Marin

Marin (pronounced like 'marine') was another one of my sweet little babies. I met him in the children's hospital. He was there the entire summer in 2001. Since no one came to visit him in that time, I assume he was an orphan.

I love this picture...if you look closely, you can see that his big toe is wrapped around the bar of the crib

His adorable little face quickly won me over. When we first began volunteering at the hospital, Marin was emotionless like most of the other babies. However, we saw him gradually develop the ability to cry, smile and even laugh!! We taught Marin to make fishy lips and mimic us in other ways. It was adorable! Now and then he would fall asleep in my arms and like Costica, felt like a son to me.

Marin was another one that I seriously contemplated stashing in my backpack to bring home. I genuinely thought about how I could possibly sneak him through customs. Leaving him was unbearable. I had no idea what was in store for him...would he live in a hospital forever? Did he have a family? Was he destined for an orphanage? Would he end up on the streets??

After coming home, Marin regularly made appearances in my dreams. Sometimes as a baby, and other times as a 5-year-old. In every dream, he was happy and healthy. I hope and pray that those dreams have come true!

I leave to go back to Romania tonight (!), so now is your last chance to donate to kids like Marin. To read more about my project, read this post or scroll down to my most recent posts. To donate, click on the PayPal link in the upper right corner of my blog.

Ne vedem mai tarziu!! (See ya later!)