Craciun Fericit!

FCE Christmas Party

Last night was FCE's annual Christmas party. (FCE is the Foundation that I serve under here in Marghita.) It was a packed house - about 350 were there.
Because money is so tight they cut back on the courses for the meal. Which, I thought was a great idea and saved a lot of time and hassle as well. They had some fruit on the tables, brownies and crackers for the appetizers. Then we had a main meal of chicken, mashed potatoes and rice with little bits of veggies in it. Dessert was traditional Cozonac bread. (It wasn't my favorite type of Cozonac so I was a little bummed : ) Although I saved adding a couple of pounds by not eating a lot of it! Ha, ha ha.)

Everyone and their Mom shows up to this party each year. And, each project within FCE does something. I was supposed to do a song with the Casa Alba orphanage kids, as I did last year as well. The thing is that I felt the need to spice up the night a little bit. I mean, c'mon, everyone knows the Christmas carols already...right? So what did "Today Christ was Born" (Traditional Romanian Carol) morphe into?
That's right, a very wannabe rap song.
Annnnnnd, I was able to get a pair of sunglasses for each kid to wear as well.

Yup, and who was sitting at the very first table in front of the stage? The newly elected Mayor of Marghita and his close friends/family (I wouldn't know exactly).

I wish I had a picture to post but I was up front "rapping" it up with the kids!

Ohhhhh hilarious...

Rain, rain go away!

That's what we've got here, again. Rain. I told God that if we were getting February weather in December then that means that we need to have good weather in February. This is the second week now of rain. Bluck!

I couldn't believe that it has been over a week since I last updated this blog. I'm sorry.
I can't say that the past two weeks haven't been easy, for reasons I can't post here, and I've had to focus pretty much all of my energy on just getting through each day...
On Monday I read a verse and I immediately broke down after reading it....it ended with "and God knew." God knew just how hard and horrible the situation was when the Israelites were under slavery to the Egyptians. He knew.

Okay, moving onto other things.
In order to try and push the rain aside I've been listening to - and subjecting Caleb to (ha ha ha) - non stop Christmas music. We have lights and the decorations up in the house, music playing and the Christmas cookie factory has been going 24/7 for a week now. It is now closed for the season and we have 3 huge bags filled with cookies. I made up plates for each of my team members and took those over to everyone yesterday. Next project is to make up plates for all of the widows/widowers in our building...there are quite a few. When we see them in the halls they really enjoy the interaction they have, if only for a few seconds, with Caleb. I think they'll enjoy getting some Christmas cookie lovin' as well!

Kids in pre-school get SO MUCH STUFF at Christmas time here. Caleb has gotten 2 huge bags filled with candy (expensive candy), croissants, cookies and juice now 2 days in a row. The Casa Alba orphanage kids are getting visits non stop now from people wanting to give them bags of candy and cookies as well. I think it will take Caleb about 6 months to eat through his two bags that he got. Oh wait, make that 3. He got one from Children's Church on Sunday as well. Seriously...I can't remember getting this much when I was growing up?

Yesterday was his pre-school's program at the Civic Center in town (Casa de Cultura - Cultural House). Each group (Small Group, Middle Group, Big Group, Preparation for 1st Grade Group) did a song/dance or two. Caleb's class dressed up in traditional Romanian peasant costumes and did some traditional dancing to a song. I was so proud of Caleb - he danced SO WELL with the girl he was paired up with. I'll post pictures later today.
It's such a difference between the States and here. The program was introduced by the principal talking about how Christmas is a Holy time of year and the celebration of Christ's birth. The program ended with all of the kids singing "Today Christ was Born" (Astazi s-a nascut Hristos).
If a public school in the States tried to do that then there would be lawsuits flying left and right.
I thought it was pretty special, though, to be in an environment where it's expected and accepted to speak about this - and for Caleb to experience this as well! Although I'm not sure just how much of the speech was lip service and not really honest speaking from the heart - still though, I prayed that God would move people's hearts from even just hearing the words yesterday!

For Christmas Mihai, from Casa Alba orphanage, will come and stay with us. He is so excited. I love being with Mihai and including him in our family. He'll stay with us for 3 days and then go to one of the staff's homes. He is close to her as well so I think he's going to really enjoy his Christmas! My Dad comes the day after Christmas and both Caleb and I are going crazy "trying" to wait for him to arrive!

Well, Caleb's rest time is almost up which means I need to finish this up! We are heading to Casa Alba this afternoon to do a Birthday Cake for Jesus that Rocio found online. Once we're done with the cake then I need to finish up some snowflake ornaments that we've started together. After ornaments then it's time to practice their song for the Foundation's Christmas party tomorrow night!

A venit Mos Nicolae

Christmas IS beginning already. Here in Romania we celebrate the first stage of gifts on the morning of December 6th. Well, the kids do at least! The kids leave their choice of shoes out at night and Mos Nicolae comes and fills them with small toys and candies. If the child has been bad then he just leaves a stick. Caleb, now at 4 1/2, is definitely understanding these traditions now. Still though, the thought of some man coming into our home while we are asleep is a little freaky (it was last year as well.) This year I told him that Mos Nicolae had 2 rules. The first being that he can only come once Caleb is asleep. The second being that he can only come when Mommy is awake so that Mommy can let him in and out, as well as lock the door after him. : ) Caleb chose his boots - the biggest shoes he has - to wait for Mos Nicolae. I stuffed them with a couple of books that my parents sent awhile back, candy (including a kinder egg - actually officially "Kinder Joy" - his absolute favorite) and some small cars. He was so overjoyed and told me that the things he got were exactly what he has always wanted and he is "just so pleased and thankful!" (I loved it!)

I had to buy a new, fake tree this year. Mine burned in a house fire last year (my tree ended up not at my apartment for about a month last year and during it's time away got caught in a fire at that home) but I was able to get a real one for free! This year I don't think I'll be able to get that real and free one again, so I purchased the cheapest, fake one in the city last week after church. Once we got home from church Mihai, Caleb and Dani helped me set it up and decorate it. Mihai didn't know what to do with himself he was so excited...seriously. I bought an ornament for him and put his name and the year on it. Caleb and I both have ornaments with our names and Mihai will be spending Christmas with us so I thought he deserved one as well! He couldn't believe that he actually got his "own" ornament. So sweet...

And, in the pictures below, you'll see Caleb's favorite use of our kid friendly manger scene. What to do...my kid is obsessed with cars- everything becomes a garage!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I liked this! (Watch the whole thing...)

What can happen with 6 kids on 1 walk?

Just imagine it. 6 kids, 4 of which are 4 1/2 yrs old, 1 is 7 years old, 1 is 4 years old annnddd, me.
And, they are all orphans. Well, Caleb isn't anymore so we'll say that 5 of them are. Which, means, that they do not listen and are pretty much everywhere all the time. That can mean a lot of fun, no honestly, and really stressful as well. Our walk yesterday proved to be both.
I signed up to work a shift at Casa Alba orphanage yesterday. Normally I only do programs with the kids - never work a full shift. This is mainly because of Caleb and his schedule...the shift starts way before he's up in the morning and the evening shift ends over an hour after he is usually asleep each night. The problem is that there is a huge shortage of staff right now at Casa Alba. So I told them I could work until about 7pm yesterday. I thought that having a staff person until 7 was better than none, right? The open afternoon shift was with pink room - most of the kids in this room were the ones I originally worked with when I first came over four years ago.
I decided that there was NO WAY we were going to stay inside yesterday. Once the kids were up from their naps and had eaten snack I decided that we were heading to the park. No problem right? A 15 minute walk there, they could play until the sun went down, and then just a 15 minute walk back. I knew I was the only adult but I also knew I wouldn't have to worry about Caleb running off into the streets...that even at the same age as the other kids he would actually help with the "crowd control" : ) I think it probably took about 20 minutes to just get shoes, coats and hats on. All 5 kids are yelling "I need my shoes! Kelsey! Kelsey! Kelsey! Shoes! Hat! Coat! Aaaaghghg! Kelsey! Help! I can't do it! I can't do it! I can't do it! Help! Help! Shoes! There! No! Not mine! Too small! Aaaaghghg!" at the same time in a space about the size of a walk in closet. I think Caleb, watching all of this, thought Mom was pretty crazy to actually venture out of the gates of Casa Alba after just the shoes and coats. I tested the kids by saying that they could run outside ahead of me if they promised to stop at the gates to the street. They repeated what I said and YAY! they actually stopped at the gate. I praised them for having been so strong by listening and thought it would be a breeze to get to the park. I paired up the kids into 2's to hold hands and then we combined all hands together. We made it around the corner onto the main sidewalk and then I realized I had a problem on my hands. The line of 7 of us holding hands took up almost the entire sidewalk and in addition to people not being able to get by us, we were quickly approaching a huge - huge puddle. I started shifting to the right to avoid the puddle as much as possible and poor Cerasela, the smallest of the 6, couldn't keep up with the directional shift and fell flat on her face. (Also to note that Diana, our Down's Syndrome 7 year old, was so excited and happy to be on a walk that when I shifted direction she was still so thrilled by the hanging Christmas lights that she pulled in the completely opposite direction...aiding poor Cera's fall. I almost couldn't keep from laughing - it was really comical.)
I hugged Cera and we all comforted her. Once the tears stopped we continued on our path. We came to a tight section of sidewalk so Caleb opted to climb up on some stairs to make room for us to walk. Gheorghe, holding Caleb's hand, tried to climb up too. I told him "No" because I couldn't have my right arm a foot above my head for him to climb and then keep the other 4 in check with my left arm. Gheorghe jumps down, and in doing so pulls Caleb off his ledge and Caleb did a flip in the air and really hit the ground hard. Okay, time to stop again. I have all the kids sitting now on the apt. bloc's steps as I comfort Caleb. Meanwhile no one can get into the apartment building, which also houses a popular copy store, because I have 6 children sitting in a straight row on the steps! Right, Caleb has calmed down so we head out again. Now it's Cera yelling at Alex. It was hilarious. Alex was walking way faster than the 3 girls (they were on my left). Diana was on the end still going her own way to get the best glimpses of the Christmas lights. Gina was holding her own pretty well but Cera...her little legs just couldn't keep up. Alex is literally in front of all of us - eventhough I'm holding his hand - and my left arm is stretched out as far as possible. I decided at this point that a switch of hands was going to have to happen. I moved Cera to my hand and Diana to the middle. There, now we're getting somewhere.
But, not for long. It's time to cross the street. We get to the street and I stop and ask the kids to look for cars. What happens instead? The 3 girls and Alex, on my left, continue walking out into the middle of the street while Caleb and Gheorghe stand perfectly still on my right. I had to raise my voice, just a bit, at that point to get them back to the sidewalk before a car met them. Whew. That was tough, and a little scary! We make it down the street and Gheorghe trips on his boots and totally wipes out. He was so said, little guy! Thankfully though, the rest of the chain remained intact through that fall : ) We had another 2 street crossings that followed the original one. Ay yai yai - we STOP when we come to the street. : )
Overall, I had a fantastic time with the kids yesterday. Plus, I think that was the most interactive walk I've ever taken in my life! If the tears hadn't been real, and if the falls hadn't hurt so much, it wouldn't made for a pretty good comedy routine!