Grow Through What You Go Through: October 2018

I seriously cannot believe how fast time is flying by!! I hit my half way mark this week of being out here in Romania! That means I now have less than 2 months left here in Romania!! Ahhh I am going to cry! I don’t want to leave my kiddos here and It makes me so sad that I cannot take pictures of them! This week was so much fun and I just love being able to see the children progress and grow!! As I watch them my love for them grows stronger and stronger and it is silly, but I become so excited when they progress even the slightest bit! The other day we were in the apartment with the kids and the little boy that is there did some things that made me so happy I wanted to cry! (let’s name him Jake). Jake is 5 years old and cannot speak a single word, he babbles and mumbles a lot but no words. Lately we have been keeping a super close eye on him because he likes to pick at the walls and then eat whatever he picks off. As I have been watching and observing him I find that he does this when he has nothing better to do or if he is not getting much attention. On Friday I made it a goal of mine to really focus a lot of my attention on Jake and do what he wanted to do. This was hard because he does not like playing with toys all that much. But he likes to be hung upside down, haha (which is a good workout for me). The apartment is pretty small, but I wanted to help him get some of his energy out, so I ran up and down the halls with him (he is usually a super slow boy, especially when we are walking out to the park, he is always the one holding up the group). As I ran in the halls with him he laughed and laughed, in between running with him and hanging him upside down I was getting sweaty and hot, so I went to stand by the window to get some air. As I was standing in this separate room I look down the hall and see Jake running to me with a huge smile on his face and laughing, all by himself!! Oh, this made my heart so happy!! This is just one example of the many things the kids did this week that made me so proud of them and warmed my heart! I LOVE THEM!! While I am working with them I can feel the love our Heavenly Father has for them and it makes me so happy! I love my sweet little 5 children so much seriously just want to hug and squeeze them the whole time I am there!! It breaks my heart that they don’t have a momma or dadda and I just wish I could do more for them, but I am grateful for what I am able to do nonetheless! On a sad note, they are doing some maintenance on the apartments where the kids stay so starting Nov 1, till the end of December the children will be in the main orphanage building and they are splitting them up into different rooms there so I have to choose which room I want to go in and help with and I am just struggling so much with the fact I have to choose between my little kiddos :( but I guess it will help prepare me a little for December when I have to say goodbye to all of them! I am excited to see family again in December and go back to school but I just dread leaving these precious kids!! They bring so much joy and happiness to my life! It would just be so much easier if I could be in more than one place at once!!

Let me just say how much I love the church!!! I LOVE IT!! Haha I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an amazing organization and also to be friends and family to so many missionaries! This week we were with the missionaries on Thursday for English lesson/game night, we were with them on Saturday for a branch BBQ and then of course today we were with them at church! Both the Sisters and the Elders have such lights about them and just being around them makes me happy, not to mention they are super fun people as well!! On Saturday we went to a lake for our BBQ and the weather was perfect! It was sunny with a slight breeze and my jean jacket I was wearing was the perfect thing to keep me warm from the wind but not too warm! Haha it was just really nice! We brought some games to play and one of the Elders (the one from Washington) brought a football and so we through that around a little bit so that was super fun! Reminded me of all three of my little brothers :). After the lake we walked around Iasi for a little bit, looked at some of the orthodox church buildings which are super pretty inside and out and we helped clean our own church building with the Sisters. My friends Jessica, Teagan and I ate dinner at a place called Salsa, which has Mexican food (like burritos, enchiladas and such), and it was soo good!! I have been craving food like that for so long so that was a treat :) And then church today was just amazing! I love how, even with not understanding half of what is really being said, I still get so much out of the talks and lessons!

Some random highlights of this week:

-my Educator one day made us papinash and it was sooo yummy!

-We had “Fight night” Friday night with several of the girls where we leg and arm wrestled so that was super fun (I’m still sore from it)

-And the weather this week has been so nice and there has been a constant breeze so the air quality has actually been really nice!

I am absolutely loving life here and all the great experiences I am having so far!

Papinash (so yummy)

A little fry shop we found while walking around Iasi

My food at Salsa!

Orthadox Church

Views from Iasi

The palace at night!

At the lake with the Sister Missionaries

Tuesday I got the great privilege to experience my first delayed flight… haha.

It was a two-hour delay in an airport where our terminal only had 4 seats to wait, for a flight that had probably about a couple hundred people on it. It was quite the adventure, but we were able to make it to Venice before dark! When we got there, we took a bus to a street a couple blocks away from our hostel. After we got all settled in to our hostel we went to go find somewhere to eat because we were all super hungry. We found a pizza place that was decently priced and when we were done eating there we were very satisfied!! The food was super good and filled us right up! It was a little late to take a bus over to the actual island of Venice, so we decided to just do a little exploring of our own around the area of our hostel. As we were exploring we found a gelato place and oh my goodness!! It was so yummy!! I was tempted to get a second gelato that night from that same place, but I stayed strong and refrained! Haha

Wednesday was our first and only full day in Venice! There is a bus that drives you across a bridge to the entrance of the city of Venice but that’s where the cars stop. From there, there are only small walkways between buildings and all the ‘roads’ are rivers! We walked so much! All the streets where lined with souvenir shops, candy/chocolate shops, and restaurants. In Venice (and Rome) the restaurants have the waiters waiting outside the building to try and get you to come eat at their restaurant, it was pretty funny to watch how all the different workers would try and get your attention. Also, a lot of the restaurants had seating outside as well, in Rome a lot of the seating for the restaurants were right by or on the road with trams and cars driving by right next to you. It was pretty fun!

For lunch on Wednesday we went to a fancier restaurant and I was able to get a dish with crab in it!! It was so yummy! And it made me super happy! (especially because I forgot to eat the crab my family saved for me right before I left for Romania). After our delish dinner we found a gelato shop nearby and had to try it out! It was pretty fancy and actually had a facet in the back of running Nutella chocolate that they used for dipping the cones in! After we ate our three scoop cones of gelato we were so full but then we walked by a little stand with fresh coconut and could not walk by without getting some, so we ate that too!! After the coconut was gone I was convinced I would not have to eat again for a week! Haha I was so full! Right before sunset we went on a gondola ride and it was so much fun and so magical! It had been pretty hot and bright all day but as we were on our gondola ride it was the perfect temperature and with the sun setting it gave off a beautiful light! Those 40 min went by way too fast!

Thursday we went back to Venice to explore some of the spots we had not seen the day before, I got my daily cannoli and we also got gelato and then around 8 we got on our train to Rome.

When we were in Rome we were able to go to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Vatican, the new temple site where Rebekah will be working starting in January, the Trivi Fountain, the Spanish steps and many of Rome’s churches and breathtaking view. Rome was a lot dirtier of a city than I had expected but in certain places the views would take your breath away! We were able to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Rome and we flew home Sunday night. I am proud to say that I had gelato and a cannoli each day I was in Italy!! Haha, I keep telling myself that all that I ate evened out with all our walking (even though I’m sure that’s not true…) It was totally worth it though, all the food I ate there was so yummy!

Sunday morning, I was able to go to church with Alessandro, a former foreign exchange student in Cashmere who was good friends with my family! Everyone there was so nice! I love that wherever I go I can find the church and everyone there is always so welcoming, and it feels like home!

Although I was excited to get back to Romania and see my kids I didn’t want to leave and I already miss Rome and Switzerland a lot!!

VENICE: