March Musings!

I jumped into the Mission Possible Team when I returned to Romania on March 5th, so I hit the ground running!  It was fun to see all of my kids again and catch up on what I missed.  The weather has turned to spring here in Romania and so it has been fun to be outside with the kids more, which always helps with attitudes!

                                                 Our Daniel and the Lion's Den Craft!

Fernando is my Birthday Buddy.  We have a birthday on the same day and every year take a picture
                                              and celebrate together.  He turned 11 this year!

At one of the orphanages we enjoyed the nice weather by playing a human-sized Sorry game with the
                                                             youth group.  Tons of fun!

                                                                    The cheering section!

 Today the Peris boys participated in a local communities soccer tournament.  Some of the staff went to cheer them on.  I definitely felt like a soccer mom, cheering and providing snacks for our                                                            kids. Other then the cold wind, it was a fun day!

                                                       They took 3rd place! We are proud!

Time in Kansas

This year I decided to push back my furlough time in the US a few weeks so that I could be in Kansas for my birthday.  I turned 40 this year, and I haven't celebrated my birthday in Kansas with my family since I moved to Romania 15 years ago.  So, this year I went I was in Kansas from Feb. 1st through March 4th.
The first weekend of February, my family had our family Christmas at noon, followed by a superbowl party. 

Other highlights of the month were lots of shopping, coffee, eating out, and girls weekend out with college friends. My mother had surgery on her rotator cuff at the beginning of February, so helping out with things at home and my Mom's recuperation was a big part of my time.  I was glad to have been there for that and glad to be able to help out. 
Another huge part of the month was dealing with bad weather.  It snowed almost the whole month!  There was a birthday open house planned for me on March 2nd, and it was postponed until the next day because of bad weather.    It was cutting it close, since I flew out on the 4th, but for there was a nice turnout and I was very blessed but so many people in so many special ways! 

The Holiday Team!

The Holiday Team is always a special team because they come during a special time of the year, the kids are on vacation so there is more down time to play, and there is usually a fair number of returning team members that come mixed in with a few newbies. This makes it feel like it is family coming home to spend Christmas with us!  This year was no exception.  It was a good team and also very big, with 24 team members in total.  Their comings and goings varied so there were many, many trips to the airport.  I told my staff that if at any point during the team they couldn't fine me, I was probably at the airport!  The team helped us hand out presents and pour out lots of love and attention to many of the kids we work with.  We also were able to had out gifts to 2 orphanages that we don't work in full time, but do special projects with when possible.  One of them, is an orphanage with kids with severe special needs, and though an emotionally challenging place, everyone leaves feeling that they were blessed as well. 

 At the airport welcoming team members.

 Training time!  The first morning orientation and planning.

 Handing out gifts is always a lot of fun.  I don't know who is more excited to look through the bags the kids or the team members, but doing it together makes it more fun!

 Craft Time!

 Game Time!

 Our annul New Year's Party was another success.  Jenny and I are ready for 2014!

Another way we try to share Christ's love is also to bless the directors and workers from the State that work at the orphanages that we work in.  This year we baked goody trays to take in and Starbucks donated free coffee for us to take in as well.  The team also had some special treats for the orphanage staff like chocolates and aprons for the cooks.  We hope that they felt the love of Christ through us as well.  We believe if we can love the staff they will be more willing to love the kids. 

Thank you Holiday Team of 2013-2014!  Thanks for all of your time, sacrifice, gifts, hugs, bruises (from soccer!), ministry materials, and every way that you showed the love of Christ to our kids, to the H2H staff and to each other.  Thanks as well to each of you that prayed for this team and financially gave to make this Christmas extra special!

The Boys

I had the priviledge to host the five boys that are currently in the Boys Transition Program here at the team house during the first week of Christmas vacation. This is an occasion that is always full of those moments where I'm reminded how much "normal" life our kids miss out on growing up in the orphanage. 
When they arrived we had the tree up and presents under the tree, and I expected them to be curious and go check out who the presents were for.  They didn't.  Even when prompted, there wasn't much of an interest.  I was reminded that if you've never had a present under the tree before, you wouldn't know what to be excited for.  To be the one of the ones that got to shop, pick out gifts, wrap presents, fill stockings, all to provide a family Christmas for these boys was my Christmas present this year.  By Christmas morning the excitement had heightened, but we did have to explain what they were supposed to do with a stocking.  It was a very fun day!

 In a special addition to the day, we were joined by Grant and Riley from Nevada.  Grant was able to obtain a large donation from Patagonia of clothing and some backpacks for H2H.  This donation was put on our shipping container and Grant and Riley were with us Christmas morning to see the boys unwrap some of those items.  Do you want to guess how many backpacks were in this donation that was made months before we started this generation of boys?  Exactly 5--the number of boys in the program.  I'm so glad that God has all of the details in His large, capable, hands!

We tried to do something special each day of the vacation with the boys.  One day we went to look at the Christmas lights in the city.

We also went Christmas caroling.  My favorite part of the evening was seeing Florin, the young man that I would have pegged as the least likely to get into caroling, singing with all of his heart and a huge smile on his face.

 They also got to go ice skating, to a movie, participated with the church Christmas program, played soccer with the kids at Peris and visited the baby hospital.  The hospital was another surprise for me. The boys insisted that they got to go and visit the babies, and they were amazing with them!  Not only did it show us a soft side of all of the guys, but it led to an amazing discussion of why parents abandon their children and the importance of forgiveness. 

When the team arrived, we moved the boys out of the team house to the Snagov house.  They slept there, but participated in the daily events of the team.  They went daily to the orphanages and helped hand out Christmas presents.  It was a great experience for them to see other orphanages and to see that there are so many children with needs and problems out there.  It was so fun to watch them connect and pass on love! 

On their last evening with the team, we put them on the hot seat and let them share highlights of their experiences.  All of them expressed gratitude for the time.  Florin said it helped increase his faith.  Vasile said that he understood now what it meant to have a family Christmas. 

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!