3/28- pray

Szerenke', the Kindergarten teacher I work with everyday just found out some horrible news this morning during devotions. Over the past two months we have been praying for her 19 year old cousin who was in the hospital with Leukemia (sp). A few weeks ago he showed alot of progress, and they thought that it was going to be for the better. Yesterday he lost all feeling from his waist-up. He was paralyzed. This has been such a burden on her heart, as well as many of the staff here at Veritas. She found out this morning that he has passed away. If you think of it, please pray for Szerenke' and her family... I cant even imagine how hard it is on her right now to have such a young member of her family die of such an awful disease. Thanks.

3/27

So... random/ funny fact of the day..... In romania, they dont believe in plain white toilet paper... The toilet paper here is colored and scented... on a rare occasion you will find TP that is white BUT it is scented....and you can get colored TP that isnt scented.... heh... its funny.... I guess they like everything to be pretty in some way :) haha....

On a more serious... very serious note.... Monday night at dinner with Dorothy and Roberta, Mel and Karen I learned that one of the girls from Tigmandru is missing. She is a 13 year old girl with beautiful blonde hair. This girl has particpated in our childrens program out in Tigmandru, and now participates in the Teen program there as well. She has been missing now for over a week. For the first few days she was missing, a few policemen were looking for her but I am unsure as to whether they are still looking,or if they just gave up.... It is such a frightening thing because this she comes from such a small village where everyone knows each other, and knows everyone elses buisness.... but no one knows where she is.... Her grandmother is very distraught right now, as imagined.. and it is very hard for her, as well as the Naz church in Tigmandru. There are thoughts that she could have possibly been picked up on teh street and taken for trafficking or something of that nature because she has developed alot physically over the past year. When Roberta told us all this news on Monday, she showed us a picture of the girl.... she looked like she was about 6 or 7.... That is because it was the only picture her grandmother actually HAD of her.... it was the only way of identifying this girl- and she looks completely different now, except for the blonde beautiful hair and big eyes.... Luckily Karen knew that she had recent pictures of her from Teen group, so she will be making photo copies and sending them out to neighboring villages, and will give them to the police. Who would have thought that as an American that I would take simple "pictures" for granted? Maybe there is more of a possibility that this girl will be found because KAren has that picture of her..... Bakc home, we dont really have this problem.... EVERYONE has picutres of everyone else! heh... i know that I sure do... i LOVE pictures... and if someone was missing, another person would definately have a picture of them that was recent, and if not... then we have such advanced technology that we can take an old picture and make them look older based on genetics, age, etc..... The things we take for granted, eh? If you are reading this please pray for the village of Tigmandru and for this girl- her name is Lenuta (La-noot-sa). Thanks

He is Risen! He is Risen INDEED!!!

3/24

So.. I guess it is aobut that time when I should write in this thing again!!! :)

Well lets see...Not this past weekend, but the weekend before... I went on a hike! :) It was absolutely amazing. The view was wonderful!! The day started out horribly, it was wet, windy, and very icy so we went into the city of Brasov to wait it out for a few hours. While in Brasov we got some coffee, visited some of the historical churches, and browsed around . By the end of those few hours the sky had really cleared up, so we decided to go for it! I love hiking,I really do... but Romania has really made me despise snow and ice! For about 95% of teh hike I had either thick snow, or ice underneath my feet. It was quite challenging and VERY slippery... heh... when we were coming down I just wanted to take off my jacket and slide down becuase it was so hard to actually grip my feet! haha... I will try to post some pictures from that day :)

The day before we went on the hike my other host sister, Alexandra came home! She has been in Germany since September doing an exchange program for HS students, and she is on her spring break! This is her last week home, and I hate to see her go! She has been such a joy to have around the house, and is so much fun to hang out with!!

So....last week I realized that I wouldnt be having an Easter celebration this year because I am leaving before Orthodox Easter (which the romanians celebrate), and the Hungarian, and Germans, and Americans and whoever else celebrated Easter this past week! (yesterday) So... I decided that this just wouldnt happen! I just really felt the need and want to participate in some form of Easter service.... so Mel, Dorothy and I decided to go to the German Lutheran Easter Service at the church on the hill. I had to wake up at 545 because teh service was at 7 am, and it is quite a walk to the top of the hill! :) It was such an amazing service! It reminded me of a sunrise service back home. The wicked cool thing about this service though is that it begins in teh back of the church... everyone walks in together, and we sang a song. Then there were doors in the ground that opened up to a staircase...we walked down these steps and entered the crypt. For those of you who dont know what that is- it is where they used to keep the dead... Yeah, but anywyas... we went into the crypt (kind of like being in the tomb) and had some candles dispersed throughout to give off a sense of light. After some scripture readings, and some songs we went back into the sanctuary that was lit and sang some more songs, and read more scripture etc. It was wonderful.

After the service, everyone was invited to go to breakfast at the parish house. It was lovely. Everyone was given a red hard boiled egg, and as much sweet bread and coffee/tea as we liked! We all sat at this HUGE table... like 25 ppl on each side! It reminded me of the Waldon family Christmas! haha... But anways... I asked Dorothy about the red eggs... because I thought that was kind of random. I guess that the Romanians believe that one of the"mary's" brought a basket of red eggs (representing christs blood) to the tomb the day that they went to visit Jesus' grave.... so the tradition is to dye eggs Red, and eat them on Easter! :)

Yeah.... so those are some of the highlights from the past 10 days! :) Hope you enjoyed some of it! :) love and miss you all <3

3/14

So.. this week hasnt been too exciting, but I cant believe how quickly the week has passed by! I cant believe how quickly this whole experience has gone by!! Only 6 weeks left, I think? Wow! It is crazy to think about! Nothing out of the normal really happened this week. I had my usual days filled with children at the Kindergarten, and afternoons filled with special needs club, parent meetings, meetings with Dorothy, and of course... homework! Haha.. .cant forget that one!

I guess there was one really cool thing that happened this week... I assume that most of you reading this blog have seen children cry- and if you know me at all, you have probably witnessed me crying a million times! ;) But have you ever seen a 6 year old cry out of pure joy, and exasperation? I have seen adults, and teenagers cry out of pure joy... but never a child. WEll, at the end of the day in the Kindergarten we give the children different colored "dots" to put on their shirts to show how well they behaved during the day. A red dot is for good behavior,, and a black dot is for bad behavior, and after 7 red dots the child receives a gold star! Well, anyways... there is one child in the Kindergarten that is almost always bad during the day... he tends to talk back, distract the other children, gets violent, and just misbehaves all around. He kind of has been labeled the "bad kid" in the Kindergarten. WEll, the other day he just had this amazing change in behavior ( partially because there was a college age male helping in the room for the day- which works WONDERS on these little boys) and he was fairly good all day. This is a child who doesnt let us give him pats on the back, rarely responds well to even positive feedback- he truly feels like he has to live out his "label." Well, he was good and the teacher had given him a black dot ( i think it may have been out of habit) and i told her that he was good- so she called him over and gave him a red dot! He was sooo excited, and shocked! Tears filled this childs eyes, and he didnt know what to do with himself. He was so excited that we had noticed that he was trying, and was actually behaving for a change... This made his day, even his week! When I saw his face, I couldnt help but cry. I have never seen a child react like this to something that seems soo meaningless to the other kids in the class. Most of the time everyone else gets red dots- so its just "normal" to them, but to this child it meant EVERYTHING. It kind of reminded me of teh Max Lucado book that my Mom really likes- I forget what it is called.. but yeah... It was great to witness such an awesome moment with this child.

Another thing that particularly struck me ( i sort of mentioned above) is the importance of having a positive male influence. It is so rare for these children to have positive male role mdels in their lives. Within this particular group of kids, Most of the men they encounter (fathers, grandfathers) have a tendency to mistreat women and the child as well. It is just so important for men to be present. But that is a discussion for another day :) Im much better at verbalizing my feelings, than actually writing them down...

Yeah... so I guess that was the highlight of my week :) I am also going on a pretty intense hike tomorrow, and I am really excited about it! I have seen pictures, and it is going to be beautiful!!!!! I am looking forward to taking pics and posting them!! :)

I am at the point where I really miss everyone, and everything from home... Dont get me wrong, I love it here! It has just been two months, and it is just getting harder to not think about home. I try as hard as possible not to think about it because I want to make my time here the best it can possibly be- so I am continuing to put 100% effort into everything I am doing here, but its not easy keeping my feelings of longing for home hidden... I am so glad that I am here, and I wouldnt want it any other way, honestly. I feel like I am learning so much, and am doing so much more than I would be doing back in the states if that is where I had decided to do my practicum. I have fallen in love with Romania, and the people here. It is just hard to know that in a little over a month that I will be leaving them. It is so hard to know how to balance my relationshiups with these people (both colleagues, clients, and friends) - and also be okay with leaving them.. It feels like just as these people are starting to love, and trust me... I will be leaving them. It is hard not to feel like I am abandoning them. Some of the people I work with in club see me as one of their friends.. .and some of the kids receive there "daily hugs" from me... instead of at home. It is just alot to think about and pray about.....

Sorry my thoughts are so random, and arent always clear... I do not write very well, unless it is a paper with a clear outline etc. hahaha.... thanks for bearing with me!

Until next time... la revedere!

3/6

So I figured it was about time to update this blog because I had a few dear souls tell me that I needed to, and Junior just recently sent out a message on facebook to everyone telling them to check out my blog- and to their disappointment I don’t have much on here! ( I should probably stop babbling and start informing! ) At this moment in time I cant remember where I left off because I am writing this entry in Word and will then copy and paste it onto my blog when I have the internet J I guess I will just have to generalize some things and describe some of my most recent endeavors!

Well I am pretty sure that I wrote already about Bucharest- but in case I didn’t… the weekend of the 15^th we went to Sinaia and Bucharest! I was sick the whole weekend with a horrible cough, drippy nose and a massive headache! Despite being sick, it was a wonderful weekend! We visited the monastery in Sinaia- it was absolutely beautiful! It was a smaller church, but extremely royal in its decorations considering that it was the church that King Carole built/ attended. It is open to the public, and is used for mass every week. It was very interesting that the Monastery was open to the public… I know if I was one of those monks I would be pretty ticked if all these dumb tourists came into my living/worship place, and place of solitude and often silence and learning… It was just kind of ironic. Another thing that I have found very interesting here in Romania is the fact that so many of the churches (catholic, orthodox, reformed) they sell things. It is just very interesting how the place of God is being used to sell postcards and other various items. I know that there are arguments for and against this issue, and I don’t really know where I stand on it because there are pros and cons for both.. but its just something I have thought about. Anyways! In Sinaia we visited King Caroles palace! It was so big and everything about it was truly fit for a King. We were only able to view the first level because it was too expensive to view other floors, but it was quite amazing. My favorite room was the Kings personal library. I think if Junior had been with me, he would have been drooling to say the least! The room was designed with all these really rich colored types of wood, and deep brown leather. All the shelves were the same except one section has one extra shelf- this was the secret passage way… so cool! The library was filled with so many classics, and it was just lovely.

After visiting Sinaia we went to Bucharest. We went to the peasant museum, the history museum, and we visited the “Peoples Palace.” My favorite of these places was the peasant museum- I definitely recommend it! The museum itself was so simple- no fancy lighting, no crazy glass walls- just real artifacts and scary looking manikins wearing traditional clothing. As long as you look, and DON’T touch- the peasant museum is a wonderful experience! I was reaching to touch one of the pieces of clothing and I heard a woman yelling from across the exhibit hall- haha…. She was not very happy with me, but I apologized and had to resist the urge to look at anything too closely! The peoples palace was also very interesting. We took a tour that took about 2 hours…. Guess how much of the palace we saw? …. Nope… a little less…. Yeah… we saw 4 percent of the building! FOUR percent in Two hours!! CRAZY!!!! The Peoples palace is the 2^nd largest building in the WORLD( it ranks second, the Pentagon being the 1^st!) Can you believe it? There are 11 floors( If I remember correctly!) 7 floors above ground, and 4 underground. The building is made of 100% indigenous products. All the marble, glass, diamonds, gold… everything is from Romania! This building was truly extravagant- but also very drepressing. They STILL aren’t done with the building. It is sad to think of the all the families that lost their homes so that this building could be built, and to think of all the pain the Romanian people felt because of this stupid building- What is worse is that now communism has ended and the building still isn’t really helping the people…It is frustrating to think about all the hard work, and the many broken families, and the communities that suffered because of this building. One cool fact about the palace is that the Lead Architect is a woman from Sighisoara! Yay for Sighi!... another very interesting fact is… There is a balcony at the palace that is in the front of the building facing the city of Bucharest, and only ONE person has ever spoken from that balcony… guess who it is?? Michael Jackson! Go figure, eh? Well anyways… he was on the balcony looked to the people with open arms and said “Hello Budapest!”…. what a moron!!! He was in Bucharest…. Not Budapest… therefore when in Bucharest, do NOT mention Michael Jacksons name- you will receive many dirty looks! ;)

On a more serious note… last week we had our first parents meeting for the children in the Kindergartens parents. It went really well!! All but 2 parents showed up!! It was very exciting to have such a great response! I opened with a game, and broke the ice a little bit which was very comforting for all the parents, I think. The parents spoke up about things that they were feeling, and were talking about their children and were open about things- it was awesome!! We will be having our 2^nd meeting today ( 3/5) and I will be presenting on the topic of the importance of Affirmation and Affection with children. I am really nervous about the whole thing because I was kind of put on the spot about doing it- which was really frustrating… but Im doing it anyways with a smile on my face!

This past weekend we went to Praid and Korund. It was such a great day- despite the rain! We visited the salt mine in Praid! It was SO cool. For medical purposes doctors used to send patients down to the salt mines for healing- they believed that it helped cleanse the body, and for most it really did work! When you go down there is the usual souvenir shop, but there are also picnic tables for people, doctors to visit, massage therapists, playgrounds for children, places to rollerblade, a small museum, a coffee shop, and a church! It was amazing, and it is all underground- it was like a little utopian society down there! After visiting the salt mine we went to Korund where Ï bought some souvenirs for friends and family! J I am really excited about the gift I got for my mom!!! I would totally say what it is on here except for the fact that I know she reads this thing!! Haha.

I am really excited for this weekend- I don’t know why! I think its because on Saturday we are having a church work day- gotta love those (Right Autilio?)( he probably doesn’t even read this- but those who know him better be laughing right now! J) Anyways- we are painting the interior of the church, and I am really excited about it! No more pale blue!!! It will be a fun day- I like to paint, and I really enjoy doing things like this for other people, so we shall see how it goes! J

If you think about it- keep Veritas in your prayers. We are figuring out some financial things right now with grants and other such things. We are planning on tearing down the family center and rebuilding a nice new building for Veritas that can be used for more activities and will have more space, but there are so many restrictions and weird laws in Romania that are not helping make this an easy or even somewhat easy process. Thanks… I think that is all for now!! I will try not to go a couples weeks before I write in this again!! I appreciate all your prayers so much! I love and miss you all!

Shout outs for the day***

Love you Mom and Dad and Mikey and Junior

Miss you 410- sorry im not there to help plan wedding stuff I love you girls <3>

Miss you Cara*

Good luck to everyone in the SGA election process- praying for all of you guys! (especially My babe, and Hil!!! )