupboards there. While at the store, though, I found out that another 2 people would be eating lunch with us than I had planned. Then, once I got cooking at our volunteer house I found out about another 4 people who would be eating as well. 6 Extra total...it's fun to try and work out what you have already bought to accommodate another 6 people! Lunch, chicken cordon bleu - baked potato fries - salad - homemade bread, and lentil burgers for our vegetarians, got done pretty much on time today. At 1:30pm I tried to start heading home but Caleb and I ran into a little bit of not listening to Mommy where, as a consequence, he lost the opportunity to watch cartoons at his babysitter's house tonight. Because, if he can't listen to Mommy and pick up the toys he was playing with outside - how could he ever listen to the TV? I know, it's really hard when our ears don't work!

We finally made it home at 2:30pm, after dropping off food to a team member who couldn't make lunch today. By 3pm Caleb finally was in his bed for rest time and I spent the next 40 minutes doing the final preparation for our team's Bible study and worship tonight. Caleb, I think, came out of his bed at least 3 times during that time (arrghghg!) but God gave me lots of smiles and patience (yay!). Then, we got coats and shoes on and I drove him to the babysitters house. I left then to go and pick up Olimpia and Cristina from Casa Alba, arriving abot 4:20pm. Monday afternoons are when I do discipling time with them. Today that meant making a cake for one of our team members, Simon. It was his birthday Saturday but we decided to celebrate at worship tonight. So the girls and I went shopping for the ingredients, made the cake and cleaned up. I then took them back up to Casa Alba and got home by 6pm.

The next 30 minutes were spent again doing final prep for tonight and checking a couple of e-mails. I planned to leave at 6:30pm for worship but ended up leaving at 6:32pm because I followed a link my big sister sent me to "find out what type of cupcake you are." I know, I know...LAME. Still, I guess it's good to know that I am a "Rich and Decadent : Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting." (Side note : I called my big sister tonight and she said that she had gotten the same cupcake as well. Go Winters Family bein' all rich and decadent and stuff!)

6:45pm - Team meeting before worship where we found out that the foundation here, FCE, is in a MAJOR financial crisis. Their bank account in Sweden, which fills up their bank account here in Romania, is completely empty. So we prayed about that and then we had a time of worship. During worship one of our team members shared that the cancerous spot she had removed on her face a few months back has spread further than where they have removed. It was very difficult for her to share this...please pray for her, it has been a difficult day for her knowing this!

I led the team in some Bible Study action looking at what the word blessing means and how Christ is our ultimate blessing. We talked about some things to keep close to our hearts this week as we prepare for Good Friday etc...

At this point it's 8:45pm so I run outside and grab my laundry off from the line. Then I hop in the car - drive home, unload my guitar and laundry in my apartment. Run back outside and meet Caleb at 9pm; his babysitter brings him back at that time.

I rush him to go pee and then get into bed : ) After lots of kisses and lots of I love you's and lots of "Mommy why you no sleep with me NOW?'s"...Caleb falls asleep...9:10pm.

On my way out of the bedroom I grab the folding laundry rack. By 9:30pm I finally have all of my wet laundry from today hung up around the apartment and on my lone drying rack. I see that my Grandpa and sister called (the cupcake one) so I called each of them back. Then, decided to call Mom as well since I wasn't feeling tired.
But now, it's 10:55pm and I am ready to hit the sack!

I'm really glad that Tuesdays are day off days - Mondays always wipe me out!

Anyway...just a glimpse into my day : )

Cars Movie

Joni was soon distracted from the movie by Caleb's garage!
Mihai was excited that Joni gave up his spot on the couch in front of the TV!
Daniela couldn't stop giggling over my hand weights!

Joni and Mihai are probably two of the most difficult children that we have at Casa Alba orphanage. It's not their fault...both were abandoned as babies and after some months in the hospital with little care were moved to Casa Alba. Where, they have lived up until now - they are both 7 years old. Behaving at school is really hard for both of them because their brains, due to lack of bonding to their birth moms or a new mom in their early years, don't function the same way as a 'normal' child would. Most people in their lives though just look at them and say "Why can't you be more good at school? Why? Why?" Not even they can answer really... God really burdened my heart for these 2 boys some months back. I meet with them once a week now and talk about God - and apply what we talked about in a hands on way. God has really shown Himself through these times. And, I've started having some authority in their lives as well. Which, I never thought could ever happen. So I told them almost 3 weeks ago that if they could each get 5 "good" days at school (the teacher at the end of the day lets them know if they were good or bad) then they could earn a trip to Kelsey's house, complete with popcorn and pop, to watch the movie "Cars." Joni had some "Cars" stickers in his wardrobe and I had noticed them...he couldn't believe there was a movie that went with them! After almost 3 weeks both of the boys earned 5 "good" days at school each. So today was the movie day! Daniela also goes to school with them and always is "good" so she came as well. The three of them are in the same class at school. Daniela came to Casa Alba a little over a year ago, along with her 3 sisters. You can see that she bonded to her birth mom and had the Mom presence in the home for the first 6 years of her life. There is such a difference between how she thinks and makes choices in comparison to Mihai and Joni. Anyway, the three of them came over. I snapped some pictures!
And, pray for the three of them. Joni and Mihai are told that they will never get a Mom or Dad because they are "so bad." This is SO UNTRUE. I believe that God has a family in mind for each of them. It is hard though with Romanian Christian culture to have families open to adopting. God has the power to heal those paralized (as we heard a testimony of 2 weeks ago in church), God can lead a Christian family to each of these boys!
And Daniela...she and her sisters want back with their Mom. I don't know if that would/could ever happen in regards to Child Protection/Police etc... Most people say it will be impossible for a family to want to take all 4 sisters, and our foundation wouldn't dream (thank goodness) of splitting them up. God is God of the impossible!

Caleb Reading...

I didn't put him up to this, I promise! When he started I just grabbed the camera and ran back to the kitchen to catch as much of it as possible : )

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Caleb's Morning Song...

It's 9:14am and I'm just checking e-mail real quick before Caleb and I head up to Casa Alba to take out Gheorghe and Alex for the morning. We have "boy time" with them every Thursday. True, I am not a boy but still - it's good for Caleb to play with Gheorghe and Alex who are the same age as him once a week! Alex came from the hospital to Casa Alba the same week Caleb did although, Alex is about 2-3 weeks older than Caleb. I'm not sure exactly off the top of my head the exact day of his birthday. Gheorghe and his twin sister, Gina, came when they were about 5 months old from the hospital to Casa Alba even though they too are just a few weeks older than Caleb.

Anyway, I'm sitting here checking e-mail and Caleb begins singing. He was searching through his toy baskets looking for all of the matchbox sized cars that he has (which, are his most favorite version of a 'fast car'). His song was so beautiful that I had to share it with you all...

As he sat there picking out cars his song went like this:
"You love Jesus, You love Jesus, You love Jesus, You love Jesus."

Bathing in Budapest

Okay, I've been won over. I loved going to the baths in Budapest.
Because Budapest has a bunch of locations where you can have baths in the special thermal waters I've put a link here to the pictures of the one I was at on Friday.

CLICK HERE

A little pricey but I was really glad I did it. Plus, it was kind of fun to be in your bathing suit outside in freezing cold weather and then get into a pool of 37 degree Centigrade water!

The rest of the weekend was great too. A LOT of time being still before the Lord. Something that was pretty hard for me to do actually. I mean, I can lay down and be quiet for some time no problem. But for over an hour...that was a stretch for me. BUT, it was a stretch that needed to happen.

And, it was so good to be told to NOT think about ministry for these days. To let everything go so that God could go to work on our hearts - to bring HOPE was the focus of the weekend.
I feel so unstressed right now - it's really wonderful.

I am very thankful to YWAM Budapest for putting on this retreat for our team this weekend!

Computer Drama

Hopefully, this is the last post I'll ever do on computers not working. My friend seems to write a lot about the issues she has with cell phones. They always are lost or broken when in her hands.
Me, it's computers. So I get the computer my sister sent to me. Some programs didn't work on it so our computer guy decided to wipe it clean and re-install everything.
Yeah...a few hours turned into about 5 days. Poor Simon - that's our computer guy.
I laughed today when he told me that at least he learned some new things about computers through all of this!

Tomorrow I'll head to Budapest to join the rest of my team at our first ever team retreat! YWAM Budapest offered to put together a retreat for us. How cool is that?
The only part of the retreat I am NOT looking forward to are "the baths." If you are European you immediately know what I'm talking about. If you're American, chances are you have no idea. See, for us, getting into a bathing suit means beach or pool. For Europeans, baths means "Let's go sit around in hot thermal waters outside in the middle of winter crowded with a bunch of really old people." Baths, unfortunately, does not mean cannon balls. I'm just not much into sitting around in hot water, outside in winter, next to an overweight lady in a bikini. And, why are bikinis pretty much the only bathing suit available to buy here in this area of the world?

I AM looking forward to the speakers this weekend! But, am sad that I won't be back to Romania for church on Sunday. I really hate missing church here....they are really like family for me. Why pass up an opportunity to be with fam? Well, I think this is an okay instance...

Alright, hopefully I can get some pictures posted after the weekend!

School of Missions

I want to go here sometime within the next couple of years...
Every couple of months I'll allow myself to look at the website again. If I didn't set limits : ) on how often I could go to it then that's probably all I'd think about.
So, anyway...I really believe God will open up a door for this in the near future.
Take a look.

http://www.irismin.com/holy_given_schools_2.cfm