Day 55

I love Monday’s at the orphanage. It makes me realize just how much I love these kids because I miss them just in a couple days. Today I met a new worker. This morning she came up to me and was like ‘Hi are you Ashley? I have been gone for the past month because I just got married!’ in english! She is so nice. She did not talk too much to me today but it is so nice to feel like I will be able to communicate with the other workers when she is there. I was able to hold Petra in my lap this morning. Every moment with her is so precious. Gabby had school and drew a lot with the kids today which always helps subdue the mood a little bit. Jello has been biting like crazy and he hit me in the face today. It is hard for me because either this is merely a stage, or the other children/ institution is having a negative effect on him. Either way it is hard to see the behavioral digression because I feel like regardless of what I do, this will happen. Today flew by, and before I knew it, it was 11am. I was so happy when A.U got back from school early at 11:05! We went to the computer lab and he was absolutely ecstatic. I love how when he gets really happy he just has this laugh, ecstatic shriek! We did a lot of work on his numbers and counting today. We played a count the pictures game, but he struggled quite a bit. He knew numbers 1, 4 and 8 so I think that he knows his numbers but for some reason, the knowledge is not being applied. I got out a foam numbers board to help enforce the numbers with something more concrete than a computer screen. A few times I would count the pictures with him and then let him find the number on his own. When I would do this, he would keep asking for help. If I asked ‘Nu stii?’ he would shake his head no. I want to ask Teo if he is asking for help because it is easier, because he has gotten rusty, or because he genuinely does not know. A strength that Alex has is persistence; he will keep trying and trying and trying. Even though this game was difficult for him, he kept at it and he loved it! I can tell that he really enjoys learning. There has been a lot of research carried out and a lot of work put into AU. A past intern, Robby, has done an incredible amount of work with AU, Teo said he came here 4 times to work w

ith him. I cannot wait to hear back from him and get some helpful input and advice. While I am no expert on cerebral palsy, this software or on AU as an individual, I think that there is so much more that I can be doing to help stimulate AU in ways much more important than knowing his numbers or coordinating the CrossScanner software

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At the hospital I spent the majority of the time with Cosmin. I did not even realize that it was 5:00 time absolutely flew by. There is another mom and her baby in the same room, her baby was recently released from the ICU. When I first got to the room, the baby was just screaming and screaming. I was afraid to pick her up because she has an IV in her head, some other things attached to her, and I was not sure how the mother would feel about it. I sat on the bed and rocked her a little with my hand (she is very tiny). She immediately stopped crying and I could see how gorgeous her big blue eyes are. She is so precious. Cosmin loves to play with my camera but the battery was dead so he got a little frustrated with me. I was able to quickly divert his attention to a tape player and some Disney tapes that I brought. He seemed to really like it .. he really enjoys music in general. Last week I had him listening to my ipod

but it is funny because he loves hip hop. I think this is from the influence of his older brother. I have not seen his older brother since last week which is interesting because I am usually with him for a couple hours every day. New food and toys keep appearing though so I assume someone is visiting him before I get there. So I do not remember if I have mentioned this, but there are two older girls on the same floor, Carmen and Alexandra. They both speak English so it has been cool being able to talk to them and just build relationships. They are

both 17 or so and it is very sad because Alexandra was saying that she loves sports but cannot play soccer because she has heart problems. She also says that she has been a smoker for 5 years? She left 2 or 3 times for a smoke break in the time I was there. So sad. Carmen asked how the United States was different than Romania. Basically everything is different. We get asked things like this a lot and oftentimes I just tone it down like… talk about how the Romanian people are SO generous once you get to know them, or something like that. I felt bad for Cosmin today though because the nurse came in to change his diaper and he was just sitting there while I was in the room. I think he was really embarrassed to have me there. Some activities we did.. lets see.. we did a care bears puzzle, played around with a tape player, I made him a ton of different things out of pipe cleaners! I made a man, a girl, a horse and I attempted to make a helicopter but failed quite terribly. I just turned it into a pumpkin and he was happy. At the end of the day I was helping him write his and my name. He then starting spouting off Romanian names and we would write them for the next half hour. A lot of names I know from the kids in the orphanage, but a lot I did not know and had no idea how to spell them! Luckily the other mom in the room was there to help, and even more luckily I know the Romanian alfabetul now! He was cuddling up to me a lot today. I absolutely love this boy and it breaks my heart that he is not wanted anywhere. I want to take him home with me.

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Oh and one more quick thing.. I got an email back from Robby who has been working a lot with Alex. He gave so many helpful tips but more so, such an inspirational perspective. Robby spoke a lot about the importance of helping Alex increase his agency and ultimately self trust and independence. What a cool concept. I do not know why I have not thought about it before. Yes numbers are important to learn, but not nearly as important as Alex’s independence, ability to express and social capacities. I have so many questions still though so I am excited to talk to Robby more and ultimately utilize these new ideas (well new to me) in my work with Alex.