Cathartic journaling of an adoptive mom.
Latest Posts
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Old friends
Despite all of the new friends we are making (even the human ones), our old friends are what really make this city home. We are eternally indebted to them for welcoming us into this crazy chapter and making themselves available to us while we scamper about, trying to set things up. Vio’s brother, Dan, has…
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New Friends
Our third day in Cluj took us all over the city, mostly walking. Thankfully my calves are starting to warm up to constant motion. I feel that they’ve partially atrophied in the past six months only walking to and from the car and sitting all day. We found a great little boutique in one of…
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Now, THE topic.
I’ve been holding this under my hat, for weeks now. My sister, Carmen (often assumed so literally), our roads intertwined a lot in the last eleven years. They continued to do so even after my seven year adventure abroad. The morning I shared in church about our plans regarding Romania and adoption, I received an…
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First day in the apartment
Well we survived the first night, and now we’re into the morning of the first day. Yesterday we went out and bought a new mattress and some pillows so that we wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor, and they were quite comfortable. The building we’re in has central heating (very uncommon in Romania) so we…
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Zelda’s Books
One of my favorite projects here in Cluj has been supporting a program called Zelda’s Books. It’s the brainchild of a close friend of ours that works as an after school program to teach kids how to read English. We weren’t able to stay to read to the kids this day, but we were able…
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…in true Altmann fashion
Things we forgot: • Vio’s jeans • Conrad’s belt • Conrad’s laptop charger But we did bring a crockpot… Well, it’s been less than 12 hours of arriving (including sleeping) and we’ve closed on our first apartment. Given, we had done some research before we arrived for this particular apartment, but seeing it sealed our…
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Cluj – day one
Our minds are cool and clear. We spent all our emotions the weeks prior to this trip. Now we just dive in and let it all happen. We are in Cluj. I am sipping coffee in bed, Ritual Coffee freshly brewed by Conrad. And before noon we plan to check out the few apartments we…
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Push off
“don’t go where the path may lead, go instead where the is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson The day has arrived at last. We’re all packed, and at the weight limit with all if our bags. The next hurdle is the trip itself. This isn’t one of those cross-country, eight hour…
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Logistics. Bureaucracy. Processes.
Transferring money to Romania is becoming more cumbersome than it needs to be. My transfer was cancelled once, after I was called and confirmed my identity and the purpose for this transfer three times. And I was locked out of my online backing account four other times. I learned about the last lockout a few…
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Ooh ooh! Pick Me!
Vio told me this story today over coffee: “A teacher took out a picture of a family and laid it out in front of her students. One of the children in the photograph had a different color skin than the others. A little boy yelled out, ‘I know why! That kid is adopted!’. And the…
