Tis the Season!

December is a busy time for everyone and H2H is no exception.  We had a very fun and full month with some staff in the US on furlough, doing special Christmas activities with the kids, packing Christmas gifts, and getting the house ready for Christmas Day and the Holiday Team that quickly followed.  It was a great time, full of many precious moments, and building memories that will last.  I was also reminded, once again, that I have an amazing staff that I'm honored to work with!

Talitha, Corni, and Mariana helping to pack up Christmas gifts.  We packed and delivered around 800 presents during the month!

 The Team House went through its Christmas transformation which included putting up the tree.  I has some great little elves that helped out.

A shipping container full of ministry materials was shipped from California and we were anxiously awaiting its arrival since it had a good portion of the Christmas presents we needed for this year.  It arrived with perfect timing and the boys that are in the Boys Transition Program helped unload and sort it.

We also had another grandchild's birthday.  David turned 2!  What a privilege to be apart of these milestone moments. 

Other Noteworthy Things in November

I continue to teach in 2 of the orphanages that we work in.  We usually tell stories and do projects with the kids.  November focused on Thanksgiving, and was a lot of fun!

November is also Emi's Birthday month.  He turned 3 and we celebrated by having a fun day out with a movie, McDonald's lunch, cake, presents, and time to play.  It was a special day that we all enjoyed!

H2H hosted a teacher's in-service in November.  Haley did a great job of talking to the teachers from one of our special needs orphanages about how to work with special needs children. The teachers that came were very positive and it is our hope that they left the day feeling supported and encouraged. 

What a GREAT month!  I am so thankful for the ministry that I'm so fortunate to be involved with and all of you that partner with me!

A Season of Thanks

For those of you that know me well, you know that I love Thanksgiving.  I love the reason for the Holiday-to stop and reflect on the blessings in your life that you need to be thankful for.  I decided when I moved to Romania that I wasn't going to give up celebrating this holiday.  So, 15 Thanksgivings later, the Ziua Recunostinta feast has become a H2H tradition.  We have a family feast together and stop and reflect on all of God's blessings in our lives.  With 60-80 people in attendance, you can imagine that its a lot of food---but oh so much fun!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from this year's celebration.

 One of my favorite blessings in my life here-my sweetheart Ruthie!

 Part of the family!

 6 turkeys this year--our normal store didn't have them so we had to go on a turkey hunt--but found some though slightly smaller then normal. 

This year we decided to focus our graduates on giving back.  Sometimes we think that we have to make a certain amount of money before we help others, or accomplish certain life milestones, but we want our kids to be reminded through thinking of others, how blessed they are.  So at our Thanksgiving feast we had a giving tree.  This tree had leaves on it that had needs for 2 poor families that are outside of the H2H family, written on them.  Our graduates were asked to take 1 leaf, or more, and bring the item, or items, to our Christmas gathering.  We will make up baskets for these two families and give them away, instead of giving gifts to each other.  Our kids LOVED the idea and the leaves flew off the tree!  Their response to this project was a very proud Mom moment for me!