Christmas Week

What an enjoyable week we have had. We got to share it with our closest friends which is wonderful when you can't have your family near! We had fantastic sunny and warm weather and made the most of it with walks out in the countryside. I hope you all enjoyed Christmas too. If you would like to see photos from our week please click here :) Wishing you love and all the best in these last few days of 2013 and into the New Year. Love xx

FCE Christmas Party and our Weekend Away

Tonight was the FCE Christmas party. A time when anyone who works in or alongside the foundation comes together in the Club and celebrates with a meal and speeches and information on the past years happenings. As these events go I actually enjoyed this years! Think it might have something to do with my son being a little older and being able to sit and talk with friends. Plus I did get a momentary tear in my eye when Courtney pointed out that this would hopefully be the last one we will attend. We both hope to finalise our boys adoptions sometime in the New Year.

Courtney and I with our families - if you want to see more photos from tonight please click here.

Cristi and I also had a lovely Christmassy weekend away visiting our friend Anghelina in Arad. We had a fantastic weekend seeing all the sights and having lots of laughs together. Cristi even met Santa. As we sat eating lunch in McDonald's (I know the shame!) in walked a man with white hair and a big white beard, rosy cheeks and bright blue eyes. He had a red jacket and a Christmas shirt and to top it off he had a Santa hat atop his head. All the kids went silent as he walked in and one little girl went running up to speak to him before her mum could stop her. Then we heard him speak English so after a little persuasion from my shy boy we went over to talk to him. I apologised for interrupting his meal but said that my son just needed to ask one question............"Are you really the REAL Santa?" he asked and I tell you I wished I had filmed his face as Santa replied "yes well of course I am". I do not think my son has ever looked happier! What a magical moment!! 

Meeting Santa :) If you would like to see more photos from our weekend in Arad please click this.

A Busy Wednesday

Today has been a non stop day of Christmas cheer and heartache. This morning I was in the depot with the Blythswood shoeboxes finding those perfect boxes to make my girls at the institution smile and feel lucky this Christmas.

I also got to go and see the beautiful little angels from school practice for their competition tomorrow. Some of you helped to dress them and they and the teachers were very thankful for your donations. They looked super cute and of course angelic :) I am wishing them luck and courage as they get up on that big stage tomorrow!

This afternoon we went to the 'old peoples home' to hand out Christmas gifts and sing carols. Oh my I tell you most years are hard but this year, tears were shed. Lost little faces of long and hard lives weeping as we sang songs of cheer and love. It was heartbreaking! It is hard to only offer a song, a Christmas greeting and a held hand. Snippets of love. 

It is wonderful on one hand to be involved in these moments. To live life this way with my son, to see the joy on some faces as we sing and dance with these old and often forgotten people. However, seeing the pain in some of their eyes, the smell of the place, and realising that my son could have been one of those young, lost, damaged souls (that live in one of the buildings there) had he not had the fortune of being placed in the orphanage he did. Life is so fragile and sometimes we humans are so cruel to those around us. Destroying innocence and creating a generation of hurt.

Remember to share some love and cheer this Christmas especially with those who have no one and often go through this time lonely and forgotten. It can be hard to see but a few moments of discomfort on your part can be worth huge moments of joy and love to another.

I love these two!!

Merry band of carolers

Singing as the gifts are handed out

Spreading some Christmas love

Oh Gyula! He literally ran at me and grabbed me in his arms. What a beautiful man!! Read my earlier post Gyula to see a bit about him.

Beautiful!

Group singing - they of course joined in with the carols too!

This lovely lady had a cat. She loves her cat!! I took a photo for her which she is very excited to receive when I get it printed out.

Courtney came with Otis - the old residents at the home were so happy to see him and hold his hand. It has been many years since this lady has seen such a small child so she actually thought he was a doll at first.

We also had the pleasure of being sung to although I had to stop filming when he broke down in  tears - oh my heart hurts :(

Thanksgiving

Yesterday we celebrated a belated but lovely Thanksgiving together. We had some lovely food which everyone helped in some way to prepare and we had a great time eating, playing and being together. Such a simple and enjoyable evening. If you want to see some photos please click here. Thankful blessings to you all my lovely friends, family and supporters :) xx

December 1st

We were so busy doing all this that we missed our annual "La Multi Ani Romania" photo but we have had a fun day together all the same :) so Happy Birthday Romania and Happy Advent to you all xx

Santa's little helper making fruit salad for the team's breakfast

Advent Breakfast

Happy 1st of Advent

Lucky me surrounded by beautiful Boys!

Family package delivery

Thanksgiving Craft No 2 + Games at the Club

Today we made our 2nd craft to prepare for Thanksgiving  - yes I know it was technically yesterday but we are celebrating it here on Monday night. So, today Court had prepared a scarecrow paper bag activity. Fun & simple and enjoyable to make so of course we all 4 made one :)

Meet Pirate Captain Gigi and Dizzy Daisy

After a fun afternoon of crafting and cups of tea Cristi and I went to the club to hang out with the youth from the foundation. Tonight they started a competition, which will run over the next few Fridays, so the ones who wanted to play were split into teams of 4 for games of volleyball and a contest involving a cereal box which you had to pick up with your teeth, without any part of your body (except your feet) touching the floor. Easy enough you might think but it ends up being cut down to the very bottom of the pack plus you have to stand up straight after getting it in your mouth. It was quite exciting to watch and each team miraculously managed to have someone who succeeded to the end! Cristi of course managed to do it quickly and without falling each time he tried (I guess all those hip hop lessons & hours climbing trees are worth something!)

Down to the last try - this team were the last to play and were determined to pick it up! 

Tomorrow I am cooking up a St. Andrews day meal for the teams lunch so I will leave you with a wee clip of my bendy monkey on the last turn of the box challenge.

DRESS AN ANGEL

Friends & family I have a request: Can anyone help donate a little bit of money? 9 children from the special needs school want to enter into a Christmas competition. They will be dressed as angels and perform a song and dance with candles. Their outfits cost £5 each to make (total cost would be £45) so it would be lovely if you could donate a costume to one or more of the kids. I can of course supply a photo after the costumes are made and let you know how they do in the competition. If you are interested please email me and I can let you know how to donate. Thanks     

UPDATE: Thank you to a bunch of my lovely friends who have donated all the money for these costumes :)

Thanksgiving Craft

Last week Court and I decided to start doing a "craft a week" so seeing as Thanksgiving is soon upon us we decided to go for a craft with a Thanksgiving theme.

Walk in the park to find some Autumnal bits and bobs to use in our craft.

A plate full of outdoor goodies - the cats were very excited by this and ended up eating most of the feathers Cristi had collected!

Looking for the right thing to glue

Court and Laz with some of his letters

Cristi found it hilarious when Flowers climbed into the bag

Bobo

Sometimes life holds little heart breaks. Today's came in the form of a telephone call.

One of the adults from the state run institution (a girl I am quite close with) phoned me in tears. "I can not take life here anymore" she declared "I have suffering. Life is so hard. Please adopt me too and let me come and live with you, in your family. I will help with all the cleaning. You know I will do anything you ask".

It made me want to cry.

This isn't the first time she has requested this. In fact I had to stop bringing Cristi to Summer camp one year because, due to jealousy, she was so mean to him. She understandably can't understand why if I love her I wont adopt her along with him. A girl trapped. She is 8 months older than me but the longing of a small child creeps from her soul. The wish for a mother. A dream of a better life a safer life. All I can say to her is "Sorry, I can't" and agree with her that life truly is unfair.

In honesty she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she ever did leave the place she knows as home. To adjust to another life after so many disturbed and dysfunctional years within the life she leads is often an impossible task for these people. She ran away a few weeks ago and slept on the streets of the city - she said she preferred it but inevitably came back.

I weep for her, for all of them. These little lonely souls with trampled, clipped and broken wings. I still have to remind her that biting me and hitting me isn't how we show affection to others. Sadly for many of them this has been, since a young age, the way in which those in a position of 'LOVE' have taught them.

It is easy to forget how privileged many of us are. The chances we get. The wants we get. And the undeniable human rights that everyone should receive that we get.  But, so many don't.

I know how lucky I am to come from a warm, loving and stable family. I am thankful everyday to my parents for loving me and teaching me the way and the things that they did. I am thankful that I grew up in a 'free' country. A country not rooted in communism and corruption. Themes which here, carry on affecting the people and culture still. How amazingly lucky I was to be born in a safe place to a safe family. LUCK! How different life could have been.

If I had not been afforded all that I have I too, as could any of us, have been like her. Lonely, desperate, searching for love, family and meaning. Rocking myself. Not developing to my full potential. Existing not living.

A reminder to take in more joy and wonder with every day and appreciate the chances I have been given simply because of where and to whom I was born.

Life is hard. It tests us. I feel like I give so very little to her yet, obviously it means so very much. She told me "I think of you and your mum, of your family and I am sorry. I AM SORRY because I want to be in your family too". Remembering that sometimes even the smallest steps of love can mean giant leaps for another isn't always easy. As Mother Teresa once said "It is not how much we give but how much love we put into the giving". I know that love isn't enough but it's a good place to start.

Just a little post about the Balla family. Due to a change in the dad's shepherding job they finally agreed to move into a property owned by the foundation. They have left their little mud hut for a 3 bedroom + living room + shower/bathroom accommodation. It is the first time, in my 7 years living here, that I have known them to live in a house with running water and a toilet. I am so excited for them! The children were all smiles as they showed me their new sleeping arrangements although the mum told me it was "a little strange to not all be sleeping in the same room", understandably seeing as one of their new rooms is almost the same size of their old house. It will be an adjustment for them to live there as they are living in the same building/complex as 2 other larger families (their only neighbours for the last 5 years have been the animals they have cared for on the land surrounding their house) but I hope they will grow to appreciate the chance they have been given and want to continue to stay there. The children certainly seem to be enjoying their time there so far. Life is still hard for them but I hope it will start to be more fortunate for them now :) Although their father has also joined them after an unfortunate mishap while shepherding. He was chopping wood at night and chopped off a good chunk of his thumb. Unfortunately the cheeky dog gobbled up the part that fell to the ground EEK!!

Ionut showed me his new big bed

Happy Halloween

Our Halloween in pictures.........

I was cooking today for the team so I figured a Halloween themed menu was in order

Our Halloween Lunch 

My little trick or treater! (We did a knock on the kitchen door trick or treat game - he thought it was great and I have to say the tricks ranged from acrobatics to 'we wish you a merry Christmas' to his joke of "My hair is curly hahahaha" to a "why I love my mummy" speech. The best however is shown below!!)

Carving out the pumpkin

Concentrated carver

Pirate and his pumpkin

Pumpkin pose 1

Pumpkin pose 2

Pumpkin pose 3

Kite Flying at Sunset

Yesterday evening we went to fly kites with the Bjorks. Of course Cristi's little Mickey kite only went up for a few minutes when he clocked that Jonte had his BIG (and impressively homemade) kite with him. It wasn't so windy but there was enough to get the kites up for a while and keep the boys smiling. A lovely Autumn evening - warm weather and a great sunset! What a perfect October night.