Another bite of the apple...

Yesterday, I went out to Peris to visit the kids.  I had not been out there in about 3 months due to the girl's house opening!  Needless to say, I was a little excited to see all of my kids!  I was greeted at the gate by Florin and Alin (who have gotten so big...they were in 2nd grade when I first started working at Peris and now their voices are changing!), Claudiu, and Gaj.  They all expressed their happiness to see me.  Then I went upstairs to the area where the girls stay.  I was given so many hugs but the best was Oana.  When she saw me, she hugged me and wouldn't leave my side.  We hung out for awhile and then they got their afternoon snack....an apple.  She wanted to give it to me, but I didn't want to take it.  So, she compromised with me...she took a bite, then I took a bite.  I tried my hardest to take small bites so that she would get more, but she caught on to my trick and started checking my mouth and watching the bites I would take.  We went back and forth like that until the apple was gone.  Oana has been like this ever since I've known her....very giving.  If she has something, she always wants to share it with you.  It's times like this that I pray and say, "God, protect me!"  And I take another bite of her apple.

Baby Rebeca

Seven months ago, the first heart to heart baby was born...the product of Adriana (2nd generation of girls) and Marian (1st generation of boys).  She has been growing, growing, growing.  She came to church a couple of Sundays ago with her mom and dad.  She is such a happy little girl and soon she is going to be moving all around the place!

Hi ho, hi ho it's off to school they go!

Last Monday, the girls started manicure/pedicure school.  They were so nervous and excited at the same time.  The first day they wrote 12 pages of notes!  When they got home, they were so tired.  I'm sure the tiredness had nothing to do with the fact that they had to get up at 6:15 so they would be on time.  By Wednesday they were practicing what they had learned and did their first manicure.  They are learning lots and have begun to do pedicures as well.  Of course I don't mind being a guinea pig...Tomorrow is my pedicure day...oh the life of a missionary!

Here are the girls in front of their school...all ready to go!

Ready to write and learn all about manicures and pedicures!

Trip to Sinaia

As a reward for finishing the probation period, the girls at GTH got to come along with the staff and Maggy and Leslie to Sinaia.  First stop was the glass factory in Ploiesti.  Everyone enjoyed shopping and we sure did enhance the economy for this factory.  The girls were allowed to each pick out one glass Christmas tree bulb as a rememberance from the trip.  From there we headed up to Sinaia.  We stopped for lunch at the little pizzeria that we like and then drove up to the monastary.  We walked up to the castle and the girls went on a tour of the beautiful Peles castle while the rest of us sat around and talked and had coffee.  We did a little bit more shopping up by the castle, looked at the monastary and then headed home.  For this trip the girls received an early Christmas present.  They didn't really have any warm jackets so I decided to give them the gift now as opposed to at Christmastime.  After I had all the jackets out and they had all four picked out the one they wanted they thanked me for the jackets and Catalina asked me, "Jenny, who else do we need to thank?" This took me a lttle bit by surprise because sometimes in the past the girls have kind of always thought they should be handed things on a silver platter.  I was very appreciative of their thankfulness and told them that the jackets were a gift from God!

Costume Party!

Saturday was Halloween and some of the staff decided that it would be fun to have a Halloween/Fall Party.  The girls at GTH had also been asking if we could do something for Halloween, so we decided to have our first, probably to become annual, Halloween party at the girl's house in Snagov.  Everyone was very excited and scurried around trying to find a perfect costume.  I decided that I would be a princess, of course.  We had lots of fun finding costumes and dressing up, playing games, eating "gross" foods, and carving pumpkins.

Princess Jenny

Sanda and I with the girls of the GTH