A Christmas Recap!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are preparing to have a Happy New Year! My Christmas this year was great and completely different. I experienced new traditions and had fellowship with new friends. The children of Casa de Copii went to relatives homes and the mommy's homes for Christmas... with the exception of the 3 older boys. On Christmas morning me, Jennifer, Elijah and Shawn got up and went to church. Jennifer is awesome at Romanian since she is in the Peace Corps and has been here for almost 2 years so she was able to translate the sermon for us. Afterward we at Sarmale (cabbage rolls, a very traditional Romanian Christmas meal) with some of the older boys at the orphanage. Later that afternoon the four of us went to the hospital here in Lupeni and sang carols (in Romanian) to some of the children and nurses there.




During the days leading up to Christmas and the days after I experienced new traditions... even ones dating back 2,000 years! We had multiple carolers on Christmas eve and we were expected to give them fruits, sweets or money. One group of adult carolers came to my apartment and all of us stood in the stairwell and listened to them sing. We gave them sugar cookies I had made earlier and they gave us homemade pretzels and oranges. It really made it feel more like Christmas. I also got to meet my neighbors which was nice!

Another tradition I encountered was an old pagan one that gyspy men participate in. They run around town banging drums and chanting while wearing traditional Romanian garb and bear skins. Yes, it's true. It was so neat to see this take place and hear them coming! The purpose of this is to ward of "evil spirits" for the new year... and also to make money because they look for tips.




On Saturday Jennifer, Elijah, Shawn and myself decided to go up to Straja. Straja is the big mountain here in Lupeni where there is skiing and hiking. It was the most perfect day for this venture! It was clear and there were blue skies. We all enjoyed the beauty and majesty of the mountains. The day came to a close and the boys had to catch their train home. I was sad to see them go but appreciated their company while I had it! Jenn and I hung out on Sunday and ate more Sarmale and she caught a ride home with some friends of friends! The Lord is such an awesome provider!



I missed everyone back home but the I really loved experiencing Christmas in a different culture and having more quiet time to reflect on the birth of our Savior!

Tour of my apartment "decorated" Christmas! :)

Ok so this is my first Christmas away from home but I wanted to decorate my apartment to bring a little of the Christmas spirit I'm use to here in Romania! I really don't have money to spend on decorations and such so I got as creative as I could and spent less than $20 on everything! :)

This is my lovely Christmas tree with white lights, gold ornaments and a lovely red bow topper! :) Notice the snow outside the window... this will be my very first "white Christmas"!











This is my bedroom with my white lights and gold ornaments dangling. All the cards on the wall are from my friends, family, the kids at Killearn and the kids here at the orphanage! :)













This is my favorite Christmas smell! Oranges, cinnamon and nutmeg! Yummy.












Ok- so I obviously would much prefer an apothecary or a hurricane vase but this is what I had so it will do! I also reused the red ribbon from a gift I received.








Here is the rest of that ribbon! I was at the piata (an outdoor market) today and a little old lady was selling mistletoe! Of course I had to get some! This hangs over the entrance to the kitchen.


So this is my apartment for Christmas, it's not much but it is a little more homey! Merry Christmas!

December- where have you gone?

Ok well it's universal... the month of December FLIES by everywhere! I mean where has it gone? So far in the month of December I have seen the following: Santa, a group of school children bring gifts to the kids of Casa de Copii, snow and lots of it, ice which I'm not a fan of and lots of Christmas caroling in Romanian.

One thing I am most excited about this Christmas is having guests! Two of my friends, Elijah and Shawn, are missionaries in Ukraine and they are coming down to spend Christmas with me! Also another "friend", Jenn, who I've actually never met before but feel like I already know (she is a friend of a friend) may come down for Christmas or after it I'm not sure yet. She is in the Peace Corps here in Romania. It's very exciting! So the thing that I'm most concerned with is what to feed these people. See- call me lazy but if I have to walk to the store in the snow just to buy food that I then have to prepare and cook... well I'll just drink more water and eat a piece of fruit! I know that two men do not have the same idea (nor do I expect them to) so I'm going to have to actually cook. Really I don't mind when it's for more than just me... I'm just concerned with my culinary skills! I'll let ya'll know how that works out!

Slight change in subject: So Pinti is the 20 year old orphan who helps take care of the little ones. He is studying to become a carpenter and he speaks really great English! We converse often. He is also an artist... and a good one at that. Pinti has not stepped foot in a church since his dad left him. That was 10 years ago! We've talked about church and God on a surface level before and I've encouraged him to come but he is always kindly opposed to coming for no particular reason (at least not one that he has disclosed to me). I've also been weary about pushing the subject too much and getting too personal because he is 20 and a guy and I feel like it's more of a guy's place to befriend him on such a level... which brings me back to the previous paragraph! (See why it's a slight change in subject). So I am hoping Elijah and Shawn can befriend him as well! See it just so happens that Pinti is staying at the orphanage (the other kids are going to be with relatives or families in the church) for Christmas AND Elijah and Shawn staying there are too! Please pray for Pinti's heart so be soft and ready for seeds of truth to be planted.

I'm excited about Christmas, but I also know that it could be difficult seeing as it's my first Christmas away from home. Please pray for me and my family during the next couple of days! It is so neat to see how God has orchestrated these people to enter my life and become my friends. I'm not going to be alone on Christmas... I will have English speaking people to laugh with... and fellow Christians to share the joy of Jesus' birth with!

Much love-

A Few Pictures!

Ok- so sorry I didn't think to do this earlier but for all of you who don't have facebook or who aren't my friend on facebook (and you should be by the way!) here are my facebook photo albums so you can see ALL of my pictures from my time here in Romania.

This 1st album is full of pictures from September and October in Romania:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108377&id=75303007&l=385cb06dd4

This 2nd album contains my pictures from Poland:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2113181&id=75303007&l=71bc2ee00c

This 3rd album is full of more pictures of Romania from mid October through the end of November and a few pictures in December:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109896&id=75303007&l=618ac7a050

AND lastly the 4th album is the most recent and is full of pictures from December:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2115003&id=75303007&l=2da125be41

So that is a lot of pictures... but I hope you enjoy them! Sorry I didn't think of it sooner! :)

-Much Love

Thank You!

I'd first like to thank all of you 1.) for reading my blog 2.) praying for all of these things I've been writing about and 3.) for the support you've given to me whether it was a sweet message, money or a care package for the children here. THANK YOU... it's not really more than those two words, I truely am appreciative for you and how you've contributed to my life.

Yesterday I went to Deva to pick up a package! It's a long drive but it's always exciting to get mail! I was expecting this package because I had gotten an email about it.

In Lake City, Florida there is a church called Parkview Baptist (it's actually where my parents got married!) and in this church is a sunday school class with a bunch of girls who are apparently praying for me and the kids here. It's an awesome feeling to know my sisters in Christ who I've never met care enough to not only pray for me but to send a wonderful package half way across the world! The package was filled with paper, pens, markers, tissue paper, glue sticks... pretty much everything you could ever want for making crafts with kids! They also included a sweet scrapbook filled with encouraging notes from them with thier pictures which I will share with the children tomorrow!

The Lord is gracious and I feel completely blessed to be here. Thank you for your continued support and love.

Much love-

Today I Fell In Love!

This morning I woke up and went to Petrosani. I expected to get to Colonie (a poorer neighborhood) walk to the Center and then listen in on the English club and get a feel for how things are done. Instead I arrived and was informed the teacher was sick and that I was suppose to run things... ok? Well at least I was told in English!

I had no lessons prepared... I had no knowledge of what these kids had been taught. I stood up in front of them and greeted them and the next hour flew by! I loved it... I fell in love with it. We played "I spy" with colors in English, we learned the alphabet, we counted to 10, we spelled our names, played games and learned animal names and then time was up! The kids were precious. The youngest was around 5 years old and I'm guessing the oldest was around 11? As they left they said goodbye to me in English which was sweet. One boy said, "Goodbye teacher" which made me smile. I can't wait till next Saturday... this time I will come prepared!!

This is Colonie- it's a poorer neighborhood in Petrosani. The center where the club is held is in this neighborhood. The center is not technically a Christian center but they do offer Bible classes and it is led by some Christians. I am so excited to be able to help them!

I left Petrosani and headed back to Lupeni. My friend Dea had planned for her choir from Timisoara to come down and spend the weekend here in Lupeni and to sing a concert for the Baptist church here. I was excited to get to meet her friends and be able to talk with them considering they are University students and most of them know English. I arrived in Lupeni ate lunch, met her friends and headed up the mountain.

We took the ski lift and I had no idea how far up the mountain we were actually going!!! Let's just say it was a LONG way. Well we explored the top of the mountain... found a neat church that had a tunnel leading up to it. In the tunnel the choir stopped and sang a few songs which was nice. The funny thing is- is as soon as we walked in the tunnel I thought "oh wow, these are great acoustics I'd love to sing in here". We couldn't see much which was a bummer because the fog was so intense.

So this is when the story gets interesting. The ski lift stops at 3:30. I thought, "oh no problem"... problem. Everyone else decided to walk down the mountain. Who said walking downhill is easier than walking uphill? So walking uphill maybe harder on the lungs... but walking downhill requires every (and I mean EVERY) muscle from the waist down to be used. Not only that but the rocks were shifty and the mud was slippery. Let's just say it took me an 1hour and 45 minutes to get down that darn mountain. It was actually an enjoyable hike... I just wish I had been dressed for one. At least I've exercised enough for the entire month of December!

Oh one more thing... here are a few pictures of the kids from this week! I know some of you may not have a facebook so I want to make sure you can see some pictures too!

I painted Tina's nails!

Alaina's new hair cut! It's super cute on her!Delia's nails! She picked Orange.... :)Mario knows he is cute! I mean you can't disagree though! David made a guitar out of Legos! He gave me and a baby doll a concert!