Ukrainian Christmas

We have continued to host Ukrainian refugees at our home in Snagov. We have, at the moment, 15 people that are there from 3 families. January 7 is the day that Ukrainians celebrate Christmas, and we wanted to make their Holiday away from home to be a time of celebration. Thanks to the Buhler MB Church's New Year's cookies fundraiser, we were able to buy gifts for each person in the house. We also had a nice meal, full of many Ukrainian traditional foods, including verinika (a Mennonite dish I grew up with!) A very special day!

Back to Romania!

The day after Christmas, my brother braved icy roads and delivered me to the airport. I returned to Romania and hit the ground running! My previous housemate and coworker, Jenny, was able to come to Romania for a visit. She arrived a few days before Christmas ahd hosted the H2H family Christmas Day celebrations in my absence. She stayed in Romania until January 5th so it was fun and good to see her and spend time with her.

There were still some locations which had not received Christmas gifts and we did some gift delivery, which is always fun!

We had a very nice New Year's Party!

Jenny will have her 50th birthday in February and we wanted to celebrate with her while she was here. I'd worked for several months to get 50 cards for her for kids and people involved with H2H. Thanks to many of you for sending greetings. It was a special gift and a very fun "surprise" party!

Kansas 2022

This was my year to be in Kansas over the Holidays. With a lot of staff turnover in the past few years, I wasn't sure that I'd be able be away from Romania during that very busy time. But, I worked really hard to have things for gift giving in place before I left, left a very capable staff a long to do list, and graciously accepted Jenny’s offer to come and spend two weeks in RO and host Christmas Day festivities at the team house. I arrived in Kansas a couple days before Thanksgiving and departed Dec. 26. I was able to celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family! Thanksgiving Day. the grandkids help Grandpa put up his Nativity Scene as well. My Dad's side of the family had a gathering with a small part that was in the area visiting and I saw a few of my cousins that I haven't seen in many years.

Through a gracious gift I went with my friend Van to a Michael W Smith/Amy Grant Christmas concert. I don't think I've been to a concert since moving to Romania. It was a fun evening!

I saw many friends and supporters, ate way too much, but had good times of catching up and fellowship with many.

Family Christmas!

I also got the unexpected surprise of being able to go to a Chiefs game with my brother and nephew. It was COLD, but a fun, memorable day, with a Chiefs win!

All in all it was a good time in Kansas, and a needed break from the day to day in Romania. I had a lot of personal buisness that had to be dealt with this year. So lots of meetings with accountants, lawyers, etc. I had some doctors and dentist visits as well, so I felt like a large part of my month was spent in meetings! It was a very productive time! I also have a good friend dealing with some major health issues and spent a lot of time with her, helping out and trying to encourage her. The time flew by and before I knew it I was on a plane back to Romania!

November Festivities!

The month of November was very, very busy for me. I hosted the annual H2H Thanksgiving Feast. We had a great turnout and, as always, it was one of my favorite days of the year. I love Thanksgiving! It is a holiday to spend time together, reflecting on our blessings. We have a tradition of having a share time after our big meal to reflect as the H2H family on where we've seen God in the last year. One thing that I really appreciated this year was the vulnerability and realness that was shared. Some of our graduates went through some tough life events in 2022, but could still share where they saw God work and show up for them. This is the type of faith and example we want to foster in our kids and graduates! We also celebrated Emi's Twelvth birthday! I also had a great team of staff and graduates help me with cooking, cleaning, and clean up. I'm very thankful for my faithful helpers!

A week later, we had another H2H tradition- the Deck Out the Team House for Christmas Decorating Sleepover! I've often invited over some of the graduates to help me decorate the house, because it is a lot of work. Over the years it became a times in which we’d decorate and then watch a Christmas movie and play board games. This year, I was informed, that this event is a H2H tradition and must happen before I left for the US on furlough. So, of course, I had to oblige! It was a whirlwind weekend, but we got it decorated, enjoyed time together, and somehow I even got packed to leave for Kansas!