Me

July 2016

The highly awaited month of July, it's going to be so busy, we're having 37 people in the house finally arrived!!  Actually, team member starting coming during the last couple of days of June.  The teams started with a day camp with the Voluntari kids and we kept adding people until we reached 37 on July 4th!

Prayer circle....praying for ministry in three different locations!

The most exciting part of having 37 people here was that my mom came and helped me do all the cooking!!  I really could not have done it all without her help.  

During the first two weeks of July, we had ministry in three different locations: our house (Pipera), the boy's house (Nenciulesti) and a group that went out to the orphanage everyday!  We used a circus theme and taught the kids lessons based on 1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."  As I worked in the kitchen I heard this verse repeated over and over throughout the summer.  I pray that these words remain with the kids and that they will always know they have a loving Savior that they can put their faith and hope in for an eternity!  To go along with our pool, we added a slack line and a trampoline...the kids had so much fun!!

The second two weeks of July was a "smaller" team...only about 20 people!!  During this team, we had our teen camps.  We decided to have a girls camp and a boys camp this year and they got to come for three days.  We took both groups to a place called "The House of Bounce"...a huge trampoline park.  These groups also had a circus theme and a little bit more in depth sessions centered around 1 Corinthians 13:13.  

June 2016

The calm before the storm.  I kicked off June by attending a very special graduation.  It's not very often that our kids from Peris are able to attend and graduate from high school.  Two years ago, you may remember this picture that I posted....

Nine kids started the year, six are pictured here, because by the second or third week of school, this was how many were still there.  Two years later, four graduated from high school!!!  I am so proud of them that they were able to overcome coming from a "special" school and attending a regular high school.  Way to go guys!!  Actually, the girl in the top left corner also finished high school, just at a different school!!  Way to go, Oana!!  I'm proud of you, too!

June was spent getting the houses ready for 37 people in July, end of school field trips and activities, hosting the Reno team and celebrating Ruthie's preschool graduation.

Field trip with the Peris kids!  How did my boy get to be almost as tall as me and 13 years old?

Voluntari kids reward party at Pipera

Holding on for dear life because the water is COLD!!

Transition House Graduation with Flori and Marinela

Ruthie's preschool program...she is in the black dress

How is it that the preschool years are over and she is now starting Kindergarten??

David (one of the H2H grandkids) and his mom Lumi at his preschool program

Peris end of the school year program

A quick day trip to the seaside with the Reno team and my girls!

We had already finished our ice cream, but, we will always suffer and go to Emilia's Creamery!!

June is over...ready, set, go!!  Bring on July and two big teams.....37 people the first part of July and 19 people the second part of July!  Our kids are blessed to have so many hands and hearts to serve them this summer!

Spring 2016

Springtime is usually busy with lots of teams, however, this year H2H had two spring teams: CCC and Canada!  These two teams spent lots of time at the orphanages and served well alongside of the H2H team.

CCC Team

Canada Team

While the Canada team was here, I was able to travel with the staff to the Northern part of Romania for a H2H staff road trip/retreat.  I visited a part of the country that I had never been to before; the scenery was beautiful.  We visited the Happy Cemetery, a salt mine, Hunedoara and the Corvin Castle, and stayed in a "castle" (well at least that's what the website said)!

The H2H staff plus Canada Team at our "castle"

Easter is always a fun time in Romania.  This year we had five of our nine grandkids here to help us celebrate, so, of course we had to document it with lots of cute pictures!  The golden egg once again made it's return to our celebration; hidden in a cupcake this year, found by one of the boys from the Boy's Transition House.

Ruthie and Rebeca: These two haven't spent much time together the last couple of years, but, became fast friends!

The elusive "Golden Egg"!  He doesn't realize just yet that the egg is inside the cupcake...

Yep, you found it....the "Golden Egg" was in the cupcake!! 

Nearly impossible to get a great picture with all five kids!

This year's Girl's Transition House girls: Flori and Marinela

Sunny!  She's a DIVA!!!

Cutie Patootie!!

I decided to plant a garden this year....Ruthie helped me....  I wasn't very happy with the crop, but, it was sure fun watching things sprout and grow!

  The Lord has blessed me with being able to watch these three grow, explore and learn new things everyday!

March 2016

March started out with another birthday celebration!  Jen and I went to the Therme Spa to celebrate her birthday and to spend some of my birthday money.  This is a new place in town and it completely met our expectations!  It was wonderful!  We definitely have to go back to this place!!

Two days after we were at the spa, a new team came in!  We had lots of fun with them making Martisor, playing at the park and teaching lessons at the orphanage.  One of the girls on the team was 8 or 9 years old and her name was Ruthie.  So, she and our Ruthie became good pals.  They even got to have a sleepover!

After this team left, we had a few weeks team free and we celebrated Flori's birthday!  All she really wanted was a Minion cake....so I obliged!

Happy Birthday, Flori!