The past couple of days have been filled with firsts for me. Even being my third trip here I still experience new things every time. Vic and Nicu are brothers that I have grown to love over the years. They were fresh into the orphanage when I first came and we have reconnected every time I get to come back. In a case of serendipity Vic happened to be in the hospital (no worries, Romanians send everyone to the hospital...even for the sniffles) while his oldest brother (who does not live at the orphanage) happened to be there. I must admit, i was a little nervous to see how this older brother would impact the boys, but by the grace of God he is a wonderful older brother! Marius is affectionate while stern. He plays with the boys, intervenes for them when they get themselves in too much trouble, and even corrects them when they are being mischievous. While most of the kids are used to having Americans come over and plan, Marius was obviously confused as to why an American who doesn’t speak Romanian would subject himself to snowballs whirring past his head in frequent staccato fashion.
I also had my first trip to the baby hospital. On our first trip to Romania the hospital H2H is affiliated with shut down their baby wing and our second trip the baby hospital had been quarantined on account of Romanian hypochondriac syndrome that was stirred and strengthened by all the talk of swine flu. I must say I was quite nervous to go to the baby hospital. I’m not the biggest baby person...In fact they kind of scare me. They are so little and tiny and they can’t communicate and once they are in my arms everything inside tightens up like a basketball player stepping to the free throw line with a chance to win the game. It should be easy...but it isn’t.
I may not know much about God, but I am sure he has a great sense of humor. We walked in to a overheated (80-85 degrees of stuffy radiator heat) back wing with 5 rooms holding around 6 babies. When we arrived most of them were sleeping and those who were awake sat in silence. Haley and I managed the back room with the youngest of the babies. With most of them asleep I took a deep breath walked up to the one with open eyes who stared at me blankly and quietly with laser piercing brown eyes. As I reached down to pick Christian up he didn’t flinch, just continued to stare straight at me. One he was in my arms he immediately began to squirm as my touch was obviously foreign and I am sure my forearms were far less supportive then the crib he is used to laying in.
With God watching with a big grin, Christian spurted out into a chorus of yelps and screams between panted breathes that made my hearing aids squeal. The nurse brought in a bottle for me to feed him, but he was having none of that. I tried rocking, bouncing, walking, burping, diaper changing, all to no avail. The colicky baby continued to assail me with high pitched ensembles. I laid him back in his crib only to find that he had a second gear as the crying picked up a notch. Eventually he finally took to the bottle at the relief of my ears, only to finish and continue with an encore of baying.
At wits end I picked him back up and decided to fight fire with fire. I began to sing. As I belted my out of key tone deaf indie songs he slowly but surely quieted and calmed. I found a nearby swing and to my suprise he sat there for a majority of the evening swaying back and forth with a contentedness only found in God’s most young creation.
After this incident I felt as though I could get through anything. I held baby after baby, sometimes even two at a time, singing, rapping, and dancing my way through the night with them in my arms. They say opposites attract and with me being on the scrawny side of thing it came to no surprise that it was the tubby babies that stole my heart. Adrian was a 3 month old who looked like he swallowed a 4 month old. He swelled at every part of his body and his little face was so chubby he had to work at seeing through the fat rolls that hung over his big eyes. Adrian was a cuddler with a smile that was captivating.
As the night came to a close the nurses began to clean the room and put the babies to sleep. Haley and I slipped into the room next door to steal some precious last minutes with some babies we had yet to see and we both fell in love all over again. The room of 6 was occupied by TWO sets of TWINS! Ana-Maria was a chunky little 6 month old with a twin sister Ramona. They were both adorable but it was red-headed Ana-Maria who I could not keep out of my arms and who would not let me put her down.
She was darling and even helped build my baby self esteem as the nurse shoved a bottle into my hands to feed her one last time before bed. After my run in with Christian I was a bit uneasy about the whole bottle thing, but Ana-Maria was a champ and chugged her whole bottle in less than a minute! It was a spectacular feat and if there was anything such as baby speed eating she would surely be a fierce competitor.
I love these first time experiences because it is when you are uncomfortable and uncertain when you must most lean on Christ. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to serve here and am thankful that God has allowed me to meet these beautiful children.
