An Easter Proposal

Easter was late in Romania this year.  It didn't occur until May 5th.  We once again were able to celebrate the day with the Canadian Team.  Easter is a very important holiday in Romania and we have a large H2H family celebration each year.  One of the traditions is the big egg hunt. Among tons of candy filled eggs, we usually hide a golden egg.  This egg is worth 50 lei (about $15) and is the highly sought after egg. This year we also had a special silver egg that had a special surprise inside. 

Ruthie got into egg hunting this year!

Enjoying the day with some of the family.  Mirela and I.

Marius and Robi

 Alex had asked us to help him come up with a special way in which he could propose to Ioana.  He wanted to do it with the H2H family in attendance, so we decided that Easter was the perfect time.  The silver egg had Ioana's engagement ring inside.  "Somehow" Alex was the one who found the silver egg.  I called him to the front and told him he had to do what the note in the egg said to be able to receive the reward. 

The note inside the egg said that he needed to say something nice about someone that he cared about.  He called Ioana up to the front and recited a speech that he had written about her.  He told her he loved her and then asked for the silver egg.  He opened it and the ring was inside.  It wasn't until that moment that Ioana realized what was happening.  It was a great surprise!  Now we have an August wedding to plan!

Spring Break!

Because of school vacations, April gave us a lot of "free time" with the kids.  They had their spring break and a week of "scoala altfel" (a different kind of school), which gave us plenty of opportunity to do things outside of the orphanage setting.  One of our goals with the kids is to give them opportunity to socially interact like normal kids.  In some of the orphanages that we work with, the kids live, and go to school on the same campus. They have very little interaction with kids and people in the outside world.  So we are always looking for opportunities for them to get to interact and be exposed to things outside of their bubble.  This year, we used this time for classroom reward trips.  We took 2 groups to the movies- a first for most of the kids.

We also had a chance to have pizza and McDonalds in the mall and do a bit of window shopping.  For some of the kids the biggest excitement was the glass elevator and escalators.

 We also had some groups that got to a park and McDonalds.  The fun of play time!

Thanks to everyone who helped sponsor these trips and provide great memories for our kids!

Weekend Away

 A few of the staff, Jenny, Kirsteen, Mariana, and I were able to sneak away for a weekend.  We went to Prague to visit one of our co-workers, Lenuta, who is there finishing her Master's Degree in Special Education.  We happened to be there over Lenuta's birthday so we were able to celebrate with her and visit the sights of one of Europe's most beautiful cities!

March Musings

 

March is always a fun, full month.  It starts with Martisori, which is a Romanian holiday that signifies the beginning of Spring.  You celebrate by giving red and white striped ribbons on trinkets, and flowers.  March is also my birthday.  H2H tradition is that you have to wear the glasses and headband.  This year Jenny made an ice cream cake-yum!  March 8, is mother's day, so the celebration goes on and on!  The first of the March also means the kick off of spring teams with  a team from Mission Possible. 

 

The past few months we had 2 interns also join us.  Megan and Samantha.  Both of them have been with H2H on short-term teams and decided that they needed to come spend a longer period of time, so they joined us for 3 months.  They did a great job of joining our day to day ministry and partnering with our full-time staff.  

 

For the first time we had a team of students and two sponsors from Black Forrest Academy from Germany join us.  Black Forrest is an international school that has children of missionaries and business people.  It is unusual to have a team that is so culturally diverse and understands what it is like living in a different country.  We enjoyed giving them opportunity to jump into a different type of ministry and love on our kids--which of course means being loved back! 

Birthday Buddies

Fernando and I share a birthday!  You may remember him from similar posts from years past.  It has become tradition to celebrate by taking a picture together and me giving him a chocolate bar.  It is a fun way to march how much he changes and grows year to year! 

Love is in the H*air

Since my trip to the US in Dec., when I was asked to speak at Buhler MB about what H2H does in Romania connected to the advent theme of Love, Love has been a continual theme popping up.  It has appeared in sermons, personal devotionals, staff Bible study, and of course, with Valentine's Day being in February, it has appeared in many talks and lessons with the kids.  Love--True Love!  I've been on the mission field for quite awhile, and I thought that I had the idea of loving down--but apparently God thought that I needed a intense reminder.  Everything that I do is meaningless if not done with love.  In the reflection of that mirror, I've come to the conclusion that I have a ways to go on loving selflessly.  And as much as I wish that selfless love just came pouring out of me, I have to remind myself that love is actually a choice.
I've had countless opportunities to make the choice to love or not to love this month, but two that were pretty significant had to do with hair.  Yes, hair!  Do you realize how much time we spend with our hair?  Some more then others, but we wash it, dry it, style it, cut it, color it, put it up.  It is a daily factor in our lives.
At our last transition graduate Bible study, Robi and Alina arrived with Ruthie, our cutie pie 2 year-old grandchild.  She was bundled up, as is typical in the Romanian culture, and as I undressed her from all the layers, I untied her hat, and was shocked to see she had no hair.  They shaved all of her hair off!   I was speechless and felt like bursting into tears.  There is a Romanian wives tale that says that if you shave off a child's hair it will grow in thicker.  Not everyone does it, and since they had done it once when she was very little, I wasn't expecting it again.  Especially when her hair had gotten long enough to be really cute.  But here she sat, looking like a child with cancer or an orphan that had to have her head shaved because of lice.  I hated it!  I would like to say that I reacted with love, but honestly I had to go to my room and take a minute--or 10- to compose myself.  Ruthie and her parents look to me for my reaction and approval on their choices.  To support them as they try to do the best for Ruthie and make their family strong.  I mean it is just hair right--why did it matter so much?  The shock has worn off, and the hair is slowly growing back in, and she is still one of the cutest kids in the world!

 

I also got to take a leap of faith  with my own hair this month.  This year, in our Transition Program, we have 3 young people that are doing an apprenticeship at a hair salon.  This is a really amazing opportunity for them to learn a trade that they really like to do.  Berki,  is one of the 3 in this position. This picture below is of he and I on Valentine's Day.   Berki has done a great job with learning the basics at the salon, but he needs to develop his hair cutting skills.  He has cut men's hair but has resisted cutting women's hair.  So, finally, we convinced Berki that he was ready to cut my hair.  He said that he barely slept the night before, because he was so nervous and excited.  I went to the salon and spent 3 1/2 hours getting the full experience--wash, cut, and style.  But he did a good job and it turned out well!  I saw his excitement and confidence grow.  He also was so excited and proud when so many of you commented and liked the picture that I'd put on facebook. 

  

I guess, the reminder really was, even through little things like hair, you can show people you love.  

Holiday Team

 It is Holiday Team time again!  I arrived back in Romania with this team, so I got to jump back in with both feet!  Our Boys Transition Director took a much deserved, needed, break so the 6 boys came to spend some time at the Team House as well.  So 13 team members, 2 interns, 6 boys, and 3 staff made a fun, filled house. The team thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the boys, and vice versa.   The girls from our program and the boys from the Alternative Transition Program, plus more staff joined us daily--so it was a great time.

The Holiday Team gets to hand out lots of presents! It is always fun seeing the kids open the presents and seeing how God works out that they get something that they really need or want.

 You might recognize some of these gifts, because they all come from donations from you!  Thanks again to all of you that packed presents or donated items or funds so that we can make each of our kids' Christmas special!

 The kids are on their vacation from school during this time as well, so we get to spend a lot of free time together.  The game of choice, for some of the kids, was mancala.  I played many, many games! Cosmin, the boy in this picture, was determined to beat me, and succeeded a few times!

It was fun to see our transition young men and women interact with the kids.  They did a great job helping out, carrying boxes of gifts, and giving attention to the kids.  Teaching to give back is one of the most fun things that we get to do!

 We also visited and handed out gifts, as a special project, a special needs orphanage that is close by.  The young man in the center, I've known for many years, and it is fun, if not a bit terrifying, as he sees us arrive, comes running at full steam and picks me up to give me a hug.  Visiting this orphanage is always a touching, and humbling experience.  I was so proud to see our Transition young men and women interact with these special people.  A very proud Mom moment! 

I always love the Holiday Team!  Thanks for those of you that came to participate!  If you couldn't come this year--start planning to join us next year!