February

Winter normally kind of goes by like a snail but this winter has passed quickly. I am thankful for that, after Christmas can be rather depressing, with no sun and bad weather and the kids cooped up inside all the time. We are thankful for a new and rather big and modern play place at the mall in Timisoara. We have made weekly trips there on Friday and dropped the kids off to play for two hours while we go down stairs to the Auchen and grocery shop. Whoever knew grocery shopping could be considered a nice break!
I found out on Thursday, February 4th that my mom needed a triple bypass. The thought never even entered my head that I would go to the states until Saturday when I talked to my brother. I got off the phone with him and told Baron that my brother was thinking he might try to go be an encouragement to mom. So, Baron being the wonderful husband that he is told me to check on ticket prices. So, Saturday evening the 6th about an hour later I had booked a ticket to the states. I was to leave on Wednesday the 10th. My head was kind of swirling! Wednesday came and we got to the Timisoara airport only to find out my flight to Munich had been canceled due to bad weather in Munich. They booked me on a flight the next day but my connection was so tight I was sure I wouldn't make it so we went back and asked if they thought any other flights to Munich would go out on Wed. They told us there was one more schedule flight to Munich and that if it did there was plenty of room on it so we hung out in Timisoara and went back to the airport a few hours later and I caught a flight out and stayed with a friend there. She had noticed on FB that I was going to be flying through Munich and sent me a message telling me she lived only about 10 minutes from the aiport and to call her if I got stuck there. There was a lot of snow there and it continued to snow all night and into Thursday. I arrived and stood in the ticket line for about two hours. I kept looking at the flight board and over half the flights were saying cancelled or delayed. I was one of the lucky few that day that got out of Munich. We got on the plane and sat there for 3 hours waiting for the machine to come de-ice us. The piolet told us we were one of the last flights out that day before the airport shut down. After 12 hours on the plane I finally arrived in Charlotte Thursday evening. that evening mom did her preop stuff and took her pills, I went to bed at 7 pm and around 9 p.m. I heard a commotion...mom's surgeon had called and had to cancel her surgery due to an emergency. He would do it Monday morning instead of Friday. That was tough news for my mom, the waiting was the worse part. I did enjoy having the weekend to spend with my family.
Another blessing was, Baron sent me an email telling me that one of our supporting churches was paying for my trip to America! God continues to shower down his blessings on us!
We woke up at 4 a.m. Monday morning which wasn't hard for me b/c I was still jetlagged. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 A.M. and they finally took her to surgery around 9. Now I must let it be known that our experience at St. Francis hospital was a wonderful one. Every step of the way there was a wonderful staff member to answer questions and just give encouraging words. The operating waiting room receptionest, the nurse who was with mom in surgery, the ICU nurses, and the step down nurses were all so kind. We really do appreciate the care she received at St. Francis and her surgeon did a wonderful job and is a very kind man. Mom spent Monday night in the ICU on the ventilator and by the time we saw her Tuesday morning she was breathing on her own and sitting up in a chair and had a lot more color to her. She moved to a room on the step down cardiac floor at noon on Tuesday. She went home on Saturday. I had to leave before she went home but I was so thankful that I could be with her and stay with her at the hospital a few days before I had to leave. I am so thankful that my wonderful husband didn't bat an eyelash but told me to go and that he would hold the fort down. He continued homeschooling the kids, nursed them through chicken pox, wrote his sermons in the evenings after the kids were in bed, and did some laundry. He didn't have to do much cooking thanks to Maria who came from church to do a lot of cooking for him and the kids.
So, that is a run down of my whirlwind trip to the states. It hardly even feels like I was there now! My mom continues to improve and I'm thankful for that.

A Teacher/Assistant

I decided to just write it out once here to make things easier. We are looking for someone to come short term (for a year) or longer to help out with homeschooling. If you wanted to stay longer than a year we could set you up with Romanian classes and you could become even more involved with the children's ministry with the Romanian children. We have six children ages 11 to 3 1/2...next year they will be in 6th grade, 5th grade, 2nd grade, and 3 in Kindergarten. Whoever came would be mostly doing the 3 in Kindergarten. I plan on ordering my curriculum from Starfall. There would be plenty of room for adding to this program. The twins will be 6 and Nate 4. The twins still don't know English perfectly so that is why we are doing K5 another year with them. Joey is a very loving boy, loves to snuggle and love on people. Gina is very outspoken and creative. Nate is the baby of the family and is a big stinker (all my fault) but cute none the less :). I am only able to do school with them about an hour right now and they really need a full morning schedule to help them catch up. If you are interested in coming I would share more details with you about their learning styles etc.
Other ministries to be involved in: crafts with handicapped kids, crafts for church kids, possibly teaching/tutoring Romanian kids in English. It would be a big plus if you were musically talented but not a requirement.
If you came short term you could stay in our guest house which is in our court yard not attached to our house. Bedroom/sitting room/bathroom. You would eat meals with us. You would need to go home for Christmas b/c we are HOPING that a lot of family are coming for Christmas and we would need the space. You would eat all your meals with us. If you were coming longer term you would need to raise some support and live in an apartment.
You need to be a flexible person who isn't easily upset when plans go arry (b/c they go arry often here). You need to be a person who can adapt in another country and accept some things just b/c that is the way it is and not try to change everyone to be like Americans (very tempting to do at times). You need to be able to communicate your feelings so we know how to better help you (a hard one for me too). You need to love the Lord and desire to serve Him by serving others!

Feelings about adopting out of birth order.

When we decided that God would have us adopt we had never researched adoption or talked with others and didn't know that to some, adopting out of birth order is a big no no. I think God had us remain ignorant of it because the children he had for us didn't fit in our birth order as they should :). There are challenges to adopting children who have been raised in a children's home...even if they were loved and well cared for there. Our twins never had consistancy, they would love someone and then that person would leave and someone else would come. Their life involved adapting with different people and attaching to whoever would look at them.

I think our biggest problem with the birth order thing would be this: Our youngest, Nate, is like the baby of the family and still at 3 1/2 gets treated like the baby. The twins see this baby/mom relationship and I think they struggle with this...especially Joey. He will often ask me, "mom, how come I wasn't your baby? I want to be your baby." All I can do is hug him and tell him I love him and that I am glad he is mine now. That is our biggest challenge with adopting out of birth order.

Considering our twins were raised in a children's home for the first 5 years of their lives they are quite spoiled. I am always amazed here in Romania to find how spoiled even the poor kids are. I think part of the problem is when you have a children's home you want to give all you can to these kids including material possessions. The twins always expect us to buy them something when we are out in a store. We would love to buy them things but we don't always indulge in their desires. We don't want them to think just because they want something means they should receive it. Here is a funny story. We took a trip to Timisoara, took the kids out to eat and to play at the play place and Joey started complaining about wanting something else. We told him he needed to have a thankful heart and he came back with this: "oh, I am thankful, I'm thankful I have a family." It was difficult to continue reprimanding him after that!

They have been with us permanently for about 9 months. We have a lot of good days and some bad days. They have settled into family life nicely and are trying really hard to obey and follow the house rules. They are doing better at accepting no for an answer then they did in the beginning. We love them and look forward to them receiving our last name. Please pray that the adoption moves in a timely manner. We hope to be home for a furlough the fall/winter of 2011.

Christmas Time is Here!

We have had a white Christmas before but it has never snowed this much a week before Christmas! It has been snowing since Monday night. It makes it hard to complete the last week of school before Christmas break when all the kids want to do is go out and play! We are enjoying it though.

Poof...it's gone!

One minute you have a old van that works just fine transporting people to and from church then the next minute...POOF, it's gone! Ole Bessie, we bought her from another missionary a little over 8 years ago. I think we were the third or fourth missionary family to own it. It was an 87 Ford Transit that served us well until that fateful Wednesday evening when it went up in smoke...poof. Baron drove it to men's Bible study and a lady comes into the church and told him his van was on fire. He went running out and sure enough it was in flames, all the way into the front seat. The fire department was called by someone but Baron dove into action, grabbing a bucket of water, he began dousing the flames. In Romania the law requires you have a fire extinguisher in your vehicle but he couldn't get to his...his vehicle was on fire :). Two other cars stopped though and jumped out with their fire extinguishers plus several neighbors of the church came out with hoses and buckets. I really wish we had a video of it, Baron said it was quite a sight! The fire department came after the fire was out but gave it a good dousing for good measure.
Thankfully even though it has caused a bit of a dilema for church transportation, no one was hurt and Baron came home chuckling about the scene instead of fuming about it and worrying. We think that Bessie is pretty much toast and not worth saving.
Baron is pricing 97 Ford transits. Please pray that God will provide the funds needed for a new vehicle for our church needs. We are so thankful no one was in the van when it caught fire and no one was injured.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is here. I love this time of year. It comes and goes so fast. I hope to just slow down and enjoy the gift of Jesus this next month! We are in Vienna, Austria for a nice little break from the normal routine. This is the twins first time out of Romania and they are loving it. Everything is so great. We were just sitting at the Hungarian border in the fog and Joey thought Hungary was such a cool place. We went to Toys R Us today with 6 kids. They each drew a siblings name and bought a gift for that person. We had to keep reminding the twins that they were picking out a gift for someone else but they did really well! I had Joey, Nate, and Spencer with me. We'll see if Joey and Gina can keep a secret what they got for the person they shopped for! This is their first year to celebrate Thanksigiving with us. I don't remember why but we didn't have them last year. We are so THANKFUL to have our whole family together this year! So, glad after the holiday's we don't have to make the drive back to the children's home with them. So glad the sentence on the paper says it's irrivocable, they are ours. Praying for an final adoption court date soon after the holidays.
We have so much to be thankful for. God's amazing grace to us. We get a gift we don't deserve! How marvelous, how wonderful is our Savior's love for us! We have a network of family and friends who pray for us and support us and love us! Through all the economic difficulties in America people have continued to give and our support level has not dropped at all. We have seen many people suffer in Romania through this crisis and thanks to you and your faithful giving we have been able to pass on the blessing of helping them with their needs.
We have God's peace that he gives to us when our hearts are fixed on Him. Through all the pain and trials we can know He cares for us and the trying of our faith produces patience. Pray for us this holiday season as we reach out to those in need. This time of year seems to open more doors for ministry. We pray that we will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading. Everything we do in Lugoj, Romania is His work. Anything accomplished is because of Him alone. He alone is worthy of our love and praise. We are so thankful and pray that you all have a blessed time with your family and friends. We pray mostly that each of you will experience a closer walk with our Lord and allow Him to control and guide you!

Christmas Again.

So, I was sitting in church this morning looking at all my needy kids wondering how in the world can I just do something special for 6 of them. So, I posted a message on facebook about wanting to get 25 kids books for Christmas and already have gotten a great response! I'm so excited to see God move hearts to help those in need. Our kids will be so excited. Most of these kids don't get gifts at Christmas. They are poor kids in difficult situations. We are so thrilled to bring a little joy to them all. God bless you all. We serve a great God who meets our needs always!