boys. boys. boys.

They are so much fun. The time that I got to spend at the special needs boys school this summer was amazing. It was only four days, but it felt like it was so much longer than that. During those four days that we went to the boys school I fell absolutely in love with the boys that I was working with. It was like as soon as we were introduced I suddenly had 40 new brothers. They were so kind to all of us and they treated us so well. They took care of us and made sure that we were okay. They brought us flowers from some of the trees nearby. They were so much more energetic and ready to do things with us than the girls. We didn’t have to try and win them over or almost be invited into their lives like with the girls. With the girls you have to almost wait for them to pick you and if they don’t pick you within the first few moments or hours it is really hard to be a part of their lives because they won’t accept you. With the boys it was totally different. They had their favorites, but any of us could talk to them. Any of us could love on them and they weren’t reserved about being loved. The first day that we were there, some things happened and we weren’t able to start our program until around 2:30 p.m. We were originally supposed to start at around 10. We ended up doing our whole day program that afternoon from 2:30 until 6 and we still had time leftover. They boys could only be occupied with certain things for so long, but other things kept them occupied for hours. Things like friendship bracelets, lanyard, and beads. They did this for HOURS. I am telling you I have made so many bracelets in the last month that I should have kept a tally. One day we totally cut our afternoon games because they were totally content just doing bracelets and talking to us. I spent the majority of my afternoons sitting on a swing set. Now this swing set is not how we picture a swing set in the states. This swing set was completely metal. The pieces that held the swings on, usually would be like chain links. These ones were just pieces of rebar that had been painted long ago, but the paint had faded and they were now rusty. The actual swing part was just a flat piece of metal, and it had a back on it making it more like a chair than a swing. But I spent my time sitting on this swing set getting to know “my boys.” Nicu, Ionut, and Aurel were my boys. They are three of the older boys who I became quite attached to. I am going to write a specific blog about Nicu, so I won’t really tell you much about him now. Ionut is almost 18 years old, he knows a little bit of English, and he likes to act like a car… a stick shift car. He makes the motion and the noise of changing gears. He makes a honking sound and when he pretends to turn he makes a blinker noise and winks with whichever eye is the way he is “turning.” I have heard many people make car sounds in my life, but no one has ever done as good of a job as Ionut. So I nicknamed him “Masina” because that is what a car is called in Romanian. Aurel who is 22, I nicknamed “Dog-boy” when I didn’t know his name because one day as we were coming back from lunch we saw him hiding something behind his back. He was hiding this thing with one had and waving so intensely with his other hand. As we were in the car Katie and I turned around because we wanted to see what he had. It turned out that he had a dead dog. He was trying to throw it over the wall so that we didn’t have to see it or anything. As we watched he was trying so hard to get it over the fence, but the dog didn’t quite make it so all that happened was it smacked the fence and fell down. He absolutely loves playing with hair, it doesn’t matter if it is in a ponytail or down, but multiple times I had it up in a bun and he took it out of the bun into just a ponytail so that he could play with it. These three boys were so fun to talk to and just get to know a little better. Sometimes we had a translator and sometimes we didn’t, but when we didn’t the conversation was simple enough for me to understand and attempt to respond. The answers were simple enough that they could understand what I was trying to say and correct me if I said something wrong. These three boys are like the big brothers that I gained. Although two of them are two and three years younger than me I still felt like they were my older brothers and would protect me like older brothers would. I love them and miss them very much. It was so sweet to see how they responded to us and how close we were able to get in such a short amount of time. I love them so very much and can’t wait to see them again. Ask me questions about my boys and I will tell you stories upon stories.


me with my boys Aurel, Ionut, and Nicu