Grow Through What You Go Through: Sep10th

Hey Hey!!

I am probably going to say this every single week, but it went by so fast and also I just absolutely love my kids and am so blessed to get to work with them every day!! I am three weeks in with working with them and I have already learned so much from them and love them unconditionally!!

One of the little boys in my apartment likes to pick at the sheetrock on the corners of the room and on the windowsill and eat the sheetrock. Because of this he was at the doctors all week and I missed him so much! He is the one that will run up and give me hugs all the time and I missed that a lot this week! For this week we just had the 4 girls, and even though we were missing our one boy this week felt even crazier! Two girls (the 5-year-old and the 2-year-old) love the attention so if they are not getting all of the attention they like to throw a fit! It’s hard to explain to them that it is important to share and to take turns when I can’t speak the language, but It crazy how much I have already learned about them and how to resolve conflict without knowing their language!

Also, this week I was able to sit in with the speech therapist and observe the different exercises he does with the kids and how he works with them. He explained a lot about what he does and why he does it and then showed me what he would like the other worker and I to do with the children when he is not there. It was a really neat experience and it was also neat to be able to recognize some of the things he was doing from the classes I have taken back at school!

Thursdays we usually have game night with the missionaries, but it got cancelled at the last minute and we did not get the memo till we had already walked to the church building. So instead of just going straight home we decided to walk around and explore a little bit! It was lots of fun and then we stopped by a grocery store on our way back and got stuff to make smores with! When we got back to the apartments we roasted these twisty flavored marshmallows (all we could find at the store) over our gas stove and then had chocolate and crackers to put them on!! It was soo good and lots of fun!

On Friday I was able to work at the apartment that has the Down Syndrome boy to fill in for a girl that was sick! Sad that one of the girls was sick but happy because I LOVE THAT LITTLE BOY!! And it was fun to see all the little kids in that apartment they are all so cute and I love them all so much!! One of the little girls in that apartment loves to pull hair and she always looks so cute and innocent so you never know it’s coming but I had to redo my hair at least 5 times!! Haha every time I would lean over or try and pick something up she would come out of nowhere! I love her though! Several of the kids in this apartment are further along in vocal development than the apartment I usually work in. It was a little sad because they would try and talk to me and I would not be able to understand what they were trying to tell me, but then again we were still able to have a lot of fun and play and work together with the limited language I do know but also through other forms of communication besides verbal! :)

This weekend we took a little trip to the neighboring country, Moldova, to visit where our head teacher, Jessica, served her mission. It was so much fun, and I was able to get several cute souvenirs for an awesome price at a little outdoor market. We got to our hostel where we would be staying for Friday and Saturday night around 12:30 at night. We were supposed to get there at 9:30-10pm but crossing the border ended up taking a lot longer than what we had planned.

Btw a hostel has a more dorm like feel to it, it is a lot cheaper than a hotel and is designed for travelers. In this hostel there were several rooms and each room had several bunk beds. The room I stayed in had 4 bunk beds, so it was able to hold 8 people and then we had a shower and bathroom in the hallway with a kitchen across the hallway. This hostel also had a cute little courtyard, lounge area outside as well for us to sit, visit, and eat.

On Saturday we woke up early because we only had one day in Moldova. After our big group of 13 walked around and got breakfast we broke off into smaller groups so that we could get more done. I went with Jessica, one of her friends from her mission and two other girls from our group to Orhei which was an hour away from Chisinau (where we were staying). The bus that we took to get there and back only cost me like 3 dollars! (It is super cheap in Moldova!) Orhei was such a cute little city and I loved it even more because the air was so clean and fresh unlike the big cities I have been in lately. We walked around the city and visited some of Jessica’s friends from her mission and when we got back to Chisinau her friend Maria brought us to a tango dance in the street. It was fun, different and kind of weird because we don’t speak Romanian, but it was fun, haha. Saturday I walked a total of 9.3 miles, took 24,505 steps and climbed a total of 21 floors (according to my health app on my phone). My shins definitely were feeling it by the end of the day! After dinner and before we went back to our hostel we stopped by a grocery store to get some food for breakfast. I got a yogurt drink, two nectarines, a chocolate coconut croissant, dried apricots, a large water and a chocolate bar for 100 Moldovan Lei (Which transfers to 6 US Dollars!)

After this weekend I have now officially been in 4 different countries! Haha Throughout these past 3 weeks I have said so many little prayers!! Lots for safety and lots for gratitude! I am so grateful for this opportunity and for the adventures that wait for me in the near future!

It has been such a great week and next weekend I get to go to LONDON!! I am so excited!! Till next time! :)