Serving Romania

For those of you who have been losing sleep over the past few weeks, arising at 3:00 in the morning to check this site for updates, wondering if we’d been abducted by the still active, yet un-official Romanian secret police; all your fears, worries, and inpatience can finally be put to rest.  Here is a smattering of photos from the last few weeks of our time in the States, including a good handful of our 17 lb first season linebacker - Sebastian.

I know what you’re thinking, but your wrong.  These are NOT man boobs…they’re my muscles.

Adriana needed a minor surgery 1 week before we came back to Romania to remove a tube that had been placed in her left ear 2.5 years earlier.  She was quite stoic about the whole thing…

…that is until the nurse informed her that her diet would consist of popsicles for the next 2 hours.

What Jon misses the most (almost) about California.

Becca and her sister Kristin.

The girls dressed up TWICE on halloween.  First as princesses…

…then as supergirls.

Here’s all the cousins each in their own superhero outfit ready to attend the harvest party at Becca’s parents church…or ready to save the world, which ever seems “more funnerer”.

Even Sebastian got in on the dressing up…this is what he gets for being 3rd and following 2 girls.  He’ll have to put up with this garbage until he’s big enough to defend himself…which should be next week.

And Becca thinks I can’t multi-task…here I am doing 3 things at once: flying, reading, holding sleeping baby, not to mention breathing and pumping gallons of blood through my body every minute.

Sebastian’s first official swim in Jon’s parents pool.

“Help!  I think I am being attacked by screeching princesses!

We started the lessons of life earlier with Sebastian than with the girls.  He seems to be catching on quickly.

The girls with Auntie Sara and Uncle Brandon.

Our flight home (to Romania) from the U.S. was as uneventful as they come.  One 10 hour flight (S.F. to London), a 5 hour layover in London, a 3 hour flight (London to Budapest), a nights sleep in Budapest, an 9 hour drive (usually takes 6 without a baby and road construction) from Budapest across the Romanian/Hungarian border to Cluj.  Photos coming soon….of the baby of course.

To say that we’ve done our fair share of traveling while on this trip would be an understatement.  Planes, trains (not really), and automobiles (6-7 borrowed ones at last count) have been carrying us all over the entire western hemisphere of the west side of California.  The girls handled it like champs.

Adriana (normal head) and Noah (basketball head) playing at a park.  You have to be an almost professional photographer with catlike reflexes to get amazing shots like this one.

People have been asking me what our little boy Sebastian is like.  A few words come to mind.  “Cheesecake” is one.  “Porker” is another.  But, I think the best way to describe him would be as a Professional Baby.  Professional because he is focused, determined, and specialized.  “At what,” you ask?  Eating, Sleeping, and Pooping.

Now, I know all babies do this.  Our girls did this.  They just did not do it as well as Sebastian, and they did other things in addition.  They cooed (you know, made baby sounds).  They smiled.  They did other baby-like things.  But this guy is specializing in food intake, food output, and food coma (”food coma” is the technical description for eating and drinking so much that you instantly fall asleep in a food induced stupor - we’ve all experienced this at around 5:17 on Thanksgiving Day).

I guess I’m being a bit simplistic; he does two other things pretty well too.  He grunts, and he burps.  He burped so loudly the other day while we were in line at a store that everyone around stopped and stared in utter amazement - wondering that his innards were not somehow on the floor.  Now that’s a man burp!

I have posted 3 photos; two before, one after shot.  Notice the cheek growth, and the drunk-on-milk look on his face.

(below) Sebastian at about 1 week old.
  

(below) Sebastian at about 4 weeks old.

Yes, he’s here.  At 10:56 a.m. Thursday morning little
Sebastian Jonas-Cohen Hallsted entered this dimension of life.  He came out weighing a full 8 pounds 14 oz, and was 21 inches long.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words…here’s a thousand pictures!

My (Jon’s) sister got married last week.  They are now Mr. and Mrs. Brandon and Sara Thresher.  The wedding was a blast.  Here are a few nice shots…mostly of us at the wedding.  A family friend, Brian Colvin, took some of these photos.  His website is www.briancolvin.net  Becca, or her sister Kristin (our part-time, un-paid nanny), took the rest. 

“I now pronounce you husband and wife!”

Sara and the 3 flower girls, our two, plus one of Brandons nieces, Riley.

  
Cindy with the girls getting manacures a few days before the wedding…and the finished products.

   
This is what we look like all dressed up. Becca looks rather wonderful, even at 9 months pregnant.

   
Flower girls…they did their job well.

Jon walking his mom down the aisle.

Bride and father of the bride.

Here are a few photos of some of our down-time activities since we’ve been back.  We’ve spent a large part of our time traveling, meeting, and visiting with people.  With the baby’s due date less than 2 weeks away, we are currently camping out at Becca’s parents house.  Then, we will be traveling again just before returning to Romania.  Of course, the kids have had a blast being back home for a while, hanging out with cousins and grandparents.  Here are a few shots we captured…

The Hallsted girls, Becca, Cindy, Adriana, Sara, and Caitrin at Sara’s bridal shower.  Sara got married last weekend.  I’ll post some nice shots of that in coming days.

A friend of Becca’s parents let us use the private beach access at their beautiful house on a private lake one day….and threw their 2 boats in for good measure.  What a blessing.  Here is a picture we took of Becca’s whole side of the family, and all the nephews/cousins/grandchildren, depending on your perspective.  There were 18 of us total.  The baby in Becca’s belly will make 19 and the baby in Rachel’s belly will make 20.

All the cousins, minus one (plus two neighborhood friends who was too small to be in the photo.  Noah had a birthday party with (yes you guessed it) a superhero theme.  Superman and super woman seems to be a popular choice.  Adriana and Caitrin are hiding out in the back.  To those that think our girls are wimpy, just remember, true power is not alwasy apparent to the naked eye.  Becca made the girls costumes, including Ella’s who is in front.

Adriana giving the pinata a wack.  She did her best for being a superwoman and all.  We need to work on the swing technique a bit.

Jon, taking out some cross-cultural frustration by finishing off the superman pinata with a child’s foam baseball bat.  This is much cheaper than professional therapy, and slightly more effective.

Adriana, playing Nintendo for the first time in her life, with cousin Noah.

Adriana and Caitrin with the oldest living family member, and the newest.  Their great-great aunt is 94 and is probably in the last month of her life.  Mila is the newest cousin born to Aaron and Eun.

Adriana with “Auntie”.  She has shown some tremendous “care-taker” skills.  She seems to be extra sensitive to those in pain.

Caitrin at the beach…loving everything about it….except the beach part.

Jon and the girls.  Our girls are soooo brave that they actually get in the water all the way up to their ankles!

Nana (Cindy) with the girls at the beach.  Besides family, the beach is the single most missed aspect of California while we lead a nearly land-locked existence in Romania….well, we miss avocados too; and mexican food; and ok, that’s enough.

LESSON 3 - REGULAR GARBAGE PICK-UP IS A HOLY THING TO BE CHERISHED.

If you happen to be one of the few in our world blessed with the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes, you can probably pick something up from the above photo that the person of average intelligence will most certainly miss - we don’t have garbage service.

It’s not that we can’t arrange for it…it’s just that, well, this is actually easier.  We live near some government approved picnic spots where locals tend to produce large amounts of waste.  The government provides large trash bins for people in the summer (and a few get left out during the winter too).  We usually drive our trash there when we are going in that direction (2-3 times/week).

One particular week our car was out of commission and we could not drive our trash to the bins.  The trash started to pile up and the stench started creeping into the house.  Flies and maggots started making homes in the garage area.  So, I borrowed a moped from a friend, and drove all 16 bags down, 2 at a time, to the nearest bin.

If we were to get garbage service, it would be quite a process involving lots of paperwork…some of it probably related to my California driving record, the birthplace of my grandfather, my shoe size, and my SAT scores.  On a serious note, I would have to provide proof of tax payments for all of our living expenses in Romania.  Plus….our place does not have a building number (at least not officially that is.  There is a sign on the place that says “21-B” but in the city records our place is “Fara Numar” - “without a number”).  We only get mail because the mail man knows we are foreigners.  Not having a house number is sure to complicate the paperwork process in ways that you cannot imagine.

There’s one last downside to getting the official garbage service here.  One of our neighbors have it, and every Thursday they place their garbage at the side of the road that runs near our place.  The truck is supposed to come sometime before noon.  They usually put their garbage out by 8:00 a.m., as they leave for work.  But, by about 8:04, the local stray dogs have ripped open every bag and spread the contents in the road, and sewer ditch that runs along side of it.  You can imagine the mess.  For whatever reason, the neighbor doesn’t clean it up….but I would feel obligated to.

“Why use bags and not garbage bins?”, you inquire.  Our other neighbor (who is a lifesaver and frequently helps us out) told us that they would get stolen the first time we put them out at the road.  The only way to make it work would be to secure them somehow with a lock and chain.  But then, if you secure them, the garbage guys cannot pick them up and dump them into the back of the truck….unless you use a really long chain.

Therefore, the short drive to the garbage bins is Ok with us, but it has made us appreciate the sanctity of professional garbage pick-up.

LESSON 2 - WE HAVE AN ENEMY.

Since moving to Romania just over 2 years ago, we have discovered that we struggle with different things or at least in different ways than we did back home in the States.

We struggle in a deeper way with discouragement, frustration, and often times, loneliness.  These are things that we never sensed in any real conscience manner before.  They came on occasion, and generally were relieved with the next family get-together or the anticipation of a weekend BBQ (as silly and simple as that may sound).  Let me expound a bit on just one of them…frustration.

I don’t care what anyone says - the fact remains that America is an extremely efficient society.  Despite what you may feel while waiting for your tax return, how frustrated you might feel while at the DMV, or how tied in a knot you might be when the person in front of you in the “Quick-Check” line at the supermarket has about 111 items over the quick-check limit, the frustrations that we are asked to endure in the U.S. are often miniscule in comparison to those that many on our planet face on a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis.  Many on our planet are so accustomed to things that would frustrate many Westerns, that they don’t even view them as frustrating….they are simply normal.

So, when you transfer from America to a non-western nation, with a heart, mind, and plan to “do something, do it right, and do it quickly”, you are soon met with numerous folks (most of them well-meaning) who simply do not share your enthusiasm.  They are more like God than we are in this one sense: they operate outside of time!  This generally causes an increase in a certain little emotion, we’ll call it “acute frustration”.  Some of you know exactly what I am referring to.

There is currently no wonder-pill for this ailment, although I am sure the pharmaceutical companies are working on it.  They will soon label frustration a disease and develop a handy solution for it.  They will call it something like “Frust-ease” or “Sereniloft” or something like that and put lots of commercials on TV about it.  Then we can all run off and ask our doctors if fill in the blank is right for us.  Of course, some of the side effects will be narcolepsy and anxiety attacks.  Kind of got off track there, didn’t I?  Anyway…

Add to the mix an ever diminishing (as we become more proficient), yet ever present language barrier, toss in a few general cultural differences as well, and you have the perfect recipe for a screwed up schedule and a screwed up attitude.  This potent combination, for me (Jon), can be a deadly mix.  When someone or something messes with my schedule…well, I get ticked, and my attitude goes south.  When my attitude goes south, it makes it more difficult for me to handle the ever changing schedule.  As you can see, the snowball effect - the downward spiral, the law of diminishing returns, whatever you want to call it - quickly takes over.  My schedule is thwarted, my plans thrown amuck, my productivity dive-bombs, and my attitude becomes apparent to all within sniffing range.

I wish I could end this post with a large “BUT”….  “But, we are holy now”,  “But, we have been perfected by these circumstances.”   Nope, can’t truthfully say that.  We can say that we are now aware, more than ever before, that we have an enemy and he is active.  We know that he works in small ways to create and increase frustration and distraction.  And, as G.I. Joe, my childhood hero, used to say - “Now you know, and knowing is half of the battle!”   Thanks Joe.