Moldovan Culture

We've had two more days with the kids and they are teaching us Romanian and we are teaching them some English with flash cards that Paula brought with us. We continue to learn about the children and it brings to mind the tragedy that effects most of the children that are in orphanages around the world. Jon, the oldest boy, was picked up by the police in his village two years ago (at 6-7 yrs old) because he was found begging for food. We asked him about the scars on his scalp and he said that he got these at his home but now he did not have a home. We assured him that now he had one. Today, we took him to a restaurant (his first ever visit to a restaurant ) for soup and pizza (he is a very good eater). The two younger children seem to have been more sheltered at their current orphange. It is more loving, cleaner and they receive more one on one attention. We gave them some clothes that we brought for them and they were very excited. Adraina starting crying since this was her second set of clothes that she now has in her wardrobe. They refer to us as their mama and dada and love being held and being carried on our backs. Rylan is loving being a big brother and Adriana enjoys giving him kisses on the cheek. Adrian will be our wild child, like Rylan, he loves to run around and plays hard. Thanks for all of the blog comments since this is our rare touch with the you guys that know so much about our story. One last comment, the orphange director at Jon's orphange, was not excited about children being adopted to the US but has seen our afffection for him and gave her approval to the court that was needed to proceed for the Christmas adoption court date. She liked us so much that she invited us to a Christmas concert in downtown Chisinau. Next year is the year of the "Rat" and we got to see him and Santa dancing on stage together. Santa is much slimmer here, it looks like he has a size 32 waist. We will try to update the blog site every two days since getting to a computer has its challenges. Thanks and we love you all, MC, PC, RC, JC, AC, & AC.