The Best is Yet to Come

We had our last day of our internship prep class yesterday. To say the least, we are all relieved to have it behind us. We have had some stressful times especially with IRB, (review board for research projects that checks to make sure its ethical/safe etc), writing our research proposals, and sadly the class in general. But yesterday was like the day of reckoning (maybe that’s the wrong word). We turned in our coded journal portfolio and are home free until we get to Romania and start work for those courses.

Our facilitator Holly has been to Romania about 3 times. From those trips she’s accumulated several pictures and put them into a slideshow. Music alone can have a huge impact on the mood but combine “Baby Mine” with pictures of children in the hospital and you have 12 girls bawling by the end. It really was a sad sight. A few kids you could tell were from the burn unit, there was a baby with an overly swollen head (help me out on the disease Shelene), and kids who can’t move in their beds because there are so many tubes coming in and out of them. Somehow, you just can’t help but want to reach out to these children and hold them. I found myself wanting to be there more than anything and hold these children and let them know there is someone that cares. I admit, it scares me to death the idea of holding such fragile children. The feeding and oxygen tubes really make me nervous. But how can you not love a child that will cuddle with you almost instantaneously? I really wish I could post the video on here. There were so many pictures that I don’t know if I would ever recapture.

I have suddenly become rejuvenated about this trip. The semester has worn me out and I had somewhat lost the initial enthusiasm for going. But now that it’s lurking around the corner, I cannot wait. It will be the fastest 3 ½ months of my life. But I am grateful for this opportunity to go and try and make a difference in the lives of these children. My family has been a wonderful support too. Not just my parents but all of my sisters have consistently been positive and supportive of this from the get go. For that, I am grateful. In choosing a career, all I really wanted was to be able to say I’ve made a difference in someone’s life. I hope that my time in Romania is the start of a lifetime of doing so. It’s going to be one of the biggest challenges of my life at times, but in the words of Elder Wirthlin, “come what may, and LOVE it”!