New Bike & New Friend

I picked up Maggie's new bicycle last night and she absolutely LOVES it. She rode around for a while until her new friend came over to see it. We live across the street from a Romanian family and they have a daughter that's 6. The parents do not speak a lot of English, but I'm able to communicate with them fairly well and their daughter just loves playing with Maggie. So, we went across the street so the girls could play in their backyard. Their daughter is speaking English fairly well and translates for if we need her to.

I sat with the mom (Aneta) and looked at photos from Romania. Her hometown is beautiful - lots of gorgeous architexture. They are also very tight-knit when it comes to family. She was showing me photos of her family and telling me how much she misses them. She wants to go back now that it's no longer communistic. It was so interesting to talk to her about how different her country has become since democracy.

I feel for her because I think she's lonely. She's older (47) and due to her language barriers, a lot of the other neighbors don't really talk to her much. I've always made a point of talking to her because they are amazing neighbors. Very friendly and quiet. Plus, Maggie just adores their daughter, Andrea. (Pronouned Ohn-dray-a) I'm glad that I've become friends with her. I plan on helping her with her English and I'm even thinking about teaching her some scrapbooking. She had a LOAD of photo albums and she loved telling the story behind the photos. She was telling me how she e-mails pictures to her family in Romania. I snapped some shots of the girls playing and I told her I would e-mail them to her to send over there. She was so excited. Her family has never seen her daughter except for in photos and she was hoping they could there to visit next year.

Lots of great things in my opinion. A new friend for Maggie and I both. :)