addysengrace

Dec 09

a month of grammie

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, bucuresti, christian, family, mercyadoniyah, ministry, romania

grammie managed to squeeze in a month away from her home…her home on the market! pops stayed home and held down the fort, so it was truly a joint effort (since this was the first year they wondered if they could come for a visit or not with everything happening). and of course, it was nice and refreshing. all things considered, i didn’t take a whole lot of pictures. this is almost {{all}} of them. but we had a lot of simple, quiet fun.

airport bound!

these two went on a date to see some movie i wasn’t interesting in seeing. 🙂

we also went on a date! come to find out, i took my mom to her first 3-d movie. kind of strange since romania is really into 3-d movies so we have a hard time finding 2-d versions (mercy’s preference).

so many read aloud books were read!

and so many puzzles were done. all of the ones we own actually!

mall excursions:

my mom’s signature. my {beautifully} made bed every single morning!

a grammie and her oldest granddaughter

after church fun

sometimes you go to ikea on your second to last day here. whoops. and sometimes you come home with “whichever lovey you want.” 😉

a last night of cards

last airport selfie. 🙁

Dec 04

toamna

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, bucuresti, christian, family, holidays, mercyadoniyah, ministry, romania, school

***
disclaimer: way.too.many.photos. {sorry not sorry!}
***

this is where we live:

homework which we might actually enjoy around here, oh my:

alex started at mercy’s school!

chocolate eyes and a tear on her cheek…

goofball three:

and then we got new colleagues!

gaming at the mall:

daddy love:

that time we bought a bag of mixed veggies boasting broccoli and found one entire piece of broccoli, haha!

there is something magical about sleeping babies:

international day of world peace:

oh this child keeps me young:

blowing me a kiss:

oh.my.

best friends:

freshly washed and braided hair:

she makes me food…

summer comes to an end whether or not you want it to…

these two are so much fun:

birthday celebrations (part one):

grandma ducky came to visit:

and auntie deedee!

Dec 02

school

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, bucuresti, family, mercyadoniyah, school

Nov 30

the rest of summer

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, bucuresti, christian, family, holidays, mercyadoniyah, romania

the last few pictures on my phone of summer…

falling out teeth:

sticky and sweaty naps:

selfies with mama:

meeting new babies:

you’ve played hard when you fall asleep this way:

he has his own bed(s) and his own toy(s) and yet he thinks he is one of the kids:

so blessed to have (re)connected with tim and wendy:

presents from tim and wendy:

“it’s a shoe-tomato!”

our new best friend, orla…can’t wait until we hang out again either in Romania or Ireland!

oh this kid and her humour:

just random metal things she wanted her picture with:

she thinks my bed is her bed…she’s basically right:

playplaces:

sinaia hikes:

lego science from emmy and katie:

snow science from sarah:

if the truth be told, i have probably talked to my sister (almost) every 24 hour period since moving overseas almost five years ago…minus travel days and maybe her honeymoon.

watching the olympics and cheering for way too many countries (my children are very loyal to every country, haha!

summer means impulsive…we love summer!

trying to convince my kids that summer movie nights don’t usually include their robes is impossible:

when did she start making dinner?!

coloring pages from aveline:

summer memory making:

if you put pink (bath approved) dye in the bathtub, your child will probably think that means it is okay to splatter blue (permanent) ink on the walls:

when ninja turtles fight my little ponies:

beautiful care package from my irish twinsie:

when rough days come, give your kids five lei and take them to the store:

care packages from orla!

Sep 19

cotton candy

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, family, holidays, mercyadoniyah, romania, travel

Because everyone knows that eating cotton candy needs its own post.

Sep 19

roadtrip{4}

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, christian, family, holidays, mercyadoniyah, romania, travel

Day Thirteen

Sure enough, after a really rough night, Marie woke up hurting all over and with a fever. We had been promising Mercy the entire trip that we would go to the dino park, so of course daddy did just that. They had a blast and Christian even remembered to take a few pictures! He actually remembers to take selfies better than Marie does. 😀

When they got home, we decided to try walking to the park since Marie had slept the day away. It was only about an hour long excursion but she made it! It was nice to get some fresh air. Brasov is a lovely town with lots of friendly kids that speak English as well as our kids do (side note, our kids’ English needs some work, ha!).

Day Fourteen

This was another day we had planned long ago – – to meet up with our community group for a really cool hike so it isn’t shocking that Marie was 100% disappointed to be feeling icky (sick enough to stay home – – ask her mom, Bonnie, that is RARE). Christian and Addy ended up going and Marie and Mercy ended up doing a lot of snuggling and sleeping but also some mama+Mercy time which ended up being a sweet time.

Day Fifteen

*H*O*M*E*

Sep 16

roadtrip{3}

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, christian, family, mercyadoniyah, romania, travel

Day Eight

Day eight, we explored Sighișoara. We enjoyed our day there although we discovered it was more expensive than all the other places we visited and Addy was under the weather. We took it slow and easy and were a little worried about her by the end of the day.

Day Nine

Day nine was NOT the day we planned. After a rough night realizing something was off with Addy, we made texted and called friends in Bucharest until we decided where to take Addy – – we ended up at the Children’s Hospital in Sibiu. Come to find out, Addy was at the end of a bacterial infection thanks to some (quite traumatic) bloodwork. She ended up getting IV fluids and meds and spending the afternoon in the hospital before we headed on to Petroșani. Always an adventure with these kids, haha!

Day Ten

We made it to Petroșani. Way long ago (ok fine just 2005), I went with Petroșani to serve with Kelle (Gammie) Andrieș. Since since we have both lived in the USA at some point, both gotten married, had kids and returned to Romania to live/serve full-time. What a fun afternoon letting our kids meet and play. They hit it off beautifully!

Day Eleven

This was our only repeat from last summer – – Hunadoara! We really enjoy the pension we have found here (Casa lui Craciun if you google it). We went to the Castle Corvin again (a must!) and ended with some swimming because he (pension owner) has his own little private swimming pool so even Mercy could go swimming!

Day Twelve

Also a random day – – the day we woke up feeling great, drove a beautiful drive to Brasov and by the time we got there, Marie was feeling pretty yucky. But hey, the girls looked cute, ha!

…to be continued!

Sep 07

roadtrip{2}

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, christian, family, mercyadoniyah, romania, travel

Day Five

Day five was full and fun! We started at the Târgu Mureș zoo which we visited last year. It is such a fun zoo and you can get so close to the animals. Then we played at the most amazing play place next to the zoo. It has a free adventure rope course, mini ziplines, a train, etc. (Videos in a later post!) We also made sure to scrap-journal almost every evening.

Day Six

Day six was also a blast – – we really like Târgu Mureș! We walked through the Cetate and then toured the Culture house which is awesome. Absolutely beautiful. There were rooms we couldn’t take pictures in, including a room of all stained glass murals. Amazing! We ended at the theater, because the new Pete’s Dragon was playing, duh!

Day Seven

Day seven started in Târgu Mureș and ended in Sighisoara. We walked through the center of Târgu Mureș one more time just because we really liked it and Marie wanted to take more pictures. Then we drove to Sighisoara which was super nice but super expensive! The really fun part of Sighisoara was that we ended up being there the weekend of a dance/music. We also chose our souvenir – – a wooden carved bowl because we could watch the man carve it and he took a picture with us! Plus we found a teal “DohDoh door” (aka Marie’s sister’s favorite color) and we ended with sorbet!

That is all for now! Have no fear – – we have SIX more posts still. 🙂

Aug 30

roadtrip{1}

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, christian, family, holidays, mercyadoniyah, romania, travel

Day One

Longest driving day by far! We drove 600 kilometers from Bucuresti all the way to Baie Sprie, with a couple breaks including ice cream in Alba Iulia. Christian has completely mastered driving a clutch, which is nice for Marie. Honestly, she prefers to read out loud to the girls, and snap twenty million photos of the passing by country. He drove 90% of the trip this time (last year it was about 50-50).

Day Two

Day two we also drove…up to Săpânță where we visited the Merry Cemetary…which was weird! There were foreigners taking pictures, but not understanding the tombstones. There were non-religious Romanians reading the tombstones and laughing. AND there were orthodox Romanians, lighting candles, being very somber because it is also a church with places to light candles and pray. Such a unique experience for sure! We weren’t exactly sure how to tell the girls to behave!

Day Three

By day three, we needed a driving break…so we explored Baie Mare. It was a lot of fun! We found a planetarium for Addy, our future astronaut and she was in heaven. We also found a play place at the mall. We walked around the center square but got there right at 4pm when the clock tower was closing. So instead we walked around and learned a little about Baie Mare’s Hungarian history (it is really interesting).

Day Four

Day four we went straight back to the center of Baie Mare before driving to Târgu Mureș because we really wanted to climb Steven’s Tower. Mercy loved every step of the way, “using” her map and even walking circles outside on the (open) balcony with Marie. She is very fearless, that is for sure. Addy stayed inside and kept Christian company. We were going to do more, but around lunch time Addy was acting really off and fussy almost to the point of being “difficult” (which is very unlike her, but we are used to all the emotions these days ever since losing Noelan). Looking back now – – it was her bacterial infection getting the best of her! What a trooper she ended up being. We can’t believe she stayed smiling!

…to be continued because we took a lot of photos. And these aren’t even Marie or the girls’ camera photos!

Aug 07

oh august

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, america, christian, mercyadoniyah, noelantruth, romania

Oh August.

Last fall we started planning our summer furlough. We would go in August, immediately after camp. We would spend the next five weeks soaking up the California sun (while enjoying the California air conditioning). We would swim in Grandma and Grandpa Ducky’s swimming and go boating on the lake with Grammie and Pops. We would have BBQs and picnics and sleepovers with aunties and uncles and cousins.

Then came Valentine’s day. Would we come to California and adopt Noelan? We knew if we went in February that we wouldn’t go in August. But can you really compare the two – – summer vacation or a child?

And so we went. “I can’t attach to him. I don’t love him. Will you attach to him? Will you be his mom and dad?” The mama in me, the daddy in Christian – – we had to respond. And I attached, we attached. We were asked to and so we did. Every ounce of me became Noelan’s mama and every ounce of him became my son. We know the difference between fostering and adopting. We were asked to adopt Noelan, not foster him. And because of that, we became a family and completely attached to him.

Which is why I feel like a piece of my heart is missing.

Which is why two and a half months after loosing Noelan, I am still rocking my almost eight year old when she goes into an infantile grief. And it is why I still wake up in the middle of the night, panicked because I hear Noelan crying for me. And it is why Christian and I sit and stare at each other and have no words sometimes. And it is why my five year old tantrums and throws and hits until she finally voices “I want my brother back.”

Oh grief. Oh August.

The Lord brought me a new, unexpected friendship this summer. And she has already been an ear and a shoulder for me. She sent me this article and as Christian and I read it, we suddenly felt so much more “normal” during this process. I would encourage you to read it and remember it if the Lord brings someone into your life going through adoption loss. Just reading it has ministered to me, because it has reassured me that we are not alone in this process.

Jul 23

mercy meets sepsis

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, bucuresti, family, mercyadoniyah, romania

these are just a bunch of snap shots from my phone…but we have been so blessed by the love, prayer, encouragement, notes, etc. we have received and we wanted to let you guys see what our past three weeks have looked like. one more week and hopefully mercy will get the green light to leave this house and venture to more exciting places!

friday morning, when i decided we were hospital bound…

first two days in the hospital. it was basically this for forty-eight hours…

the next couple days…

the first signs of her ‘tude coming back…

sleepless nights…

boredom…

moments of addy…

our four walls and view for eight days…

trying to escape…

going home…

the first few days home…

last treatment (out-patient) and IV port removed…

sepsis recovery is slow…

two weeks down of complete sequester – – now we are going into a week of camp, where mercy, addy and i are going to sleep in a pensiune (think bed and breakfast minus the breakfast) in the town near camp (called buzau) and christian and i will trade of staying with mercy because she isn’t allowed to be locations like camp just yet. she is very disappointed about missing camp but in good, her puppy is coming with her!

Jul 10

seven going on seventeen.

By Marie Klein Burtt addysengrace, bucuresti, Family

Sometimes when a lot has been going on, I feel that in order to blog I need to recap my silence, explain where I’ve been. Then I realize that I’m not blogging because I don’t have time to back track. So for now…just me, running errands with this kid. We hit up the piata (uh, think bazaar), chatting with the men and women that bring their produce to sell from outside the city of Bucharest. Strange to think four and a half years ago I found this so daunting, so stressful. And now I find it enjoyable and relaxing. After that we went across the street to the mall (where the grocery store is) and ate lunch at our favorite, McDonalds…which you will never really understand until you visit an actual European McDonalds. And we talked. Chatted actually. Wow. The conversations I have with this kid. She is funny. She is creative. She is intense. And she can talk about so many different things at once. We covered space and Mars and the moon. We covered DNA. We discussed life and gymnastics. We discussed magic and the tooth fairy. We discussed boys please pinch me now. Conversations with this kid are never ever boring. I can’t wait to see what she becomes.

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