Cristian, Nicolae and me...Together again!

Today's meeting went very well...eventually...hmmm ?!
I decided not to leave you in suspense, yet leave you wondering all at the same time.
Now for the details:
First, I lost 2 days of sleep just worrying and preparing. I made gifts for the foster moms and made sure I had plenty of the things to "entertain" the boys with. The last 4 days I have been practicing the "Five little ducks" song in Romanian. A fost greu putin pentru mine. It was a little hard for me. Pronouncing "Baby Ducks" in Romanian is hard. Ratuste Mititele...yikes... and it gets said so many times. So I resorted to pui de Rata instead.
Anyway, I got to Cristian's house about 10 minutes early. Nicolae and Carmen showed up shortly after that. I think the DPC ladies got there closer to 2, along with Elena, the translator.

At first, it was just Nicolae, Cristian and I playing with the "Barrel of Monkeys" I had brought. We had a great time. Cristian ended up with the most monkeys. He actually got 8 to stay on.While we were still playing the DPC Group got there. See picture(L to R) Liana is the one with the purse, then Ani (Cristian's foster mom),Carmen(Nicolae's foster mom) and Sylvia. Cristian and Nicolae. I didn't get a picture of Elena, the translator.

Sylvia is the psychologist and Liana is the social worker. When they first got there they had Nicolae and Cristian draw some pictures of a house and then a tree. hmmm. I learned a lot. Then Nicolae and Cristian started singing some songs and yikes! It was like someone had pushed the Silly Button. Cristian went into silly mode and it didn't take long for Nicolae to join in. I just kept praying, "God help me get through this". At this point, I thought I was doomed for sure.

Just imagine 5 other adults in the room, two who are "their parents", two who say yea or nay and a translator. (all of whom speak perfect Romanian) and me. None of them did anything to try and control Nicolae and Crisitan. Heck, and at that point, I wasn't even doing anything with the boys ,the social workers were.

The boys were running from room to room, screaming, yelling, totally out of control. They were slamming the door, turning the lights on and off. It was total mayhem. I am not exaggerating in the least. Again, the foster moms did nothing. I knew it was going to be up to me to get them under control.

So, while the rest of the "gang" hung out in one room, I was in the other "lights flashing on and off...wild kids" room. I just sat there and gave the teacher look and spoke softly and let them know that this wasn't getting it. Nicolae asked me if I was going to leave. He knows from previous times, that when he didn't behave, I left. I explained to both of them that if they didn't start behaving I would leave and we would have to try this again on a different day. I was very calm, soft voiced and they knew I meant it. ...At least I know Nicolae did. He was taking it seriously. Unfortunately, Cristian was still trying to entertain the "masses". I just stayed in the room with them until they were ready. Silence can be the best words sometimes. Anyway, I got them back in control....PRAISE GOD! I even had them apologize to everyone for their behavior. Sheessh...It was a nightmare. Not quite how my dreams went last night...that is for sure.

I decided that this was a good time to do the song "Five little ducks". I brought the ducks(I am so glad I made the decision to cut them out at home), popscicle sticks, tape, markers etc. Cristy "lost it" a couple of more times while coloring the ducks, but luckily I was able to get him under control.

I didn't sing the song because it doesn't work when being translated into Romanian, but I did tell the story while the boys acted it out.It was very interactive and I felt like it went well.
Elena the translator did help me out a bit, but over all it was just me. Yay.
Then we went outside and played at the park. I was so glad for this moment for sure.

While we were outside at the park , I got the chance to talk with the DPC ladies with the help of Elena. I even got brave enough to ask how things went today. What they thought etc.
They said right off that they thought it went very well. They loved the song and they even talked about how much Romanian I had learned. Of course I need to learn a lot more, but they were very happy with my progress. Get this, Liana even joked with me about using pui de rata instead of ratuste. Another yay moment. Practicing "The five little ducks" songs was such good idea. I was in control of the conversation, it was interactive and it came across like I knew lots of Romanian. Thank God.

They also shared that they boys wouldn't be living with me until January, so if I wanted , I could go home for Christmas. What?! I could hardly believe my ears! The boys would be living with me in January? Home for Christmas?! Yippeee Yahooooo.

I asked about what we were going to do the boys when school started back up because Cristy lives about an hour away from me and Nicolae 2o minutes in a different direction. Sylvia went on and on about how they shouldn't move from their schools. Too many changes etc. Maybe I could visit them during the afternoon and they would stay at their foster homes. What? Hey what happened to the happy moment, just minutes ago? You know, the boys would live with me moment? Then Liana shared that she felt that the boys didn't need to go to school. They should just live with me. After all I am a teacher and they could see from today that I would be good for the boys. They both agreed that it would be best for them to just be with me. Happy moment again.

They also shared with the foster moms that I need to be able to see the boys whenever I want.
I needed to be sure and see Cristian everyday this week. Then every other day or as often as I could with each of the boys after that.Carmen, Nicolae's foster mom told them that I see Nicolae a lot already. They asked me if this was true. I said I see him once every 2 or 3 weeks. They looked at me and winked. They already knew this was the case, but this isn't going to be the case anymore. In fact, they also shared with the group that they expect me to check in with the DPC every couple of days and let them know how my visits are going with the boys. I know they said this because that they wanted to make sure that the foster moms knew that they would be checking up on them.

I am sure that I am leaving out some details, but I am exhausted, both mentally and physically. I will sleep well tonight!

Today was not smooth sailing, that is for sure. In fact, I thought the ship was sinking at times. Thankfully though, it all worked out, in spite of the mayhem moments.

Thanks for all your prayers....Tonight it is praises all around. Oh and please continue to pray for Bev and her new mammogram test tomorrow.
Love,
Debbie