Paris

 Sometime last year while in the states, I decided I was going to Paris for my 40th birthday (yes, I know the previous post says I got a rose garden for my birthday but I also got a trip to Paris) and I decided that Rebekah would come with me.

First stop, was of course the Eiffel Tower!

We arrived Monday (the day before my birthday) and stayed until Friday! We walked, and ate, and talked, we also did a little shopping. Found some yarn stores and bought some French yarn...funny thing, half the yarn in the store was made in Romania...I wanted something made in France though!!  We had a wonderful time. I really liked Paris and would go again some time.

Fierce, Fabulous, and Forty...so they say!

I will admit, I was facing 40 with a bit of fear and trepidation! After Christmas I started thinking about the fact that I was turning 40...it sounds so old and ancient. I started thinking about it a lot. I tried to tell myself with age comes wisdom. I tried to tell myself I was just one step closer to heaven. I still did not look forward to turning 40. Ever since we moved to Romania almost 12 years ago, I had this little area of our yard picked out for a rose garden. I never had a fence to block it off so I didn't do any work in it because the kids and dogs just mess things up. There were two rose bushes planted in the shade when we moved here. I knew one was a climbing bush. Last fall we finally gave it something to climb up and look at it this spring...

Then, Baron started realizing he needed to get my mind off of turning 40. He got me a picket fence for my garden, with a gate (I'd always wanted one of those), then when the spring weather finally turned warm we were able to paint it white. He had me a pergola made and fixed me a little brick patio to go under it. He bought mulch and I started planting rose bushes. If it took me turning 40 to finally get my rose garden then I'd say turning 40 wasn't so bad. I water my flowers morning and evening. I can sit and enjoy hearing the kids play (and fight) as they play badminton or basketball or jump on the trampoline.

I think of all the young lives that have been lost and think of how grateful I am to have lived for 40 years. To see my children play and fight and grow. To grow closer to my Savior, my Redeemer, my Friend and think of how very blessed I am to be called a child of God. To have 17 years with a man who pampers me still and treats me with love and respect even on my bad days. God's been good to me and I cannot complain. I will say this, the older I get, the faster time seems to go. When you are the mother of babies and toddlers you feel as if that is life and there will be no life after that. Then you wake up one day longing to hold your 14 year old in your arms just one more time and remember that sweet baby smell. The older you get you realize you need to take time each day to enjoy that day, that moment because it will be gone in the blink of an eye. Today I choose a heart of thankfulness. Instead of looking at the negative things, I will like at the blessings God has showered on me and praise him. As long as I have breath I will praise the Lord and I'm so thankful I have my little garden to praise him in.

The Best of 2012

I  would like to sum up the best things about this year, so here is my best of list:

Best verse:  "For I am convinced that neither death nor life (not cancer, a car accident, crime, or calamity), neither angels nor demons (not evil in the media or crazed psychopaths), neither the present nor the future (not any ...current crisis or any tragedy that may be in my future), nor any powers (not a demanding boss, a cruel dictator, or a bloodthirsty terrorist), neither height nor depth (not winning the lottery or losing my life savings), nor anything else in all creation (not a hole in the ozone, a forest fire or a hurricane, a hungry shark or a killer bee) will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

Best memory: I have two, Branson with all of the Howerton family in March and Disney World in May with my parents.

Best Book: Again I have 2 One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and Book of Hope by Nancy Guthrie

Best new thing: learning to knit, thanks to my grandmother a.k.a. Marvelous Marv, and my friend Rebekah.

Best new thing that came to Romania: Subway (hey, it's the little things)

Best New Recipe: The recipe for rolls from http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/11/pw_dinner_rolls_-_no_kneading_required/

Best blog: www.aholyexperience.com always encouraging me to move forward in my relationship with God

Best new recipe I look forward to trying in 2013: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/01/italian-meatball-soup/

Blog I look forward to checking out in 2013: http://www.incourage.me/

Best kind of music: Folk/Bluegrass style (what can I say, I am a country girl at heart)

Best thing that smelled good: Holiday candles I received from my sister from Bath and Body Works...I'm still burning them!

Best thing over the holidays: taking a night time walk to see the Christmas lights in a foot of snow with the family. For Christmas it was overcast and almost 50 degrees and we had piles of dirty snow left!

Best/favorite past time: Lauging and playing games with Catalin and Nadia.

Winter Weather

We received about a foot of snow Saturday and Sunday.

 

Nate was a shepherd in his Christmas progrom Wednesday night.

Our town, Lugoj. They don't have a really efficient road cleaning crew.

Brotherly Love

Twins enjoying the snow.

Snow Ball Fight!

As you can see we have a lot of snow. We had so much we couldn't shovel our vans out to get to church Sunday morning and had to cancel church. There was no place at church to park the vans either. Only a small passage cleared for cars to drive on but you would have to park right in the middle of the road. On Monday we couldn't get either vehicle to start. One needed a new battery and the other the gas had frozen in it. We went to Timisoara Tuesday which is only 25 miles away but it took almost 2 hours to get there. We thought for sure the main roads would have been cleared but we were wrong. Nate is enjoying school so much. His teacher is very nice and he has made friends with his classmates.  Another year has come and almost gone so fast. The older I get, the faster time seems to go!

Funny Things

So I guess the one thing people always ask me is what is life like in Romania. It seems kind of normal to me now so sometimes I have a hard time answering this question but this week a few funny things happened that I thought you would find different and interesting.
In America, a husband can go into a flower shop and buy any amount of flowers he wants for his wife without anyone questioning him but not in Romania. In Romania, you buy an even amount of flowers if someone has died and an odd number for happy occasions. Baron went to buy me 6 roses last week and the lady could tell by looking at him it wasn't for a funeral and she said are you sure you don't want 5 or 7. Baron explained that he was American and 6 roses wasn't bad luck and it was okay for him to give me 6 roses. She regretfully fulfilled his order although she would have much rather have had him buy one less!
I am not sure what happens in a city in America if there are too many crows flying around but in Romania when there are too many, you get out your shot guns and kill them. Yes, I don't know how the recruit the men for the job but if you go to the park this week you could very well  find several armed men shooting down birds hence, it is not a good week to take the kids to the park!
Another thing I thought was really interesting was at our first of the year school meeting for Nate.  At the meeting we would be told a "rule" then after the rule was stated, the teacher or PE teacher would say, "but you do whatever you think is best." For example. The PE instructor explained the girls shouldn't wear jewelry for PE, that earrings are a risk for being ripped out but then after he explained all that he said, "but if your little girl wants to wear jewlery and you are ok with that, you do whatever you think is best."  I guess the old saying of "rules are meant to be broken" really is true!
I am very excited that Nate seems to be really enjoying school. All the kids in the class are excited to have an American who can teach them English and so they are all very kind to him. He comes home very day excited to do his tema (homework), hopefully that will last all through his school years!

End of the Summer...

Even though it doesn't feel like it...it's 100 degrees today...summer is ending. I know that soon we will be starting fires to keep the house warm and soon we will be counting down the days until Christmas. I actually love  every season. I love when the crisp coolness of fall chases away the heat of summer and I love the first snowfall of winter especially if it is in time for Christmas. I am learning to enjoy each season of life. It is not an easy lesson to learn, some seasons of life aren't fun but God brings all the seasons of life for our good so I want to learn to enjoy his gifts even the ones that seem difficult.
We looked forward for so many years to having coworkers. I believe we met them actually 5 years ago and begin to count down the days when we would have helpers along side us. For some reason though, God has other plans. We can't always understand his ways but then again I wouldn't expect my little mind to be able to wrap around all that God does in the universe and so I am not angry at God for changing our plans, a little sad, yes. Due to health issues the Louks are unable to stay in Romania. They leave tomorrow morning very early. They have been packing and cleaning their apartment. We are learning that God wants us to completely depend on him. We are learning that our plans are not always God's plans. We are learning that God is good and always has our best interest and His glory in mind. So, how can we complain when this is for His glory? We complain because we get our minds off His glory and onto ourselves and our own wants. We do know two things that the Louks coming was for, they were a great fill in for our time away in the states. If they hadn't come we wouldn't have been able to go away on a furlough. They also introduced us to a great mission board, Biblical Ministries Worldwide. We took part in BMW's conference in Germany recently and were so refreshed and blessed by the preaching, discussion groups, and fellowship with other missionaries all over Europe. Our children met and played with other missionary kids, something that doesn't happen very often. It was such a relaxed setting and we would have never gone to this if the Louks hadn't come to Romania. We don't know what God has for our future or who he has but we know that he has called us to be in Romania and reach out to orphans. We will proceed and ask that you pray for us. We are still waiting for the director of the orphanage to send us the contract to sign to volunteer, then she has to send it on to Timisoara to be signed but we are hopeful that this will open the door for further outreach to abandoned kids. Pray for the situation with children in Romania. The orphanages are in much better condition then they used to be but there are just as many children being raised by the government today as there were 22 years ago under communism. It is a vicious cycle that has no easy answers. Pray that God would raise up Christian Romanians to foster and/or adopt. That He would raise up government officials who would be concerned about the future of Romania and concerned about these children who grow up with many difficulties. Pray for our church, that God would burden their hearts for the abandoned children of Romania and that we would be willing to give up our time to love these children and show them the Father loves them. We look forward with hope because our hope is in God and not in governments or people.

The New Room

Beginning of Construction

After: Green Walls, Pink accessories

The new light

Before: We had this door removed and moved the wall back.

After: Where the door used to be, now a nice spot was created for her closet.

Before: This is her old bed, we created a little more space in her room by taking out this door to the outside of the house and moving the wall back to be even.

After: the new to us bed from IKEA. We wanted to go to Budapest to get her a new bed at IKEA but we found one in the paper right here in Lugoj!