Giving Thanks Despite the Turkey

As most of the east coast woke up to start their turkey or begin their food preparations I was riding through the mountains of Romania. I had gone to Deva to pick up a package from my dear sweet friends and was feeling very loved and thankful for the wonderful people the Lord has placed in my life. Tata Vasille was driving and I was enjoying the gorgeous mountains and the sun peeking out over them. We had to stop... apparently this stop was to try and locate Petre's(one of the children at the Casa De Copii) mom or existing family. We stopped some place in Hunedoara and talked to a lady and her children who were playing in the street. They gave us directions to go to the gypsy village outside of Hunedoara.

We ventured on and came up to the Gypsy village I remember seeing on Sept. 29th my very first day here in Romania. The large houses brightly painted with the elaborate roofs made of metal. To my surprise we parked the car and they asked me (in romanian of course) if I'd like to go with them. I figured why not? So I grabed my coat and scarf and we headed across the street.

Here is a picture of the gypsy house we parked at which I took back in September. Notice it's elaborate design... yet the building to the left is not so nice. It's a little store. So we walked across the street and asked a man where we could find the woman we were looking for and he pointed up... up the mountain that is. We began hiking up the mountain and the path was muddy and full of trash. Quickly the huge gypsy houses turned into tiny dilapidated houses. We stoped yet again to ask for more directions and this time a specific house was pointed out. It was at the very top of course. As we got closer Tata Vasille grabed a stick to ward off the stray dogs wandering around. We got to the house and opened the gate to find 2 small children and a woman chopping wood.

Dilapidated doesn't begin to describe this house's condition. Windows no longer had their panes instead they were covered by strips of cloth. The floors were made of dirt and there were 3 "rooms" 2 full of trash and clothes and the third with 2 beds and more trash and clothes. It smelled awful yet the children didn't seem to mind. Remember- I had my coat on and my scarf... because it was cold. These children were wearing sandals... which I guess was better than nothing. There was no doubt this was Petre's mom! He favored her immensely.

See Petre has been at the Casa De Copii for 10 years. His mother has not tried even once to make contact with him since he arrived here in Lupeni. The orphanage even wrote to her and still no reply. He wants to reconnect with her and spend time with her over the holidays. Petre has been misbehaving here and I think that it would be good for him to see where he could be verses where he is. My heart just breaks for the 2 little ones still living in those conditions. The more I am here the more I want to be here. As we left Mama Cheta emptied her pockets and gave the woman all the money she had. I assure you Mama Cheta doesn't have much money either. As we walked back down the mountain an overwhelming realization of the many things I have to be thankful for hit me. Even in the poorest city in Florida... their homes are nicer than that one was.

Please pray for Petre as he is faced with decisions about his future. Also that he would understand there are people who love him here in Lupeni and more importantly he has a heavenly Father who loves him more than he could ever imagine.

One more thing- try and realize how blessed you are even in the toughest of circumstances.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Jesus Christ" 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Visiting Auschwitz- Sobering and Surreal

One of the things I knew I wanted to do while in Poland is visit Auschwitz. It is only an hour and a half outside of Krakow so it seemed like a good opportunity. My whole life I've been interested in history and the stories behind the people who make it. Going to Auschwitz was sobering and surreal.

I've studied the holocaust over the years in school. I've been to the musuem in Washington, DC, I've heard a holocaust survivor speak and I've read multiple books and diaries... but until you see in person the horrific place and retrace the steps of the people who lived and died there it just doesn't sink in.

Marta and I arrived in the city Oswiecim and started walking toward Auschwitz... how anyone could live in this town is beyond me. It was overcast, dreary and cold- the perfect day for the event we were partaking in. We got to Auschwitz and watched a short film that was a breif recap of WWI and the events leading up to WWII and the camp itself. Some of the images were terrifying.

We began at the entrance where the sign read "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means "Work brings freedom"... right.
We continued on and walked through the buildings where people lived and mostly died. We saw the "hospital" where Josef Mengele did his experiments on children, he was more commonly called "the Angel of Death". The pictures were something I will never forget.








We went into one building where they had the confiscated items from all of the people that were brought to Auschwitz. Piles of glasses, suit cases with names and addresses on them, piles of shoes all the way up to the ceiling... shock set in. Then I came to one display. Piles and piles of little shoes, shoes from all of the children. I wept. It was completely overwhelming. It is beyond me how someone could justify the wrong that they were doing... especially on such a grand scale! Some of the children there were little gypsy children from Romania. In the pictures they looked the same as they do now. It definitely stuck a nerve.







I was thankful to leave all the confiscated articles... it just made it too real. I wanted to escape reality for a moment. We headed outside and went to the Death Wall. Not too much relief. I stood where the S.S lined innocent people against a wall and shot them. Very sobering to say the least.








We moved on and went to the gas chamber and crematory, it was the only one the Nazis didn't destroy before leaving the camp. It was a small place and somehow they manage to kill over 800 people at once. It was tiny and sad... we walked through in silence and it was strange to think only 60 something years ago thousands of people were killed in that little building. There were so many ashes left over they used them to build the streets we were walking on....

Because the Nazis were bringing so many people to these death camps they had to expand the camp to make room for all of the people. We went to Auschwitz II and Birkenau where there were the biggest gas chambers and crematories. This is where the train would arrive and people would get off and be selected for work or for death. I walked down the railroad tracks down to the remains of the gas chamber and crematory. I saw where the people "lived".
Here are a few pictures from Auschwitz II and Birkenau:

Hello from Poland!

Well I safely made it to Poland... despite forgetting my cell phone in Lupeni. Yeah, I know that was dumb. Anyway I took a car from Lupeni to Petrosani and then a bus from Petrosani to Timisoara. Then I took a plane from Timisoara to Vienna, Austria where I caught a plane to Krakow, Poland! Whew.

Marta picked me up from the airport and I was so excited and glad to see her. We hopped on a bus and headed towards her flat. I met some of her roomates (she has 5!!!) and they were very nice. Then we did some sight seeing, shopping (thank you dad) and eating! We have a lot planed for the week so I am going to see as much of Poland as I can. I will post some pictures later.

Much love-

Sweet Delia

I want to thank you all for praying for Delia and her attitude. It really has made an amazing difference. After being gone from the kids nearly a week I missed them entirely too much! Apparently they missed me too. When I walked up stairs the other day all of them yelled "Ella!!!" and ran and covered me in hugs and kisses. It was wonderful!

Little Delia was the last one to waddle up and yell to me! She latched on and didn't let go. She let me kiss her, normally she wipes kisses away and sticks her tongue out. She gave me kisses and wrapped her sweet arms around my neck and refused to let me put her down. It was just fine... I had no intention of putting her down.

At lunch she has been feeding herself (a huge improvement) and she insists on me sitting next to her. Delia has not been so deliberately disobedient! To reward her sweet behavior I painted her nails. (She always touches mine when I have mine painted!) She was so precious walking around showing everyone how Ella painted her nails. They were pink and sparkly of course!

Today I tucked her into bed and walked back into the kitchen. About 2 minutes passed and I heard a little voice yelling, "Elllllllla" and walked in her room and asked her "Da?" she just smiled at me. I layed down next to her and pretended to sleep... after 5 minutes or so passed I kissed her on the forehead and said, "noapte buna". (good night). I treasure all my moments here but I'm especially thankful for that one.

She is being so sweet and she has adjusted well to the home, the mothers and the other children. Thank you for your prayers... clearly the Lord has been answering them.

This is for you mom!

Ok, after many strategic and loving complaints about how my mom was having difficulty reading my blog I changed it. I really loved the purple but she said it was difficult to read... therefore it is now a simple black and white (with a fun background because lets be honest... I'm not a simple black and white kind of girl). I hope this helps! :)

Also I have been told by some of you wanted to comment on my blogs but couldn't. Sorry- for some reason I had the settings so you could not comment... but now you can! So comment away! I'd love to hear from you.

Much Love!

Sunshine and Dirt

This morning I woke up feeling great and super excited to see the sun pouring in my window! It has been a while since I have seen the sun. Quickly I noticed all the dust and particles in the air and I was annoyed. I thought, "It wasn't this dusty yesterday!? What happened... how did it get so dirty in here?" and then I realized that the light pointed out all the filth that filled my room.

Isn't that the truth? We get annoyed so easily with the Light in our lives. The Lord points out the things in out hearts that are filthy and dirty. It's easier to live life not acknowledging their existence but what kind of life is that? The gospel is offensive... it points out the things in our hearts that we aren't proud of. "Jesus is the light of the world" is such a commonly used phrase and many people associate light with joy and neglect the responsibility it puts on us. We have to clean. We have to strive daily to purify our hearts not to gain salvation but to show our love for our savior! To show love to others.

In Matthew 5:14-15 we are told "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house." That's a tough job. Not only am I called to be bold and share this knowledge with everyone... I'm suppose to be the light... but the light reveals the filth.

Until we see our filthy and dirty hearts in the Light of Jesus Christ we won't see a need for a savior.

My friend James Barnett wrote, "I’m not so sure our symphony is a popular one. It won’t end up on the billboard top ten and it won’t be played on a stage in Central Park. It will be a lullaby sung within the hearts of the poor. It will be cried out by those who hunger and thirst for what is right. No, it may not be a popular song, but it will be a good one."

I'm going to Poland!

Well thank you for your prayers... apparently they worked! I'm feeling so much better today and I'm excited to hopefully have a normal day tomorrow.

Poland:

So in case you are unaware this summer my family opened up our home to three girls. One from France, one from Slovkia and one from Poland! Marta, from Poland, and I became good friends and I helped her deliver her books for about a week and a half. (They were in the states with a program selling books door to door). She said she would pay me but I declined. The night that they left she gave me a card... I opened it to find a note that read something along the lines of, "Congratulations you just won a trip to Poland!!!". She had left a $100 bill in the envelop and a sweet message. "Ok"- I thought "now I have to go to Poland"! (darn) haha.

Fast forward- The other day I was looking at airfare between Poland and Romania and I found a great deal. I bought the ticket and I am flying to Poland on the 16th of this month... in less than a week! I am very excited and grateful for the opportunity to see a different culture, meet her family and speak English for a whole week! Originally I thought this trip would be perfect for me to get my visa, seeing as I had to leave the country to acquire one. However I was told (after purchasing the ticket) that I will have to leave around Dec. 27th because that marks 90 days... maybe I will go to Hungry?!

Anyway, I leave Sunday on a bus to Timisoara where I will stay with my sweet friend Dea for the night... then I will get up SUPER early to catch my flight out of Timisoara. I will fly into Austria for a short layover and then board the plane for Krakow, Poland where Marta will meet me. Please pray that I will travel safely! I feel so independent... this is not like me you know. At least it was not like me! :)


This is me and Marta on her last day in Tallahassee!

42 Ceiling Tiles

Well I've been sick now for 5 days... which feels like a lifetime. I'm hoping tomorrow morning I will wake up feeling all better. If not and I wake up with a fever I have to go to the hospital. Apparently here they go to the hospital like it is a family doctor... so I guess it sounds worse than it is. Either way I really don't want to go.

I've pretty much been in my room since Thursday afternoon with the exception of walking to the pharmacy (in the rain), walking to the grocery store to buy my ingredients for mac and cheese and walking to church last night. Sooooo a grand total of about 3 hours outside of my room since Thursday afternoon.

Did you know I have 42 ceiling tiles in my room? I am thankful I have the internet now! I'm pretty sure I would have gone crazy by myself for nearly 5 days without it. I really miss the kids! I especially miss their hugs and kisses... and there is no way I'm letting them get near me before I know I'm not contagious. Well, that's it I guess. It's been a super uneventful weekend. Please pray I get better soon! Much love!

Hey Ya'll!

Well I've been sick the past few days and it's been raining pretty much non-stop. So today I decided at 6pm to finally leave the house. I headed over to the grocery store to purchase a few necessary items. I needed some comfort food! Proud of myself for finding everything I needed dispite it all being in romanian I headed home.

I made it home practically exhausted from my outing and started on Paula Deen's- Lady's Cheesy Mac! True southern comfort food and something you definitely don't find here in Romania. Here is the link to the recipe if you like:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/the-ladys-cheesy-mac-recipe/index.html

Again I had to use a coffee cup to measure out my ingredients. I also had to shred the cheese (they don't have shredded cheese here or cheddar cheese). Of course I had to keep an eye on the oven because I don't have any clue of the temperature.

It turned out delicious and it's a good thing because it looks like I will be eating for the next week!

Close but no cigar...

I thought I would share this with you all because I found it is too funny to keep to myself:

The other morning I was offered some tea. She said to me in broken English "would you like some fornication tea?". Slightly taken aback I was confused but accepted. I later looked at the box and it read, "Organism Tea". I didn't want to correct her and run the risk of embarrassing them so I just laughed to myself and drank my "fornication tea". Oh man!

Doubt Creeps In...

Last night I attended church in Petrosani. Being that it was a Wednesday they didn't have their typical service; instead they had more of a Bible study type setting. I couldn't understand the lesson but I did read along with the scripture passages.

Honestly yesterday was kind of a tough day. It could be because I didn't feel well and I'm getting sick... but my patience with myself and my lack of understanding the language got to me more than usual. I started to feel like I was just in a different country and I wasn't being very useful. That I was wasting time. It's easy to let negative thoughts and doubt creep in. I was in prayer a good part of the day (it's easy to pray when you can't understand your surroundings!) just seeking God's direction for the next few months. OK.

So last night at "Bible study" Tabita Gall wanted to introduce me to the church. I got up and told them a little about me and what I am doing here. (Tabita of course translated!). After the study many people came up to me and introduced themselves to me... which was so nice to feel like part of the church. One woman in particular introduced herself and told me she ran an afterschool type program...hmmmmm right up my alley right?! Yes, exactly. She told me she would really love if I could help with their English club!

The best part is- I've been praying for an opportunity to teach English! The Lord is so reassuring. He always knows when I need that encouragement or a specific detail to unfold.

The center is in a very poor neighborhood in Petrosani. The English club meets on Saturday mornings which is awesome because I can spend the week with my kids here in Lupeni and then go to Petrosani on the weekends. God is so awesome and I don't know why I even begin to question Him!

I'm right where I'm suppose to be.

Cemetery Strolls

Well Halloween came and passed... I didn't see a single vampire here in Transylvania.

Let's see this weekend I went to Petrosani (it's becoming a habit... a good one though) and I got there on Saturday afternoon. We didn't do anything too exciting but it was nice to be in good company.

Sunday morning I woke up and made everyone pancakes or pan-uh-cakes (that's what I called them). We didn't have syrup, another luxury of America I guess, so we used honey and homemade jam. Everyone seemed to enjoy them! Then we all went to church.

Church was really neat because we were celebrating an engagement! The bride is from Romania and the groom is from India. They had a special speaker as well and he was from Holland! The common language used between all these different nationalities is English- praise God! So I was able to understand the entire sermon... which was such a nice change. I enjoyed the emphasis the church put on their engagement and how it was more about the body of Christ and Christ love rather than the couple and the couple's love.

After church Nelson and I decided to walk home. Being that it was November 1st (the day of the dead) Nelson wanted me to see the cemeteries full of people visiting their deceased loved ones. The first cemetery we went to was huge; it went all the way up the side of this mountain! There were a ton of people... mostly gypsies.
Nelson told me it was a pagan holiday where they celebrate the dead and eat and drink for them... I guess in their honor. The demographic there was so different. Most of the people were very poor and unkempt and some were trying to sell us candles to light for the dead. There was one guy who told us he had 4 kids... he was 17 years old.

Ok, enough. We sat down on a bench and enjoyed the GORGEOUS view. I mean rolling hills, mountains with snow, horses, little houses with chimneys and smoke coming out. It was/is beautiful. We continued to another cemetery where Nelson's grandma is buried. It was not nearly as crowded, but it was nice to go there and it made me miss my Papa.

We headed back home to get some hot soup to warm us up... but first we stopped and got hair dye. Nelson tried to get me to dye my hair purple but I told him my mother would kill me! haha... I went with red instead.

That night we stopped by the cemetery to see all the candles glowing. It was really neat and kind of creepy but definitely freezing... we didn't stay long.

Today (Monday) I went to the Orange store, kind of like an alltel or sprint, and got wireless internet! YAY. It only took 4 hours!! Apparently my windows vista is too advanced for their program, whatever it works now! I went to the orphanage and played twister with Sebe and David and also got my computer out for the kids! What a treat?! We played with the camera- taking silly pictures and making videos. Delia even made her own laptop! She climbed into my lap and put her laptop right in front of mine. She is doing so well and behaving much better. Thank you for the prayers!

Many blessings and much love-
I hope these pictures make you laugh as much as me! :)