Narcissa of Barlad

Delia has high self-esteem. Now two, still with no arms or legs, she is happy to spend long periods of time staring at herself in the mirror. She showers love upon herself...leaning forward again & again to kiss her reflection & laugh at her lovely self.  She thinks she's hilarious. She says her name now, when she feels like it, with much prompting. This too satisfies her greatly, as do the choruses of "Bravo, bravo" that accompany her accomplishments . And she can sit up by herself now, on her square little torso-fanny, though she must be watched, for a small thing like a sneeze can pitch her over sideways or backwards, with no arms to soften a fall. Her two little flippers, one at a shoulder & one at what would be a foot, have matured in terms of sophisticated activity. If she's lying in her crib & you place a toy with lights & music near her bottom, she intentionally hits it with her flipper-foot, causing the lights & tinny music to play. She uses her arm-flipper as a touching device & can spin a plastic ring around & around on her favorite jumpy seat.
 
All the children here drink from bottles, even the 4 & 7 year olds. They get 2-3 bottles /day of milk-like formula, plus an orange pureed soup-like gruel for lunch. It is made of carrots & potatoes & chicken, ground up & thinned with water...thin enough to go through the nipple of a baby bottle. No one likes it. They all refuse it. Yet that is lunch. A few kids also get spoon fed mashes...bread & applesauce...rice with unidentifiable things.  When the volunteers come, they bring yogurt, a great favorite with all.

Delia's pretty much outgrown bottles. She cries & whips her head backwards & refuses them. Bottles are more convenient for the staff here, though. They have very few hands to spoon feed & do not teach the older kids to feed themselves, or toilet-train them, for that matter.

This girl loves being naked. When given the chance, at diaper changing time, to loll around naked for a little while, she rocks & rolls & wiggles & shakes & laughs like crazy. She thinks she's beautiful & perfect.
 
Delia has been on a waiting list for over a year to see a Romanian doctor in another city about the possibility of prosthetics. There is not much faith here that this will come to pass. Volunteers fall in love with her & say how she should get a humanitarian medical exception that would allow her to go to the United States for care, but there is no organized effort for this.

When she's bigger & not so cute anymore, where will she go? Most likely where the rest of Romania's abandoned children go when they grow up -- to an adult institution, which westerners never see.

But in the meantime, Little Miss Narcissa of Barlad has her joys & delights, & thinks very highly of herself.

-- la reverdere