Nicolae and Cristian's First Easter Egg Hunt!

Some American families planned an Easter Egg hunt and we were fortunate enough to get invited. I believe that they have been doing this for a couple of years now. There must have been about 300-500 eggs. I don't know exactly, but there were a lot.

You can not get plastic eggs here, so they get recycled every year. I was actually able to contribute 12 eggs ...wooohooo. When the hunt is over, the eggs get separated out and given back to the people who brought them. Teri and I are planning to have the boys hunt again tomorrow.


While we were there, we met up with Eric and Heather Kooiman again and their two children Hannah and Samuel. Eric is from Modesto. His parents, Rie and Clares attend Big Valley Grace. Small world.

Nicolae and Cristian were so excited. Every picture I took of Nicolae today has this same smile. He was so genuinely happy! Cristian too. They have never hunted for eggs before. It was so adorable. Well and of course they loved the getting the candy part too.

Teri was a good Auntie and helped out when the searching became more difficult. There were about 25 kids altogether. It was a great day.
Happy Easter ....again...
Tomorrow is Easter in Romania
Love,
Debbie

Baking cookies with Auntie Teri

Hey,
I left Teri's picture out. Oops! So here it is.
Thanks Auntie Teri!

Today is our One Month Anniversary

Today is our one month Anniversary.
March 19th was the day the court said yes, but the 21st was our actually first day together as a family.I can hardly believe a month has already gone by.

Things have continued to get better everyday. Yesterday and today were actually both really great days for both of the boys. Even Teri remarked how well behaved the boys have been. It is so nice to see the progress they have made. They are learning how to read, write and speak in English. They are learning how to play appropriately, how to get along with each other and how to be respectful. It is pretty amazing how much difference a month makes.

I would appreciate your continued prayers as we all continue to figure things out and learn what it means to be a family.

Today Teri baked cookies with Nicolae and Cristian. We decided to take some of the cookies to the DPC today . It was a great reason to go and visit and just another way to remind the DPC we are still here! The boys behaved nicely at the DPC office today too. Yay!




Afterwards, Teri, the boys and I, all went to the park. Nicolae and Cristian spent some time "entertaining us" with their jump roping "skills". They were so diligent and so cute. They were both very proud of themselves. Oh how I wish I had taken my video camera with me.












Thanks again for all of you who have taken time to pray, to write and to care. God willing we will be able to come home soon.



Love,
Debbie

Please pray- Another Potential Road Block

Of course...Romania has thrown up another road block. Now, the law has changed ...yet again...and supposedly, the natural parents have to come to court when the boys have their court date to be adopted. The parents will then be asked, for the third time now, if they really want to give up their rights. We just learned of this about 4 days ago. It is so frustrating. I have no idea what happens if the parents don't come. Do they come while I am there? What happens if the parents say no? Then what? So many unanswered questions. I have asked Mr. Mocanu and he said he will check into it. He has no idea. The law just changed. Grrrr!

Tomorrow I am planning to go to the DPC just to keep connected and get some paperwork from them. On Wednesday, I will be meeting with Carmelita, the social worker from ROCK. She is going to do my home study that is required from the U.S. to leave Romania. Praise God for this blessing.
I still need to find out more about what all I need to get done for both Romania and the U.S. There is so much that needs to be done.
Please pray.
Love,
Debbie

Fun Pictures!

Hi Everyone,
I thought you might enjoy some new pictures of the boys. These were all taken today.
Teri, Nicolae, Cristian and I had a great time at the
park together.




It is amazing that Nicolae and Cristian were able to do the climbing wall and then slide down the fireman's pole. Both of them were afraid to even climb up the monkey bars before. Nicolae can climb the climbing wall completely by himself. He has even done the fireman's pole by himself as well. Cristi is still in the "I need some help stage". I am so proud of both of them.







Here are a couple more fun photos!

Sara, Justin and Luiza head home!

Sara, Justin and Luiza are all done with their adoption! They fly home to Michigan early tomorrow morning. What a wonderful blessing for them! Please pray that they get through customs without any problems and that they have all the necessary paperwork to make it home. Please pray for their flight as well. Justin and Luiza have never flown before and it is a looooonnnnngggg flight. Sara's mom will be flying with them as well. Thanks to all of you who have kept them in your hearts and prayers.

Cristian lost another tooth!

Cristian lost another tooth...literally. We went to the park after church today and while we were eating, I noticed that Cristian's bread had a little bit of blood on it. I looked to see if his lip was bleeding and soon realized he had lost his tooth. We are not sure if he lost it when he ate his banana or from his first bite of his sandwich. Either way he lost his tooth. Who knows where it is.
It was painless and quick for sure.

Later on today, Nicolae was inspired by this event. Dr. Nicolae was soon extracting teeth from his stuffed animals. Tigru is the patient you see in the picture. Very cute. Cristian and Nicolae must have played "Dentist office" for about 40 minutes.



A pre-haircut picture.






Love,
Debbie

New Haircuts!

Nicolae and Cristian with their new haircuts. Not too bad for my first time cutting their hair.



Nicolae being creative in the bath.







Cristi enjoying one of the new bowls Bev sent.

Dentist Day!

Today was dentist day for Nicolae and Crisitan. I
wanted to have both of their teeth cleaned and checked for any cavities.

Maria, one of the girls from the church, works for a dentist. She is the one who scheduled the appt. for me. Maria explained my situation about adopting etc. to the doctor and well the doctor did today's
appt. for free. God is good.

Nicolae already has three fillings. I found out today that he has another cavity. Oh joy. Luckily, they are all baby teeth.
Cristian's teeth are perfect. He just lost his first one about 3 weeks ago.
Maria said she would call to let me know when the next appt. will be. I am guessing it will be sometime next week. This is when Nicolae will get his filling and both of the boys will get their teeth cleaned.

The doctor, who happens to be 84 years old, was
so sweet. She is a short, white-haired lady. So adorable and so wonderful with the boys. She went on and on about what they should and should eat. It was so cute.


Afterwards, Teri, Nicolae, Cristian and I went to a park that was nearby. Teri and I helped the boys figure out the fireman pole. Eventually, Nicolae actually did it by himself. Cristian preferred the "with Auntie Teri" method.
The weather here is starting to get warmer. I hope it stays in the upper 60-lower 70 range for a while. It is very pleasant here right now.

Love,
Debbie

Pretzels

Pretzels don't get any better or any cuter than this!
O zi buna!

Tomas is Here!

Hi Everyone,
First I guess I should give you the latest update. Which is...I don't know anything new. All the government offices are closed this week and part of next due to NATO being held here. So, hopefully, we will find out something soon....something good. I know the paperwork got there in time and now it is up to ? to decide. Please keep your prayers coming.


Tomas and Cameron (a friend of Tomas' from college) are here. It has been so nice! Tomas, of course, is as wonderful as ever and Nicolae and Cristian love him so much.




Tomas and Cameron have definitely kept the boys busy. Nicolae and Cristian are ready for bed by about 8:30 - 9:00. Happy me... And they sleep until approx. 8 am... Yay.




Here are Tomas and Cameron carrying the boys
around like little and not so little sacks of potatoes.



Yesterday I brought out the puppets. Tomas, Nicolae and Crisitian
loved them. It was so cute to see the three of them playing together.
Tomas is amazing and had no problem working through the language barrier. Love speaks volumes...plus Tomas knows Spanish, which is proving to be quite helpful.



I will try and blog some more adorable pics of the cousins in action later. I have a few more to share...smile.

Praise God! Things are going better with Nicolae and Cristian. I am so thankful the progress that has been made in a little over a week's time. Things aren't where I want them to be...yet...but things are certainly closer than they were before.
Hallelujah!
Look how adorable Nicolae and Cristian are....





Love,
Debbie