Steven and Haley: 2011

This week I had a bit of a heavy heart. I keep seeing things that just physically hurt my heart to think about. I met a girl my age who could barely walk because her feet were so swollen and frostbitten- she had nowhere to live and had been sleeping outside for weeks. I see teenagers who can't read or write. And everywhere I see kids who deserve a family- and I can't do anything about that.

One day this week I sat with a 20 year old girl, who is attending university while still living at the orphanage. She is learning English and she wanted to read bible passages with me. We went back and forth sharing verses that we liked in both Romanian and English. She shared with me this verse out of Isaiah 49:15-16 "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands" ... Hearing her read that was intense. She was forgotten by her mother, she was orphaned and left alone as a vulnerable baby. But she knows she is loved by her heavenly Father. I was so amazed at how she drew comfort from this verse. A girl who has every right in the world to be angry that she was abandoned by her family, finds comfort in the Lord through his Word. It blew me away.

In this season of Christmas, I am amazed at the blessings God continues to pour out. I am missing home very much, but very thankful to be here with my kids. Just to spend time with them is a gift! We are preparing for Christmas parties and gift-giving at all of the orphanages, and there is excitement in the air!

the cuteness is just ridiculous

steven with some of the boys during character education class

art time at preschool!

the cuteness continues

We also have been out and about in the city! We went to dinner and a movie this weekend and had a great time. We helped pick out a Christmas tree and got to see Santa Claus (Mos Craciun.)

We also visited this beautiful church where the head and heart of Dracula is said to be buried.

We are loving our time here so far. We are learning a lot, about the language, culture, history and people of Romania. We are blessed to be here living our dream and thank you for your prayers and support!

Are you still there?

10:58 AM

Sorry things have been a bit dry over here on the ole blog. We have been cracking away working on language, holding babies, singing songs with the kids, having guitar class, and just enjoying as much time as possible with the kids. You know...missionary stuff. We made masks with the little guys a couple of weeks ago, for no other reason than sometimes its just fun to dress up! The other orphanage had people come in and throw a "halloween carnival" for them, so we decided the kids at the other orphanage should at least get the chance to dress up.

Boooo! I'm cute!

Its always neat to see the kids personality come out in creative projects. Some are diligent and pay close attention to detail and color. They choose specific patterns and have a clear vision. Some kids just start gluing, cutting, pasting, and coloring, and make alterations and changes as they go. Others create as quickly as possible so they can wear their mask and begin with the fun!

We've spent some time at the baby hospital and my goodness, are they cute. We can't take photos, but trust me when I say they are adorable. Chubby, wrinkly, squishy, cuddly, and everything cute. Unfortunately they are sick. Please pray that they will all kick their colds and fevers and return to being healthy little angels.

We just finished up with an amazing team from Buhler, Kansas. Jen's parents were here on the team as well John and Joyce, a couple from their church, and Jeanette. The team helped prepare the Pipera house for winter. The cleaned the pool, pruned the rose bushes, raked leaves, and made repairs around the house. Most importantly, they helped prepare the most epic of thanksgiving meals. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes (mashed and cheesy), yams, salads, and pies were lined up as far as the eye could see! Which was needed since we had 80 sets of eyes peering down on the alp de'food. Graduates from the transition program came, as well as the whole staff, and some friends just to sweeten the pot. In the end, the dessert table looked like the closing scenes of a war movie; pie tins laid empty, crumbs covered the counter and floor, a splotches of filling took their last breath on the battle field (counter). The night was filled with laughter and good times.

We are still plugging away at language class and feel super blessed to have received and learned as much as we have so quickly. We speak with the elegance and intelligence of a 4 year old, but we could hold our own in a debate with a 4 year-old in a mock UN meeting. Please continue to pray for language acquisition!

In closing; a story from the Visa office. Thursday morning we trekked out to the city and met Costel (Romanian President of H2H) at the Visa office. All in all we were in the room for five and half hours. After a frantic run to the bank, a brief argument with some foreign students, making friends with the same foreign students, and an informal letter written by Costel swearing to bring in passports the next business day, we were finished and are now waiting to receive our 5 year visas!

We love and miss all of you and appreciate each and everyone of your prayers! They make a difference...so don't stop!
Love, Peace, and Jesus
-s

Learning to talk...

12:45 PM

We have just completed our first month of language lessons! We have learned SO much in 4 short weeks- we even just wrote three short essays for homework last night! It felt pretty good to be able to say so much already. Now if only everyone in Romania would speak slowly so I can eavesdrop better...
The best part of our new (yet still very limited) Romanian language acquisition, is that we are able to connect with the kids on a more personal level. Before, we always had to wait for another staff member to come translate for us. Now, we are finding it easier and easier to get the gist of what the kids are saying, and initiate basic conversation (usually understand their answers!) It's so exciting to be a bigger part of their lives.

This is my boy. I fell in love with him and his younger brother the moment I met them in 2007. He is the quiet type, he never gets in fights like some of the kids do, and he has always protected his younger brother. I have been praying for an opportunity to hang out with him and just let him know that I care about his life. God provided the perfect opportunity last week when all the kids we inside and he was sitting alone on a bench outside. I sat with him and we talked, in my broken Romanian, for an hour. Even though he was laughing at my linguistic mistakes, it was a joy and an honor to make him laugh. He is a kid who missed out on being a kid, so it is so special to see him have moments of childhood. It made me think about what day-to-day life is for these kids- what it would be like to have such heavy things on your heart at such a young age. Even though there are people here that love them, it doesn't take away their daily struggles or heartbreak. I am reminded daily how important is it to pray for them. When I see them laugh though, I think I get a small glimpse of how a parent loves their child, and how our Father loves us.
-Haley

p.s. some more pics...

sweet statue we found in the park

Parcul Herastrau

lots of cobblestone

the halloween costume I made for Steven the Big Bad Wolf

off to a halloween party

to all my fellow southern californians- this is frost. on the grass. in october... I am dreading the future snow pictures!

chiitarā chiitarā!

10:43 AM

In love with Guitar!

Things happen in Romania. You do things you never really thought you would. Like celebrate a meal at pizza hut. Normally, my reaction to pizza hut is "ehhh pizza hut's ok" but here, it is a small slice of home and brings comfort and joy that is not normally associated with a mega pizza chain. I'm also teaching guitar classes, which I never thought I would do considering I have never taken a guitar class in my life. Rest assured, I do little-to-no singing, so the pure angelic voices of the kids are not being tainted by my tone-deaf swine-squeal of a voice. I have a pretty sweet children's guitar theory book that I am learning a ton from- I even gave myself a few gold stars while prepping for class! The class itself went really well. The kiddos totally followed along and did really well working through the exercises. They didn't get any gold stars (since I used them all on myself) but they all received flash cards for chords they memorized. By the end they will have a whole book of chords! It's pretty rewarding to be a part of something that brings so much tangible joy to the kids. Their excitement and giddiness is pure happiness in a world and life marred by unmet expectations and pain. Please pray with me that week by week, the kids would continue to experience joy and find hope in the challenge of learning guitar. If you have any old acoustic guitars or cases laying around let me know. We would love to have more guitars for more kids!

We also had the wonderful opportunity to babysit the cutest baby! Two of H2H's transition house graduates are married and have this little bundle of energy! She is super cute and we had a great time playing piano, watching Madagascar, and exploring the house!

watching madagascar

Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see?

why are you smiling?

did i do that!

So looking at the calendar it looks like we have been here a little over a month. I know that we would not be as vibrant and successful as we have been without all of your prayers. Please keep praying. We miss all of you dearly and while we receive each day as a blessing, it is not without the pain of being far from you, our loved ones.

Yours in Love, Peace, Blessings and Jesus

-s

Yelling at Romanian Women, Cobblestones, and a Man Named Nicu

10:29 AM

So we just finished our second week of language lessons, which means now we have no idea what is going on but we get excited when we hear a vocab word we recognize. We are also able to say who we are, who you are, who they are, what we want/need, what we know (nimic(nothing)), etc. My first real attempt to speak Romanian resulted in me speaking way to loudly and slowly at a lady trying to find out where the bus stop was. She looked at me like she wasn't sure if she should answer or give me a dollar, but she responded in perfectly clear english "What bus are you looking for?" and then proceded to walk us to our bus stop! I felt like I was on one of those commercials where someone steps in and saves the day for some individual unknowingly about to walk in front of a moving bus.
We also ventured out into the city and visited Lipscan in the Unirii district of Bucaresti. The area was once populated by old antique shops and artisan glass blowers/shops. The walls were covered in graffiti, the streets populated by stray dogs, and the roads all cobblestone. Today Lipscan has undergone a San Diego Gaslamp like transformation. The cobblestones and vintage architecture pave the way for a unique and quaint European setting, while the old shops filled with chachkeys have now been replaced by independent designers, anthropologie-esque clothing botiques (yes this is steven writing, yes I know what anthropologie is, and yes I do have a deep love for a store that sells nothing but women's clothing.), coffee shops, and many great restaurants.
While there we visited a hat store that is owned and operated by an older man named Nicu. His hats have been featured in advertisements, newspaper articles, and magazines. He was extremely charming and kind and invited us back to watch him make some hats. He determined my head was too large for most hats, (it's not by the way I can't even find hats small enough in the states unless they are child/women sizes). I tried on a cioban (Shepherds) hat, a top hat, a taran (farmer) hat, some awesome fedora's that didn't fit, and some pretty sweet grandpa hats. The hat I really wanted happened to be on his head, but with my head being so large he said it would not fit and unfortunately he did not have the proper material in stock to fashion me one of my own. He also decided that he will come back with me to the U.S. and start a shop there.
In another news the weather has dropped 30 degrees, we are now driving the Damas (see previous posts) into the next town to get a ride into the city from other team members, and we (by we I mean I) have affectionately named the Damas "Cochran" (Survivor fans, you will understand this reference.) I also had a zipper break on my messenger bag, which drove me nuts, but I was blessed by the presence of a man sitting on a chair outside of the subway stop fixing zippers at 2 bucks a pop!
Cheers-
s

Nicu working his magic!

Back to school

1:00 PM

It's fall and the kids are all back in school... and so are we! We have just finished our first week of language lessons- and we have already learned so much. After 3 lessons, we already have 600 flashcards, so it's going to be a long path to fluency! We have really been enjoying learning Romanian. It is a latin-based language, so it has similarities to Spanish and Italian, but also has some Slavic and German sounding words as well! We also get help from the kiddies- when we say something wrong, they correct us!
We have been spending our time at the baby hospital, and the orphanages. We get to help with youth group for the middle and high school aged kids. This is a really cool gathering because the kids do not have to come to this, so the ones who come are choosing to come learn about God (and of course play fun games.) Steven is helping to lead worship for the kids- and they love to sing! We don't know the words in Romanian yet, but the kids try to help us :)

little cutie pie with some school supplies that H2H was able to donate to the orphanage school

our lego people- he was trying to make mine talk to his, but I only have limited phrases to choose from!

Steven is not actually holding this kid- his legs are wrapped around him like a monkey!

a new little buddy

We got to spend this past Saturday at the orphanage for a play day. It has dropped about 35 degrees in the past two days, so we spent lots of time indoors that day playing cards and building with legos (although Steven was of course playing futbol with the boys outside!)

the classic long-arm shot

This boy is one that I met the first time I came to Romania in 2006. When Steven and I came together on a trip in 2007, he performed a "wedding" for us when he found out we were engaged. He even put a tissue on my head like a veil! He is very charismatic, knows a good chunk of English, and LOVES High School Musical! When we were hanging out the other day, he went back into his room and came back with a picture of the 3 of us we had sent him back in 2007. It is very special to know that he saved this- the kids lose stuff a lot, or it gets stolen, so it made us feel so special that he kept it all this time. It is amazing that we have come here to serve these kids and love them, and yet they end up blessing us with their genuineness and love. It truly made us so thankful to be here!

Please continue to pray for our language lessons to expand our understanding and ability to speak Romanian. Pray for the youth group to ignite the hearts of each child that comes. Also pray for the teachers at the school to have patience and understanding with the children with learning disabilities.

-Din toate inima (with all my heart)

--Haley