April Showers

This has been a "gray" trip on a lot of levels including the weather. We've had some slight rain the past 2 days and it has been cold. Caroline said she saw a snow flurry out of the hospital window yesterday.

Nico and Ana Maria were at the hospital in Iasi for testing today so we only had Raul (on a separate floor), Cristi, Paula and Cleo. Our room is a popular place since we have all the toys. There are 2 CPS boys, one in particular, who are in and out, mostly in. The one who appears to be maybe 11 or 12 was obsessed with my camera today.  He is good about asking if he can take a toy from the room and bringing it back. He kissed us all good bye yesterday and today brought a chair over for me. I suspect it is hard for him to not have a  mother around like the rest of the children.

We have decided Paula really likes these boys. She even let one of them put a bib on her today. They can get in her space without consequences. Yesterday she was giving Caroline nose kisses and today I was the lucky recipient. Zero melt downs today.  I think she does better with fewer children and of course more attention. The only problem is the lack of a jumperoo and for a short period of time I was the jumperoo for her today until my quads gave out.

Cleo slept most of the morning and we were a bit worried about her but in the afternoon she was awake and more active than I've seen her in a long time. Either she was feeling better or she liked the penguin we put for her to look at or all of the attention and stimulation but for whatever reason she was moving both arms and smiling and even lifting her shoulder a bit. The staff continue to be good about changing her position. I suspect she will end up staying at the hospital and am a little concerned that she won't get enough attention when there aren't volunteers there. Having said that there seem to be a fair number of staff and they seem to be caring with the children. And the head doctor on that floor, Dr. Eva, has spoken with us quite a bit and seems to have the children's best interests at heart.

Cristi had a good morning but slept most of the afternoon. He hasn't been as congested and we were wondering if they are giving him an antihistamine that helps with the congestion but then tires him out. It is nice to see him not having to deal with such a stuffy nose all the time. The physical therapist came in and worked with him a bit today.

Dr. Eva brought a young Romanian man into our room this afternoon. He is a "social assistant" of some kind with some university training but not a degree in medicine or psychology. He is a volunteer and helps them out a lot. He spoke English and was interesting to talk to and helped us manage our new friend.

As were leaving after lunch, we saw Maria Alexandra aka papanasci with her mother. Sounds like she is there with a cold. Her face looked thinner. While we were sorry to see that she was at the hospital so soon after leaving the clinic, at least her mother knew she needed care. Her mother came over to us as we almost didn't recognize Maria with her thinner face and little cap on. Before we left, Caroline sneaked on to the floor where Maria is and the mother ok'd her taking some pictures. So check out tutovababies.blogspot.com for updated pictures of Maria.

After lunch we made a short visit to the Center for Children with Disabilities. It is north of the Children's Hospital at the edge of town right next to a sports field with a track. So if volunteers end up there you can run laps at lunch time. They have rooms for physical therapy, play therapy, "learning" therapy (tutoring I think), hydrotherapy, art therapy, and probably something else I'm forgetting. The rooms seem well equipped. It sounds like they provide these resources to the children who reside there in the mornings and to non-residents in the afternoon. In fact, we saw Ioanna receiving tutoring I think. Ioanna's foster sister is in one of Mihaela's classes and Mihaela had a nice chat with her.

In addition to having children who come for services during the day, they have a respite program for parents of children with disabilities. Parents can bring their children for 3 hours a week and staff care for them while the parents get a break. The manager of the clinic, Mirella, used a space that was supposed to have two bathrooms for a play room so she could provide this program. I thought that was very progressive of her. 

They have separate houses for groups of what appeared to be 8 children in each house with 2 staff in each house. (This is what we saw so I'm not sure how accurate this information may be.)  The premises and children seemed clean and there were lots of toys. There was a not large living room/play room in each house and relatively small bedrooms that had 4 children each. We saw Sammy who seemed good and immediately tried to pull Caroline's hair. We also saw Ana Maria in another house who looked quite good and was smiling. One of the staff said she is spoiled.

In the house where "our" other children are we also saw Maestra. She looked great and seemed fine until she got upset when we left. When we walked into the room where our babies are they were very happy to see us. Well, except for Ion who was asleep (it was the end of their nap time) and who Mihaela gently woke up! Ion sat there next to Mihaela just beaming. Alina was all excited when she saw Caroline and even usually quiet Marius was quite happy when I picked him up. Ionut appreciated being tickled. I didn't ask if we could take pictures - didn't quite seem appropriate under the circumstances.

All of the children except Marius had some bites on their faces - not sure what kind - but they were otherwise clean and nicely dressed although Marius was in pink. Alina was quite the girly girl and had a whole closet full of clothes since is so small and the center had donations that didn't fit their other children. We had always heard they don't take babies but there was a little girl who will be 1 year old in July (on my birthday) who had a cast on her leg. Not sure what was going on with her.

In addition to children up to age 18, there is an adult house. We saw some children with Down's Syndrome, like Sammy and Cristi, but we also saw some children who seemed to have more profound disabilities like serious cases of what looked like cerebral palsy.  Apparently Bud has a meeting on Thurs. with someone in CPS who is the boss of the nice woman who runs the Center about volunteers working at this facility.

BTW, the Center is over capacity as the need has exceeded their space. One of the things I'm reminded of is that this is a rural and poor area and it has even less resources than other parts of the country.

I think every day about all of "our" children and how they are doing. I think I'm most worried about Alexandra, Petre and Gabita. There are so many children needing assistance throughout the world. I guess I should just keep remembering the starfish story about the little boy who said he knew there were lots of starfish that needed help but at least he helped one.

Go Cristi!

I gave "big" Andreea the little stuffed bunny that Louanne donated.

Andreea showing off her gold hoop earrings - and hair

Raul only smiles for Caroline

Cristi

Note how Cleo grabbed on to the side of the crib

Paula was a happy camper today

Cleo was a happy camper this afternoon