I Wish I was Better at Titles

Okay, here is a recap of this past week.

Friday
Last Friday Rachel picked us up and took us to the Isaiah Center so that Brandi could fulfill some homework requirements. Jordan and I sat in on their meeting and listened to Rachel talk about her time in Romania and how she has gotten to the point she is at now. As I was listening I was just so amazed at everything she has seen and the things she has done. She told us about how she was able to enter an orphanage here and it was just absolutely heartbreaking. The orphanages seem normal at first with babies in cribs. But the babies are tied up in their cribs and as you go room to room you see older children up to 18 years of age who have warped bodies from being tied up in a crib their whole life. Romania is in the process of entering the European Union so they have been trying to clean things up, but the orphanages remain the same, it's just covered up better.

After our meeting with Rachel she took us into Oradea so we could do some site-seeing since we really haven't been able to yet. She dropped us off at walking street which is basically an out-door mall with tons of little shops. It was nice to be able to relax, shop, and eat some Greek food and gelato. Rachel picked us up and took us to the Christian bookstore. We found some Bibles that are bilingual with Romanian and English. They were kind of expensive but I'm really glad I bought one. We drove back to Tinca and had girls night with pizza, hair coloring, and a movie.

Sunday
Sunday we went to church in Oradea. There was a team from Canada visiting for three days so the youth minister from that church gave the message. It was nice to hear some familiar English. After church we hit up MickeyD's and then went to Real to do our grocery shopping. Then we went back to Tinca to finish up some laundry and just relax for the rest of the day.

Monday
Monday was the 4th of July. This was really weird for me to not be home with the food and fireworks. Rachel was super sweet and invited us all for an American celebration. We ordered pizza and watched Independence Day. Abel had spent the weekend with Rachel so Samuel, his brother, showed up knocking on the door of the center. He is sooo funny. He just looks at you with these big eyes and this cheesy smile. He is gonna be a ladies man when he gets older.

Tuesday
Tuesday we had a team from Cincinnati, Ohio come and help out. They were able to start working on a bike rack for employees and the kids and they helped sort out clothes in the attic. We were really excited to have Monica back because the kids actually behaved a little better. Nothing too out of ordinary happened until we went home. Brandi went to go take a shower and came back and saw that there were tons of spiders all over her bed. We all thought that was weird so we started looking around and there were tons all over my clothes hanging on the top bunk of my bed. We decided that an egg must have been in one of the bunk bed poles and it obviously opened. It was probably the grossest thing ever. Blechh I hate spiders.

Wednesday
One of the first things we did when we got to the center was tell Urb what was going on with the spider situation. He was awesome and he took a can of Raid and went to our house and sprayed our room. We went with Mihai to go pick up the kids. We got to Florica, Maria, Simona, and Calina's house and there were a bunch of people yelling. The girls came running to the van and Florica's mom had her by the arm and then I saw her hit her super hard. I had hoped to avoid seeing anything like that this summer. I think the thing that got me the most was that Florica brushed it off like it was no big deal and it happened all the time, because it probably does. I think it just makes me really mad that the government here does not care about the gypsy community. If you report any kind of abuse they say, well that's just how the gypsy's live and that's how they'll always be. Once we got to the center the kids were super excited all day because "Mama Erina" was coming. Erin stayed with Rachel for a year right when the center first opened. Now she comes back for a few weeks every summer to visit with the kids.

Thursday
Thursday was hot. It's been pretty cool here so far which has been awesome but yesterday it was sooo stinkin hot! Erin came right before the kids laid down for their nap. She is super sweet. The kids were soo funny, they were so excited. After the kids woke up there was a water fight with water guns. I found this big water gun so I chased after them and got some of them pretty good. Abel thought it would be funny to put soap in with his water and then it got in my mouth. Yuckkk.

Friday
Today Erin brought the kids a bunch of surprises. She got them some super cute clothes and little toys and a Toy Story slip-n-slide. Next thing we knew the kids were stripping their clothes off and going through the slip-n-slide. They loved it and were hilarious. The kids are napping now and probably will for about another two hours. Then they will get up and play or do a craft until it's time for them to go back to their homes. It's not my favorite thing to send them home at the end of the day, knowing what they go back home to, but it's important for them to maintain that relationship with their family, otherwise they will never want to go home.