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 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. : )