Wednesday: I will not see Diana again for a few weeks which is a bit of a bummer but at least Lumi was working today! It was Lumi and Gabi. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was how big of a difference making a little effort is.. also the language barrier. Yesterday Diana was working with Mihaela. Mihaela is not always the friendliest to me and she never tries to speak to me except when she needs something or I am doing something wrong. With Diana’s translation, I was able to speak to Mihaela and communicate a little. She snapped right out of it and she was so nice yesterday to me. She said that she actually can understand a lot of English but to speak is hard. Anyways, I figured that Lumi was working today so I brought my romana-enlgeza dictionary along with a picture of Brad and I to show her. She loved it! It is funny because at the orphanage, I wear my glasses, pull my hair up, no make up, and wear scrubs. In the picture I am on a date with Brad so I am all done up. I look like an entirely different person haha. It was a good day today and since I talked to Robby, I was able to tweak a few things with my approach with AU even in the computer lab. I feel like my eyes have really been opened with him. Teo said that Robby had told her that I wanted to do more with AU. Teo told me that they are organizing a big conference and she will not be able to in the next couple weeks. I am disappointed because I know that if there were more resources, AU could have so much more help. The lack of resources directly affects his progression. It seems that it is this way with every child here, I just especially have to deal with it in AU’s case.
I had a wonderful day with Cosmin today. We watched Aladdin in Romanian on my laptop. I was trying to get him to sit up next to me on the bed but he would not do it. I then smelled his diaper and realized that he did not want to because he was self conscious. While this was such a sad and tender moment, it was a good thing because to have self reflective thoughts is such a good sign with cognitive and social development. He was insisting that he stand but he can barely walk let alone stand for 48 minutes so I pulled up a chair and he was ok with that. He got so bored so fast with the movie, which makes sense I guess if he is used to playing actual games all the time. 48 minutes is a while to just sit in one place. I still had the tape player but this time I had a blank tape and would record us and then play it back for him. I told him to sing and he just started rapping really fast in Romanian for a good 15 seconds or so! Last night I had looked up a lot of different adjectives like ‘tall’, ‘short’, ‘brave’, ‘handsome’, ‘fat’, ‘skinny’, ‘naughty’, ‘still’, ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘distressed’, ‘tired’… and I would say Fii…inalt! Or ‘be tall!’ Robby actually gave me this idea in his write up back from 2006 I believe. Cosmin loved it! We had so much fun and I ran out of adjectives pretty quickly. An idea popped into my head with the word scurt or short.. I got on my knees and put my shoes on my knees and started hobbling around. A couple times I broke into a dance and he was laughing so hard he was almost crying. It was the hardest I have ever seen him laugh! Man I love this kid so much! Alexandra was saying that he goes home on Friday. I was shocked. I wonder what changed? When did his Dad or brother decide they wanted him? I am so happy for him but at the same time it makes me so nervous for him because I want him to be in a safe, supportive and loving home. Another thing that Megan brought to my attention, is that when Cosmin was asked ‘where do you want to go’ he said ‘with my brother’ not ‘with my dad’. His brother cannot completely care for Cosmin because he is 17 or so.. the father though, could, but for whatever reason does not wish to. I am not in a position to judge, but it just makes me so worried because over the past couple weeks I have truly grown to love Cosmin. I will miss him so much. He is the closest that I have become with a child here at the hospital. He is so excited every time I tell him I will come tomorrow. He will ask a couple more times ‘you are coming tomorrow right?’. I cannot wait to bring him some Halloween treats and a jackolantern balloon on Friday!
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Tonight we made pizza at the branch building! Petru and the whole gang came. The pizza was absolutely amazing. The sauce was a little different than the kind we make in the states.. for example.. there were carrots in it! It was so good. We made one pizza with cheese and mushrooms, one with peppers and turkey, one with just cheese and tomatoes and another with whatever was left over. The crust was so delicious, Petru did a great job making the dough from scratch too.
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