These kids can scream!

Especially when they are answering the questions of :
"Do you like clementines? (the little oranges - you know.)"
"Do you like chocolate?"

I was getting the Casa Alba orphanage children pumped up for our very fun snack making time Saturday morning. Each kid got 2 clementines. 1 to eat right away and 1 to make into the activity snack. Take off the peel of the clementine and separate each section. Melt your favorite chocolate (I bought a middle of the road brand Romanian milk chocolate bar) in the microwave and let it cool enough to not burn the child during dipping : ) Prepare an additional bowl with grated coconut. Dip half of the clementine slice into the chocolate, then the same end into the coconut and then directly onto waxed paper. Stick it into the fridge until cool and hardened.
They taste awesome. Even better than how they tasted was the joy in doing these with the kids. Every single one of them could make these fun orange slices and they looked like professionals had made every one!
Even the staff was asking about "the recipe" details so they could make them at home...
Here's the official recipe : Clementine Bon Bons

Happy Thanksgiving!!

...Mom and Caleb...

Caleb balanced the whipped cream pretty well : )

Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without my Mom's PB Pie.
I followed the recipe to a T and I have never seen my team destroy a pie as fast as this one!

the day before...

and i'm sick. Really sick. There's no time to be sick here. Being sick means trying to still be Mom and keep a very un-sick : ) 4 1/2 yr. old boy entertained even though I would rather be passed out in bed. Being sick means that the programs with the kids at Casa Alba orphanage have to be cancelled today. More than that, they have to be rescheduled later this week - and trying to figure out where we can reschedule them is almost impossible because there are hardly any spots left in the week where we can do the programs. And tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Who is supposed to make all of the pies and the Turkey? That would be Kelsey this year. I guess as long as I don't touch the turkey or the pies once they come out of the oven then they are germ free : )

Enough of sick talk. Moving on. Among the e-mails that I received this morning were two that made an impact on my day.
My Dad sent me an I love Lucy clip which, made me laugh.

A woman from my church sent me Lincoln's Thanksgiving address which, was extremely powerful.

Also, some Marghita news for you. On Monday night they turned on the Christmas lights in town! And, you can get Clementines for 3.70 RON per Kilo in a tiny little store near my apartment. Everyone else is selling them for at least 5 RON per Kilo. What a rip off. Way to go hole in the wall tiny store!! Want to know the exchange rate? Go to www.xe.com and click on "other currencies" in the drop down list.

Psalm 46:5

"God will help her when morning dawns."

Okay, I know that "her" isn't necessarily referring to "me." (All of you who go crazy about exact meaning and reference you may want to stop reading now.)

This morning though, these were God's words to me. Personal, intimate, hopeful, encouraging and exactly what the core of my soul needed.

This made my week...

Wednesday mornings is Pink Room's group time with Rocio and myself. Pink Room is comprised of the youngest children at Casa Alba orphanage. Sometime during the program, I forgot when, Rocio left to go get glue or scissors or something. While the kids and I waited for her to return, Cerasela and Diana began a very interesting discussion. They were talking about their birth moms. Cera looked at me and and stated that Diana's birth mom had been there visiting recently. Diana, unable to contain her absolute delight in this recent event, was overcome with giggles and smiles as she admitted that this was true. I smiled and said "Really Diana? That's great!" Diana looked up at me and screeched in delight, jumped up from her chair, threw her arms around my neck (seriously squeezing so hard I couldn't breathe) and planted the biggest, breakfast smelling kiss on my cheek. Then she threw herself back down onto her chair, again in screeching, beautiful giggles and told me "She brought me chocolate." Cera then added that Diana had shared the chocolate with her as well. I complimented Diana on having such a giving heart. It was then that my heart just lifted... Cera says....
"I have a Mom, but she isn't my Mom - Mom anymore. I know I'm going to get a second Mom. Then I'll have two Moms. And, Diana too."
I cannot TELL YOU how long I have waited to hear a child speak this themselves...without me working this into prayer times or speaking about it to them. Cera, without us even talking about Moms, said this on her own. The kids at Casa Alba have really been shielded from the truth about their situations. Well, knowing the full stories of their abandonments and family history is not such a good thing to tell a 4 year old. BUT, knowing that they do have birth moms and that they will be betting a "second" mom is something I have longed for the children to understand.
And out of the mouth of the littlest one at Casa Alba it came.
From the breakfast smelling kiss to this statement from Cerasela...my week was definitely made!
God is so good!

Morning Menu!

Let me tell you, breakfast can be difficult for Caleb and Mom. Mom has had it : )
So I came up with the idea of "Morning Menu." I printed off pictures of the options that Caleb has every morning for breakfast. Then together he and I glued the pictures to a cardboard folder and decorated it. You may notice that there are no fruits or veggies on the menu - here's the disclaimer. We always have veggies or fruit at breakfast regardless of what we are having. So, those are the staples, the menu holds the options.
And, I am proud to say, that in the 3 days that Caleb has woke up and "ordered" from his morning menu we have had NO problems at breakfast time! Woohoo!
Plus, Mom has been enjoying the "payment" for each breakfast ordered : )

Ugggg, internet problems!

I know I haven't posted in over a week. Yikes! I never go that long without updating the blog. Usually I update every 2 days or so. I'm sorry, it's the dang internet here...it shuts off and reconnects itself constantly. It is driving me crazy! Thankfully, after an hour of acting up, it has held the connection for about 10 minutes now. Thought I'd try to do what I can before it shuts off again.

I haven't been feeling well for the past week. Yuck. Not so fun symptoms are passing through our team like wildfire. Tonight I have a massive headache and feel like I could sleep for about 2 days straight. This, though, is a welcome relief to spending the night feeling like I was going to throw up ever 30 seconds!

Switching gears a bit...

I decided to change the curriculum that I was using at Casa Alba for 2 of the rooms. Tonight was the first night using Group Pub.'s 10 Commandments book. I need to still get used to the flow of how their activities go...and how that ties into how the kids come to understand the truths about God throughout everything. After a disaster last week at Casa Alba I spoke with the director about ways in which I can better work with the children and have them behave respectfully during group. I used her ideas tonight and felt that it worked well for about 1/2 the children but the other half didn't care less. Still though, it was a really successful introduction lesson to the 10 commandments. The kids learned that rules keep us safe. That God gave us "loving laws to keep us safe." We played games without rules - then with rules. We learned about how sheep have fences to keep them safe, and then made a craft with popsicle stick fences and cotten sheep. We reenacted the thunder (wooden spoons on metal pots), lightening (a bright flashlight), and trumpets (hands on the mouth and loud trumpet noises) for what happened when Moses ascended Mt. Sinai to receive God's "loving laws." And, of course, we built a chair fence around Mt. Sinai (a chair on top of a table with a blanket over top), for them to understand that the Israelites were not allowed to go near the mountain. I think this new curriculum draws the kids into the lesson in ways that I couldn't even think up, and in a way that their attention spans can handle. I am very thankful for this material!!

It is still a very warm fall. This is the 5th fall that I have been here for and by far the warmest. We have moved into needing winter coats and hats in the morning but by afternoon you only need a light jacket. I am LOVING it. Give me hot weather year round and I am set!

(Uh oh, internet just disconnected again...I am praying that this post still goes through!)

Caleb is really struggling with all of the changes going on in his life and around him right now.
It's always been his thing, change. Little changes, big changes - they affect him big time. I remember one day, maybe a month and a half ago, I needed to go down and move our car. I had parked it right next to our building and the men cleaning out the gutters didn't want my car to get covered in what they were throwing down. Caleb was just so upset because he didn't understand why we needed to move our car. Why were we leaving the house just for a few minutes during breakfast to do this? It really was traumatic for him. So starting kindergarten, our friend moving homes and some leaving Marghita for good...he really is having a hard time. Tomorrow though will be a Mommy and Caleb day. . . we had a M & C morning this past Monday and he had a FANTASTIC day. I am praying that God does the same with tomorrow...that Caleb would feel safe and peaceful.
Oh, and today's kindergarten update?
The teacher threatened to throw all of the "bad" children in a basement with rats.
Nice.

: )

A few days of firsts...

There have been 2 firsts for Caleb over the past few days.

1. Super Caleb and Treat'in Marghita Style! I have to be honest. Caleb was so cute in his thought up and made in 30 minutes costume that I could have cried that whole day. I love my son...
And, the best part was, he was so excited about his costume. He was telling me what his special super powers were and he had moves to go along with it. Absolutely hilarious and awesome!



2. His first day of Gradinita...Romanian kindergarten! I won't go into the details at the moment but I was forced to enroll him. He will go every Tuesday and Thursday (thankfully I had a choice about whether or not I wanted to send him full time which, I did not). This week though, it being his first week, I sent him Monday as well. When I picked him up on Monday his big story of the morning was that he wasn't the child "beat" by the teacher. A.K.A. One of the girls wasn't listening so the teacher rolled up a magazine and gave her a hard whack on the head. Unfortunately I kind of knew already that this is pretty normal here in the kindergartens. (One of the reasons why I didn't want to send him.) And then this morning Caleb tells me this : "Mom, it's okay if another kid hits me because the teacher will just come and hit them back." The teacher also uses words that I would never use as a parent, nor as a worker with the Casa Alba children. Although I have noticed over the years that harshness is much more tolerated. Before we left the apartment this morning I really had to explain to him that just because she tells the children to "shut up" during class doesn't make it a good choice. That under no circumstances is he allowed to start using that phrase. I cannot believe what my 4 1/2 year old is learning after just 1 day there. I have been praying so much that God would protect his little heart while he is there. And we have been praying yesterday and today for his teacher to have more patience and that the kids would know Jesus' love. I think it helps me as well to pray that and not stress out so much about him being there!

You may be wondering what the pictures just above are. The one is of Caleb standing outside the kindergarten doors, holding the box of chocolates for his teacher that we bought, on his first morning! The second is JUST ONE of the MANY bulletin boards lining the main hallway of the school. : )

GOOD DAY!

Yes, a very good day. It started off with some crazy aerobics at the Club with about 20 kids. Yup, that's what I decided to do to get them "calmed down." Maybe that seems a little backwards to you but it actually WORKED. Amen. Amen. Let me say that again, Amen!
What worked about it was that all of the kids :
1. Loved that they got to move in a crazy way.
2. Enjoyed it enough to want to pay attention to what aerobic activity I would switch to next.
3. Did it together as a GROUP; almost every single child was participating in the same activity without beating each other up.
4. When the aerobic activity switched to "sit down and be quiet now", THEY DID IT!!

Gosh today was awesome with the kids. We had a few children who weren't there this morning from Casa Alba orphanage and that made a huge difference in the dynamic of the group. There also was one staff member who does an exception job with her room of kids. That room of kids happens to be one of the most disrespectful groups of children together but with this staff worker today, no problems whatsoever! That was a huge relief. The children who were gone can often pose some behavioral problems during this Saturday morning program. Without them there we were able to actually do the games and activities with few time outs and disrespect.
To tell a child to stop talking rudely and then have them continue, and continue, and continue to do so while you are explaining a game...well, that's difficult. Make it 15 children and then you can understand what group times with these children are like. Discipline doesn't work, for the most part, so it's very hard to know how to give consequences for the bad choices. Plus, there is no consistency between staff workers and volunteers with consequences so that poses a problem in itself. Sorry, off track now. What I'm trying to say is this. God poured a whole bunch of His grace into the morning and it was fantastic.

One of my highlights was the "Praise Walk." You have the kids form 2 lines, facing each other. Each child has to walk down the path in between while all of the other children are shouting praises and encouragement. We screamed "I love you!" "You're beautiful" "Bravo!" "You're smart" all while clapping and cheering for every single child.

The smiles. If only you could have seen the smiles on their faces. It literally was priceless.

At the end of the walk was a tree that my friend and I had stuck bananas in. After finishing the Praise Walk the child had to immediately turn into a monkey, complete with sounds and motions, and grab a banana of their choice. Ha! It was great. I wish you all could have been there to see it!

And yes, Halloween was yesterday. And yes, some of us scrambled for last minute costumes for our child. And yes, a few of the kids went around getting candy from just a few (literally) spots around the foundation's grounds. And yes, they all loved it. And yes, even Mom who really - really - really scrambled for a costume with only 30 minutes to make one, absolutely loved watching the kids get candy. And yes, pictures will be posted tomorrow!