This little town never sleeps. The city sounds continue now after midnight. So many dogs yapping.

I was up a little late trying to figure out my new camcorder…I am not having much luck. I am able to film, I just can’t figure out how to get them to a usable format and download them out of the camcorder. Anyone know about Canon camcorders? There must be something I’m missing in the manual!

I took a shower late so I’m also waiting for my hair to dry, I don’t want to get sicker. Yes I said sicker. I have a cough. Nagging dry cough. I”m praying it is just allergies. All the kids here have something in the baby rooms. They keep the doors completely sealed and no fresh air enters. It is possible I got something in there.

Today I discreetly took pics of the orphans. They are not identifiable. I’ll be able to post up some of those soon.

I’m dead-dog tired. The weather was cold today and the kids were cooped up. I went and got the older orphans and decided it was time to get them out of their rooms. I brought them all out into the hall and got the bike and trike out and one on inline skates and we screamed at the top of our lungs and ran up and down the long hall for about 2 hours. That should have worn them out. You can tell they aren’t used to regular hard play of normal children, they overreact and they have such loud voices.

There is a little one that reminds me of how Maggie was when we first adopted her. She’s just the funniest thing and busy busy busy. She’s always bossing or laughing or trying to make people laugh. Her name is Alexandra and she’s a little sweetie-pie. She has the hugest dimples!

Again I worked some with Roxana. I made her run over and over down the hall. She loved it. I remember as a child we raised rabbits. We would occasionally let them run free in the backyard. They would take off hopping very fast then jump up and twist in the air in glee and then take off faster. That is how Roxana is. She shuffle runs with very heavy feet and then just suddenly twists her body and jumps up and yells and laughs. Her favorite thing is to go to her apartment door and open it up, look in and shut it really loud. She did this so many times. Very autistic like motions with her. If you aren’t attentive with her, she goes back into the rocking orphan mode. It is easy to let her rock in the corner. Today I told Simona that we need to throw her chair out. It was a mess. Kids had picked at the wood until it was all splintered up and looked dangerous. She sits in the corner and rocks in this chair a lot. I think with some intense therapy she would be talking and doing much better. She is uttering some words, so she isn’t completely mute, but her speech is unrecognizeable. She will make eye contact. I don’t know if she has mental retardation or if she is just so severely delayed. She needs one on one sensory therapy as well.

One of the older boys, Cristi (Christian), stays in trouble, with me at least. He’s always pounding and hitting the little ones. The moment we gave him the skates he went outside and went into traffic when we weren’t looking. In the US that would be immediate skate removal for a while. Not so here, these children aren’t disciplined consistently because different people take care of them all the time. Cristi likes to be the boss-man. I had to get on to him several times today for being far too rough. He’s a real teddy bear though! He just needs much more love. He’s the oldest in the group.

There is a precious precious downs syndrome child here. Such a good child and obedient and quiet and helpful. I feel so happy when I’m around this little one.

There are so many lovely children here. Why won’t Romania at least open up the opportunities for these special needs children to be adopted. I know I could find homes for several of them.

Ionut is a little boy that has had a cleft lip and palate repair. He’s quite delayed and has some sensory issues I can see from working with him. He’s extra small and very clingy. He gets left behind a lot by the other kids.

Speaking of clingy…the children are all so jealous of my attention that I have a sore back and arms and legs and just about everything trying to give a little of myself to each of them. My fingers are stretched so far apart trying to share my hand-holding with more than one little hand. Tonight I had a child on nearly every finger! Come on everyone…do you have a little love to share? Come take my place?

Well it is so late, and I have a big day tomorrow. We will go to Slatina to see Iulian, my daughter Rachel’s brother for the first time since 2004. I can’t wait. More later…Buna sera.