VBS

We had a wonderful week of VBS! We are so thankful for all the church volunteers and the team from America who helped make it a success. We decided this year to go big and have a carnival on Friday since we knew we would have 8 Americans here to help out. On Thursday we had 62 children at VBS and that is quite a high number for us. It feels a little overwhelming with that many kids.


We were praying that God would send just the right amount on Friday for the carnival so it could be a success without becoming a disaster because of too many kids. We had right at 60 kids and we had 10 stations so we broke the kids up into groups of 6.


We had clowns from Timisoara. We had face painting, balloon animals, games, snacks, and lots of prizes. I thought the children did rather well at turning in their tickets for prizes. I was a little worried there would be a lot of yelling and complaining about "hey , he got something I didn't, that's not fair" but there was very little of that.


Our team of 8 Americans must take credit for the success of the carnival. Baron and I would have never attempted something like that on our own. The director and regional director of Biblical Ministries Worldwide, Paul and his wife Joan, and Dale and his wife Avril were with us for a few days. They jumped in and helped us with the carnival. The other team members were Joshua Louk, he and his wife are making plans to move over here next summer and be part of our team. He brought with him 3 others, Brittney, Hailey, and Paul Michael. We are so thankful they came and helped us with VBS.


There were many new kids this year and many moms came and stayed during the week. We pray that the Word that was preached even to these young hearts will not return void.
We look forward to seeing what team God puts together to work in our community through Berea Baptist Church.



During the team's visit, Baron has taken them to a day center for street kids, the children's hospital, the day center for gypsy kids, an after school center in Timisoara to help with school work, a crisis pregnancy center in Timisoara, and another large childrens ministry about 4 hours from us. We would appreciate your prayers as God directs us and gives wisdom to what ministries he has for us in the future.

Blog

So, why have a blog if you aren't going to post on it? Well, I haven't been posting as often because there just isn't much to say. I am not a creative writer that can just make up something to write about. The purpose of my blog is to write about what is going on in my family here in Romania. The big news is we have a new trampoline...yes see how boring, not even worth writing about! We are having VBS this week every evening. Last night was our first night and we had 42 kids. Lots of moms came with them. I thought it went really well. We were strict with the age limit of 12 and it went very smooth without any 13 and 14 year olds there. We anticipate maybe 15 more tonight. They earn tickets for the prize box on Friday for bringing visitors so we'll see if that motivates them!
We start school next week, at least that is the plan. I may be blogging even less then!
Please continue to pray for the ministry over here. Pray especially for wisdom for Baron and pray that God will help us to be patient and loving yet confront when necessary. Pray that God will lead a Romanian family to our church who desires to serve God full time.
We should find out the first of September the next step in the adoption. We are happy at this point to have them in our home all the time. The adjustment period is interesting but mostly smooth with only a few bumps along the way so far. Pray for all our kids to see Jesus in Baron and I and that they will desire a personal relationship with Him.

Good Bye Children's Home...Hello Family!

We received the phone call this week...the papers are finished, the final proclamation is done...come Friday to get the papers and for a good bye part at Casa Alba. I wondered after being in our home for 2 1/2 months how the twins would do going back there. CA has been their home for their whole lives...they have been waiting for a whole year to move in with their family. They have been loved and well cared for but they have never known what it was like to have a family. I wondered if they would jump back into feeling "at home" at CA and if they would run wild and cling to others or stay close to us. We discussed with them ahead of time how they were to act but still you wonder what will happen. I am pleased to say they did very well. Gina in times past when back at CA after a visit with us would run up to the workers and hang with them but today she would give out a hug then come back and sit in her daddy's lap content. Joey would run around a bit but come back to us...he didn't fight or show aggression with his old buddies. The twins had told us they wanted to say good bye to Cera and Alex, I think they were the four youngest and spent a lot of time together. Alex and the twins were with each other from babyhood. It was an emotional day. I was so touched to see kids having pictures made with their new families...it really brought tears to my eyes seeing kids receive a family...all children deserve a family to love and nuture them.
Over all it was a very happy day for us. We have their birth certificates and medical records and they are ours. Hopefully in three months we can open the adoption file for them.

Adoption

Adoption is a long and bumpy road and you never know what is going to happen. It took over a year to just get the twins into our custody. We are waiting to find out when to go up for their good bye part at their former children's home and to receive all their files and paperwork we need.



Our social worker came today with the psychologist for a visit. Our "atestare" for adoption ran out in April so they had to re do some of the papers and make a couple more visits. I think they were impressed with the twins. So, I asked them could they give me a round about figure of how long now it would take. It depends on the judge here in our county. This county goes with the new law and does placement then adoption...like foster to adopt. The county the twins came from said we had to apply for "tutela" or custody/guardianship is the best word. So, if the judge here accepts our guardianship and lets us declare them adoptable and adopt them we can start the process in 3 months. We have to wait until we have had them in our custody for 3 months plus had all their papers. If that happens we should start the 3 month count down in a few weeks. If the judge doesn't accept that then we would have to apply to be their foster parents and then wait another 3 months and then start the adoption process...either way the social worker told us the court houses are busy but she thinks we could be done with it all in under a year.

It will be interesting to see how the kids react when they go back to Casa Alba for a party. Continue to pray for their transition into our family. They are precious children and we are privileged to be chosen as their parents.

Adjustments

I have been telling myself it is time to write an entry on my blog for sometime now and just couldn't bring myself to do so. When I get back from a trip to America I am always a little depressed and it takes a couple of weeks to work my way out of that and get back to normal. I am almost back to normal. I meditate on God's Word, specifically: "you will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Isaiah 26:3-4.
I am thankful I could be at my Grandma's 90th birthday. She still lives on her own and drives. Her name is Marvelous Marv.


The twins have been with us for about 6 weeks now. The longest they had ever stayed with us was 2 weeks. The 2 week visits usually went well and we didn't have any major issues. I anticipated these visits were kind of like the honeymoon period. Once they moved in and stayed with us long term I was sure the rules would become an issue and they have, but only for one of them really. I thought for sure that Joey would be the difficult one because he is aggressive. But he longs to please and is quick to receive correction. He is speaking short phrases in English and asks me everything in English. I really didn't think he would be the one speaking so much English this early on! He still gets angry and lashes out in the heat of the moment but is always sorry and receives correction. Gina on the other hand still wants to rule the roost. She does not comply with the rules very often and pouts and stomps her feet when told to do something. We remind them of certain rules everyday so they realize they are the same today as they were yesterday. Every day you can be sure if no one is in the room Gina will touch or do whatever it is she isn't supposed to, she hasn't learned yet that moms have eyes in the back of their heads and see and know all :). Hopefully she will learn that soon so her life will be much easier. She craves attention and will act like a baby if she thinks it will bring her the attention she wants. She is a tough little princess but we love her and hope and pray we can guide her strong will to be a strong will for the things of God! She is actually speaking very little English and seems to be struggling a bit more then Joey with this time of transition.

We hope to receive all the final papers soon for custody so we can proceed to have them declared adoptable. We will go in the next few weeks for a final trip to Casa Alba for a goodbye party and to get what paper work we need.

America

I am finally in America! It's good to be here. As we were leaving for the airport yesterday it hadn't dawned on me that me leaving might be difficult on anyone other then Baron. Well, all the way to the airport Georgie was very loud about the fact that mommy should not be going to get Zach, daddy needs to go and mommy needs to stay. I didn't realize how much this change of primary care givers would throw him off. He kept clinging to me, I told him I would bring them back surprises and I would be back in a week. Gina on the other hand was very excited, with mom gone she thought she would be ruling the roost...Baron had to quickly put her in her proper place of little daughter instead of little mother :). I have already purchased several little dresses for Gina (I told her I would bring her back 2 dresses but the OshKosh outlet was having such great sales I got a few more...she'll be thriled). I have to figure out how to get all my stuff back...I have lots of heavy school books to bring back.