surprise!

Difficult days yesterday & today. Working with some of these special ones, in their 20s, can take more patience than the 2s & 3s stage. Being torn to pieces with every swear word & insult in the Romanian language yesterday & today being met with hard eyes & spirit while discussing tiny incidents, from months back, that led to destructive, explosive behaviors. Both of these persons saying the same…I want to be loved & have unorthodox ways of showing that need & the fear of not getting that need fulfilled. Sigh. During these times you feel the ache so much stronger to just love with a God given love. You come to realize, quickly, that your own emotional strength and mental processing can do so very little for them. They need the unchanging, grace-filled, compassionate, never ending, hope giving, chosen, leading, patient love of the Father…and nothing else.

But tonight. What an incredible surprise. My dear friend from Scotland made a surprise visit, with her husband. Just spent some hours with her tonight once Caleb was in bed. They are such a part of me & Caleb’s story. Couldn’t have imagined a better evening.

Will head off to Debrecen in the morning & do some swimming with our friends before catching the train to Budapest. Our flight leaves at 6am on Wednesday & we will arrive back 6:30pm in Denver on Wednesday as well.

So ready to be back home. So thankful for this time we have had but I’m so missing Denver. I think Caleb, though, would be more than happy with “another 6 weeks” as he put it the other day.

6:30pm Sunday

The rain, for today at least, is done. Clouds rolled back enough for the sun to set in all its glory. And, it was warm. Couldn’t get enough of it while standing out on the balcony tonight.
Joyous Easter to you all…

There were 3 in the bed….

Alex, what was your favorite part of today? ( We always used to do this before praying each night, the three of us.). He points to the book we just read. Reading together was your favorite part of today?
DA!, was his answer with a huge grin.
Caleb read a whole book to us as well.
I am so proud of him. Loved every minute of our 3 in the bed time tonight.

MUD Take 2

Guessing Game

Chocolate bar of choice to whoever can figure out what Caleb is eating in this picture. We think he ate 16 in all. Leave a comment with your guess.

Started off with the Friday, outdoor market bright & early today. It’s Hungarian Easter this weekend so it was packed. Streets were a mess of horse drawn carts & cars, the market a mess of vegetables & assorted Easter animals ready to be sold for Easter Monday dinner. Lambs, goats, chickens etc… Oh I love the market. Picked up a few things to take back to Denver.

Headed over to the team house after the market for my cooking day. We are so few…only 13 to cook for? Decided to do tacos/burritos. Made beans overnight. Turned out amazing.
Left to translate for someone & left the cake in the oven. Yikes! Turned out more crispy than cake. Still though, my proudest moment of my cooking day was around the dishes. Those of you who are familiar with my cooking at Herculane will understand the significance of this photo. Yes, that’s right. ONE drying rack only. AND I washed them all myself!

(Happy Burrito eater = More than willing to make cappuccinos for whoever wanted after lunch = Happy Kelsey.)

Spent the evening with the Bjork family & their BBQ.

His poses by the grill almost outdo the food. Court, I understand if you’d like this photo printed & framed. Ha! He set the bar high tonight. Jonte has now mastered smoking his own pork belly to make bacon. We ate it tonight in the beans. I think I’ll just stick to being your arch enemy in the kitchen when it comes to Twinkie bake offs. . Nicely done sir!

Amenda

I sat here typing out everything that happened today. There was a lot of me being angry & sad.

But just now M called to say thank you for what we did, him, Caleb & I, for his birthday today. That was huge for him to do that, unprompted.

So now I deleted all of the crap drama of today & decided to just share a few glimpses of joy from today, instead.

Bday lunch for M at McDonalds!

Caleb in the middle of a “I got a strike” dance. (His Mom almost reached a score of 198 today by coming in 3rd with 56.)

Who wouldn’t want a taco from here??

Could not believe I was able to see these girls, and a few more. I love them so. You should have seen their faces when I walked through the door to their room! I hugged the living daylights out of each one. A few were missing but i got to see 6 of them. And they got me in touch with “my girl.” Oh my, was able to speak with her on the phone. She was so excited. Oh gosh. Will spend Sunday with her.
We’ve been talking of beauty & affliction in staff meetings. This group of girls, in particular, have come to mind more than once during those discussions.

I’m cooking for the team tomorrow so need to get to the Friday market early. I lost the ring I’ve had on my finger, since I was 13, tonight. It’s irreplaceable & I cannot believe it slipped off. Sigh. I checked the pot of beans I prepared for tomorrow’s lunch, twice. No ring. I never take it off…feels so weird without it. Huge bummer.

Ok, time for bed. Noapte Buna!

Oh, almost forgot. Amenda. Got one today. I’ve talked my way out of every one while living here. Been pulled over numerous times but only given warnings. Until today. Today I sat, staring out my rainy windshield, and received my first ever speeding ticket here. It was kind of funny, actually!

Miercuri

Nothing like the good ol’ Notary here. Nice 1.5 hour wait this morning to get, hopefully, the final documents prepared so that we can finally get the insurance $ from the car accident last July. Will head off to Oradea tomorrow & meet with the insurance agent in person to get the settlement signed. Jonte will accept the $ on my behalf since I don’t have a Romanian bank account & he does. The Notary thought we were married & kept making jokes. I just about died trying to not break down laughing in that office. And, what’s even funnier, is that Jonte & Court were at this same Notary yesterday making documents, as husband & wife, for their upcoming adoption process. Oh hilarious. Well, at least we had fun with it! Praying that it goes quickly tomorrow since I have a lot to do in Oradea & Jonte is taking the morning off from work just to come & do this. Will be a huge relief for me to not have to think about this insurance claim being unresolved. When I called the agent today he just yelled & yelled over the phone over how my file has been sitting on his desk for 7 months now blah blah blah. I think he yelled out of relief that he can also be done with my little Hyundai!

Will celebrate M’s birthday in Oradea. Bowling, McDonalds are on the birthday list. And, maybe, head over to the high school state orphanage for girls? I’m so anxious to see some of them…oh my!
Also want to hit up the big, outdoor market. In addition we have an adoption follow up appointment at Child Protection. Caleb will not want to go – I am sure of that. I think he worries that they still hold some sort of power over whether or not I can be his Mom.
It will be a pretty long day, I think.

M has been having a hard time. Didn’t want to celebrate his birthday tomorrow etc… I told him it was okay if he didn’t want to come, no worries. But tonight we had a really good talk. “Kelsey, I felt God’s presence all day today while at work. I was just so happy & so proud of the work I had done by the end of my shift.” So encouraging to hear him speak like this! (Since it has been non stop ungrateful attitude for some weeks now.)
Then he says “Kelsey, you’re different. You’re like a whole new Kelsey. You’re so happy now. Honestly, I can’t get over it. Everyday I just am stunned by how happy you are. How do you feel being here? How do you feel about going back?”
It was a really cool conversation. He is one pretty amazing kid.

Alex’s birthday. Alex is 9. Was it really just short of 9 years ago that he& Caleb were carried over from the abandoned baby ward at the hospital to Casa Alba orphanage? They shared a crib they were so tiny the two of them! What I’ve noticed most, this visit, is how secure he is in his family now & how easily he can now love me & his Mom at the same time. It’s not one or the other & I can see how he finally understands this. I have really treasured this time with him & also feel such overwhelming peace in leaving him next week. thats a first for me.

Party pictures…and this hysterical video clip from his party. I just love how he thinks!

Ahhh, never mind for the video. Won’t work. Bummer. Will try again when I have access to a computer & not just my phone.

His Dad grabbed the guitar & sang happy birthday while his Mom carried out an incredible cake, complete with a hand drawn frosting horse! I wonder if/when Alex’s horse phase will pass? Maybe never is my guess at this point in time…