The Orphanage

So everyone is probably wondering what we've actually been doing here in Romania besides site-seeing because we haven't been posting a lot recently. We've been so busy we've hardly had any time! Well we began our first week in the orphanage on Monday. We began our first day by spending about 30 minutes in each room to see which one we would like to be in. We had talked as a group and said that we would all chose our top 2-3 and then we would make sure that everyone got in their top picks, so I was pretty excited because there were about 4 different places that I thought I would really like to to work, especially for my research: Mickey Mouse 1, Dumbo Drop, Bambi Boys or the apartments. Mickey Mouse 1 has a bunch of really active toddlers, most of them have some sort of disability and there were a couple with autism. Dumbo Drop, we affectionately added "Drop" to the name of this room because this is the room the kids go to when they have first been dropped off at the orphanage. They stay in this room for anywhere from 2 weeks to 2-3 months, depending on if they can find foster placement or if they have space for them in one of the other rooms in the orphanage. Bambi Boys has boys a little bit older than Mickey Mouse, but not much. It's a pretty active room with various ranges of disabilities and a handful of kids with autism. Finally the apartment has 4 kids in it, and yes, it literally is an apartment. It's a two room apartment with a kitchen and living room. It is really beneficial to the kids to live in the apartment because it is a lot more like a regular home.

Well at the end of the day we all sat in the conference room of the orphanage to decide where we were going to be, and it didn't exactly work out how it was supposed to, at least not how I thought it would. What ended up happening is that we just went around in and everyone said where they wanted, and whoever said the room first got it. Justin and I were the last two to be able to say what room we wanted and needless to say all four of the places I would have liked to go had already been claimed. Luckily for Justin he ended up with the room that he actually did want. I was really upset about it for a few days and felt cheated because I had this special therapy that I already planned out and wrote a 12 page paper on it and now I wasn't going to be able to do it. I ended up getting Bambi Girls, which has older girls. I was really bummed about getting this room, but decided that I needed to get over it because I figured that if I threw a big enough fit someone would probably switch with me, but then they wouldn't be in the room that wanted either. So I just decided to make the most of it and I'm so glad that I did. I love my room! My workers are amazing and they're so nice to me. Even though I can't really speak very well they always try to include me in the conversation and they all seem to care a lot about the girls. I've been able to make some connections with a few of the girls and I have just had a really amazing week. I wouldn't want to switch even if I could. I think this is probably the room I was supposed to be in and it had to work out like it did because I wouldn't have picked Bambi Girls on my own.

There are 13 kids in my room, 11 girls and 2 boys. I thought they were all girls for the first few days, but I guess there are a few gender mixes that happen depending on what each room can handle. The first few days in my room I was pretty quiet and didn't do a whole lot with the girls. I mostly just played with them in their wheelchairs and if the worker took them out of their chair then I would play with them on the mat on the floor, but as the week went on I got a lot braver. On Friday I even asked if I could take two girls on a walk through the orphanage, I'm proud to say I was the first one in my group to do that! I have so much more to say about my girls, but this is already pretty long. I'll just leave by saying that although at first I was disappointed to be in my room, now I couldn't be happier. My girls have such wonderful personalities that I'm just beginning to see and I can't wait to get to know them better.