Goodbye to Romania

Orthodox Church in downtown Timisoara
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August 4, 2006

Timisoara, Romania

Romania has been a stretching and eye-opening experience for all four of us

Amazingly, our 4 weeks in Romania are almost over! Tomorrow will be our last day working at the baby hospital. It’s been nice this week because David and Karsten have been working there as well, so we travel back and forth together by taxi and spend the noon hour break together. The guys, together with Ralph from Ontario, have been modifying and assembling donated cribs and varnishing them. A total of 8 new cribs will be ready for use soon and will replace some of the old playpens that are being used as cribs right now. It’s nice to have them be more a part of our work with the babies, and on their occasional ventures into our nursery we have been able to introduce them to the babies that we have grown to love. There’s Andre, the independent little go-getter who was the only one able to sit and crawl when we first got there. His big brown eyes and serious face can break into an impish grin with just a few cajoling words in his direction. There’s Jimmy-Bob, the chubby little dumpling who Stephanie named because he didn’t have a first name. The ‘Bob’ part of his name is for Bobble-Head. There’s Micheala, the beautiful little elf who squeals with delight at being picked up and given a hug. She’s very bright and independent and has learned to crawl while we’ve been there and it’s been so rewarding to witness those first little forward motions on the play rug that we put down for playtime. She loves to play and be part of the group, but what she loves most of all is to be held in your arms. Where are the mother arms that should be the other part of those very special hugs? We can’t forget little Ana-Maria, the blonde wisp of a girl with the blonde hair that insists on standing straight up on her head and adds an extra three inches to her height. She reminds us all of the mimosa trees that are in bloom all over Timisoara. We didn’t see them anywhere else in Romania but here, and they have long been one of our favorite trees in a neighbor’s yard in Ladner. We’ll never walk by that tree in bloom again without thinking of little Ana-Maria. There are Stefan, Christian, Ricardo, Adelina…and all of those other precious little ones that we will never see again after tomorrow. How will they fare? Will they go home to their own families? Be adopted or placed in a foster family? Will they catch up in their development? Will those pearly little white teeth that are just breaking forth stay white or will they be rotten little stumps like those we have witnessed in older institutionalized toddlers and preschoolers? Part of our hearts will stay here with these beautiful children and they will most certainly be brought to the Father in our prayers. On the other hand, however, we are looking forward to a new chapter of our trip starting in Germany next week. The days here have been hot, long and often quite tiring. That coupled with the culture shock of living and working with people of quite different mindsets to our western way of thinking allows us to look forward to Germany with anticipation. And we very much look forward to being with family for a week in Neustadt! That will be just super!

Karsten, Ralph and David (L to R) outside the orphanage putting finishing touches to cribs they've built
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Some of the highlights of working here in Timisoara over the last few weeks have been taking two groups of older children on outings; one to an outdoor swimming pool and one to the piazza downtown to feed the pigeons and go to McDonald’s. Both outings were great successes. The children enjoyed the activities immensely and we were once again charmed by the children. Another highlight was visiting the ‘Revolution Museum’; more about that from Karsten at a future date. A list of highlights is not complete without mentioning Dawn Elenbaas. Dawn is the person with GEM (Greater Europe Missions) who has taken on the plight of institutionalized young children in Timisoara as her ministry. She has done an absolutely wonderful job at recruiting and using volunteers from mainly Canada and the US to work with these children. The volunteers spend time with the children, bring over much needed supplies and toys, and do various handy-man-type projects. Dawn is amazing to us in her calm and nurturing manner with not only the children, but also us volunteers and the Romanian staff. It is often the job of a skilled diplomat to interface between eager volunteers and locals who have done things in certain ways for generations and have belief systems often quite at odds with our own. Dawn does it with much faith, grace, diplomacy and endless energy. God, bless her!

Dawn Elenbaas with a child on an outing
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Romania has been a stretching and eye-opening experience for all four of us. We feel privileged to have had the opportunity to work and live here, and it will take some time and contemplation to process all that we have experienced. One more work day at the hospital tomorrow, a potluck after church with all the Romanian GEM staff on Sunday, and then it’s off to Germany on Monday!