Grow Through What You Go Through: Half Way Mark

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)