July 16, 2009
What to say about today? It was short and sweet. Ashley and I spent much of the morning with Lavinia and Anca, the girls we are living with this month (for those of you who don’t know the Ciuciui family). It was wonderful and not rushed—we have been running about a lot lately. We met Sanda on her way to enroll one of the girls in the agricultural high school; I still think it’s a fantastic concept to have specialized high schools…why don’t we have them in the States? Anyway, we signed her up and walked to meet one of the house parents at Real, a huge supermarket where we proceeded to buy bulk supplies of meat and pop for the barbeque tomorrow. It was another “running errands” type of day, but I really don’t mind these. We finished our day off with a few hours at Deborah House, doing art with the girls. One of them is incredibly talented, and somehow half the girls ended up with amazing works of art on their faces—peacocks, grains of wheat, flowers, colours and swirls and other such delights. I have started to look through a certain lens when I am with these girls; I am constantly trying to perceive what these girls call “beautiful”. So far, I like what I see. You might call it a psychological experiment.
July 17, 2009
Ashley and I were apprehensive about this day. We were told yesterday we would be spending 12 hours at DH today, and started feeling anxious. We both decided we feel awkward during downtime—what do we talk about? Do we initiate an activity or conversation? We were blown away today. Not only did the time pass quickly, but we had the best FOURTEEN hours we’ve had all week. Today was full of good, joyful talks with the girls. Volleyball in the sun. Water balloon fights. Giving bear hugs to the girls who were “too dry”. Good food (meat and cabbage = all you need for a Romanian delight). Games. Art. More talks. Receiving roses with no occasion. Basically, we’re in! Every conversation with every girl today was full of the spirit that this is the beginning of something good. It’s the beginning. Already I have many girls who are close to my heart. The tough athlete who I was scared of the first day? We had the best conversations today, and have each other’s e-mails. The one whose story broke my heart the most? We talked for a long time today about how the Lord has worked on her, and how she wants to be a psychologist. I could keep going about how God is a surprising and good God. I am loving what I’m learning every day. My hours spent in textbooks comes to life, which is exciting, but at the same time it is so easy to look at these girls and forget about what they’ve been through. They are just like me, it seems.
Except you don’t usually accompany your friends to the Psychiatric Hospital on Friday mornings. Anorexia Nervosa. Please be praying for my dear girls here, there are so many stories that are just unreal. I have much to unpack in my mind this weekend.
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