Princess Ruthie Turns 3!!

Princess Ruthie turned 3 last week!  She is way into anything princess, pink and girly right now!!  So, of course the theme was princesses!!  We made crowns, played pin the crown on the princess, ate pizza and cake and opened presents!!  Princess Ruthie loved the scooter we got for her!  The castle cake with the princesses was also a big hit!!  Ruthie stayed over the night before her birthday.  That morning she really wanted to decorate a pumpkin with the Mrs. Potato Head princess set that I have.  So, of course, we ran off to the market to buy a pumpkin!!

Birthday Breakfast: bread with peanut butter and a candle, of course!!

She wore this wig for a long time this morning....I think she liked it because she felt like she had long hair!

Emi is her very best friend and she couldn't wait for him to come to her party!!

Princess/Castle Cake

She loved this game and would have done it over and over again if we would have let her!

Happy Birthday, Princess!!!  I love you!!

H2H Staff

Here are all of our precious little faces!  Enjoy!

Fall 2013

Pumpkins and PreSchool at Voluntari

Since we don't have a girl's program this fall and no fall teams, Jen and I found ourselves with a little extra time on our hands (how can this be?)!  We decided that since the preschool kids at Voluntari weren't going to school yet, that we would prepare a program for them two days a week.  Wouldn't you know it?  The week we showed up with stuff planned for them, they started going to their school!!  We adjusted our plans a little bit and are still going to Voluntari with Corny and Talitha, just working with the school age kids instead.  We go on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and work with whoever is available for part of the time.  The other part of the time Jen teaches clarinet lessons and I work one on one with two boys who should be in school, but, are not.  I'll talk about them a little later.  Here are some pictures of the fun lessons we did about pumpkins and leaves:

Nica and Florentin are two boys at Voluntari who should be in 1st or 2nd grade, but, for various reasons like bad behavior and stealing, they are not allowed to go back to school.  I discovered that Nica did not recognize his numbers and could write his name, but doesn't recognize the names of letters. Florentin knows his numbers but is inconsistent and sometimes guesses and cannot write his name at all.  This is a disgrace for 8-year olds.  So, my mission for right now is to teach these boys!  They are thriving with the one on one attention that I'm giving them, even if it is only 1/2 hour, two days a week.  Both of them practically run into my arms when I arrive at the only place they know as home!

Nica

Florentin

New School Year

September and October always bring the beginning of a new school year here in Romania, but, it is nothing like how it was when I was teaching in the U.S.  Gone are the days of bulletin boards, teacher in-service, and back to school night, yet, in its place are schedule planning, interviews for the transition houses and an occasional team.  I always get a little excited at the beginning of October because I know that we have a new batch of kids coming into our transition program.  This year we have six boys; all six from Rosiori de Vede.  We opened the boy's house on October 1st.  I made the trip down south to Nenciulesti to help welcome them to their new home for the next nine months.  We took hygiene items down that they would be needing, some clothes and of course I baked a cake!  Everyone loved the cake and I of course had to give out the recipe!  The boys were both nervous and excited to begin this new adventure.  They have been there almost a month now and they seem to be adjusting.  Please pray for the amazing things God is going to do in their lives this year!

The boys from left to right: Vasile, Amo, Florin, Bogdan, Alex, Dosin

Staff with the boys