When House of Angels opened up the child placement center to the orphans again we weren’t prepared for them.  We didn’t have proper things.  We had been caring for only older after school program children in the community.   It had been several years since we had orphans in our center, and then we had only infants up to three.  The state wanted to give House of Angels the smaller disabled children that had been in the Romanian state care.  How could anyone say no!  There right now are twenty of them.    We called out for donations not knowing which ages of kids they would bring.   We have a better idea now and generous donations have gone far but we need real money, as there are some things here that just cannot be donated.  The children all have different needs.

There are always so many children that steal my heart.   Some children take a part of my heart forever.   Roxana is going to be one of those children.  I can’t wait for you to hear about her.   I think she’s about 11 years old, golden thick wavy hair cropped into a boy cut.   She has the fairest of skin and a few freckles and blue eyes.  Her features are very thin and frail.   She doesn’t speak.   She appears to have some institutional autism and major sensory deprivation and disorder.  She has auditory and tactile sensory issues.  She cannot touch things easily and she reaches out with much trepidation and recoils her hand a few times before trusting.  She is thin and shuffles when she walks.  I don’t feel she is truly autistic, she does engage and make eye contact and smile but she is terrified of the world around her.  She’s so physically delayed and completely mute as far as I can tell.   I love to make her smile. She loves to smile.   She spends most of the day fearful of the sudden actions and sounds of the other children.  She sits in the corner and rocks.   I have talked to Simona to get her some one on one time so we can assess what her real abilities are for the future.  This is why we need volunteers.  We’ve given some plastic surgical brushes to the nurses to “brush” her skin so she can become more tolerant.  I’m giving her some big deep hugs, the kind that reach right into the soul too!

Tonight I took Roxana around letting her touch the plants inside the House of Angels, letting her feel the different leaves and textures.   She adored this truly.  She held my hand firmly and loved the walk up and down the stairs.   She was very worried about the stairs but she did so well we did it again on the other side of the hall.  The stairs are marble.  There are 23 of them.   I walk them night and day along with the rest of the nurses and employees.

We took Roxana to the donation room.  All the children were in ill fitting clothing and shoes.   It was time for Roxana to get her new shoes.   Roxana was smiling because I’d given her a new teddy bear and now we were trying to dig in huge boxes of shoes for something for her to wear.   Her feet were too long.  She got afraid when Gelu (House of Angels Director) started tossing shoes around on the floor.   I held her tighter and comforted her.  Finally we found something for her but I think I’ll go and buy her some newer shoes too.  We found a sports suit for her which was brand new and she smiled.   I asked her if she liked it in Romanian…but there was no reaction.   I know she did like them.   Thank you for the new sports suit and shoes, from Roxana.  She truly loves them.  Please pray for the restoration of the emotional and physical health of Roxana.

This is where I’d love to thank the donors for all their donations, however, there were so many unusable shoes in those donations.  Please be mindful if you send donations, we need very gently used and new clothing.  We cannot use shoes with holes and soles tearing off.   These children are often growing fast and hard on their shoes.  What we can really use is rubber crocks or slip on sandals that the children can wear socks with inside.     These are the absolute best shoes ever for a child placement center.   They wear socks all the time and the rubber shoes are necessary inside so the children don’t fall on the tile or wooden flooring.

Speaking of shoes and feet and such…I know this is silly but I painted my toenails very bright florescent colors before I left.   They have polka dots on them in many patterns.   The children adore them.   I’m glad someone likes my feet, I don’t really care much for them myself haha.  They always want to look at them!  I’m wearing rubber flip flops here in the orphanage, I can’t handle wearing socks with crocks or sandals.  I can go from the shower right to work in them  Speaking of work…I hear a baby crying.