Baptisms!

Today Two of our transition graduates Alina and Mirela were baptised. These are girls that I've known for a long time so it was such a blessing to be able to be a part of the day and see them make this important step.
It was an honor for me that Mirela asked for me to be beside her while she was baptized. This was a first for me to help baptize someone and I was quite moved to be apart of it!
Alina is the young woman whose wedding I coordinated a little over a year ago and she is the mommy of cute Ruthie. We've walked through many of lives milestones with her and it was amazing to be apart of another!

May Team Highlights

The beginning of the month a few Canadian team members stayed around for a special photography club with a group of kids from one of the orphanages. We went to the park on a beautiful spring day. The kids got to try out their new skills while we got to spend some quality time with them outside of the orphanage.
In our preschool class we did a lesson on telling the truth and Franklin the Turtle helped tell the story.
At our Mommy's and Me class the Scotland Team showed the Mom's how to do infant massage. The babies got to spend some time hanging out as well!

Guests From Home

I was fortunate to have Judi Stewart and her friend Charlotte Love (now a friend of mine as well!) come for a stay. Judi and I taught together when I taught in Kansas and we were at the same church and small group. Judi and Charlotte came and spent 5 weeks helping out here. They did everything from helping with the kids, going to the baby hospital, cleaning, dishes and they even sewed all of the vests for the new band uniforms! We kept them busy! They were a great encouragement to me and my staff and I'm glad they were able to come!

A Day in The Life of Jen (with a team)

I decided that I would give you a glimpse into my day to day life. So I took a picture of what was going on each hour of the day. This day happened to be during the Canadian Team the week before Easter. I spared you the picture of me getting up in the morning and started with breakfast!

9:00--Breakfast is served. We have a great set-up here at the team house to get everyone fed!
10:00 morning devotions. This is in the team house livingroom. This was my day to lead and as you can see it was a bright and shinning morning!

11:00- Grocery shopping. I borrowed Dan from the team to be an extra cart pusher and set off to grocery store. I'd done the big shop for the team before they came, so this was a "light" shop to get the things we'd need through Easter weekend, and the shops are closed.
1:00 Lunch Time!
2:00--Driving. I tend to do a lot of driving, especially while a team is here.
3:00-Arrival at the orphanage. We are always warmly greeted by the kids!
4:00- Concert time. Our band and dance group performed for the team to show what they've been learning through the year.
5:00-Lesson time! I'm giving a little story about why we dye Easter eggs and the significance behind it.
5:00 Continued---Vic and I in front of some of the finished eggs.
6:00-Play Time. Outside on the playground watching the soccer game.
7:00-Back to the team house to finish up dinner and get another meal on the table.
8:00-dinner finished and celebrating Bekah's birthday.

9:00-Off to bed----Just kidding! I think it was more around 12--but it was a great day!

Mommies Day!

While the team was here we had the mommies from our transition graduates and their babies over to the team house for a special day. March 8th is International Women's Day and it is celebrated as the Romanian version of Mother's Day. The Romanian tradition is that after you have a baby you don't leave the house for several months, so for 2 of the moms this was a needed and long awaited day out! The team did a session with the mom's on nutrition for the babies and what foods are good to start feeding at what age. They finished the time by teaching them how to make homemade baby food.

Ruthie is trying out some sweet potatoes!

While the moms were busy, the rest of the team babysat the little ones. Sarah Johnson, one of our team members did a photo shot with the babies. They turned out great!

Ruthie

Rebecca

David

Emanuel

Me with the whole crew!

March Teams

The beginning of March we had a team that came and helped out. As you can see they visited the Boys Transition House, helped at the Baby Hospital, worked in the orphanages, taught a cooking class, and even visited Peles Castle! It was a busy week!

Sarah McCabe, one of our previous staff came for

a visit with her nephew and niece. It is always great to have old family come for a visit!

Our Birthday

This is Fernando. He is a little boy at the newest location that we began full time ministry in the fall. In February, we discovered that we both shared the same birthday, March 3rd. In the weeks preceeding the date, whenever Fernando would see me, he would asked how many days until our birthday. It got down to few enough days that he stopped asking me, but would instead tell me. "6 more days!" So in celebration I took him a big candybar. The rest of the kids wanted one, but I told them it was only for those who shared the exact same birthday as me, because that made it an extra special day. It was fun helping him celebrate and feel special!