Jenny Johnson

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Ho, Ho, Ho!!

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year! I enjoy giving presents to other people and making them happy with the things that I get for them. It was fun making this such a special holiday for our 17 kids that are currently in our transition program. We had a special breakfast together, opened gifts, and took pictures in a special photo booth. Later on in the day, our transition graduates came over and we had a traditional Romanian meal of Sarmale, Salata de Beof, and homemade bread. Ruthie opened her presents and we played Bunco. I was able to chat later on with my family and see my nieces and nephews in their special rendition of Luke 2!

My special wreath of Cinnamon Rolls! It was so yummy and fun to make!

Opening stockings!

I played Santa Claus!!

Everyone got new pajamas!

Even some of the boys were willing to model for me!

The question really is: which one is naughty and which one is nice?

ATH boys but missing Marius! He had to work....

BTH boys

GTH girls

The staff with all the current kids in the transition program

The staff acting a little silly!

Ruthie loved opening her presents!

She also loved playing with all the photo booth props!

What a little sweetheart!

Christmas Lights in Bucharest/Decorating the Tree/First Snow

I had the pleasure of spending Christmas in Romania. I like to do fun things with the kids at this time of the year. Bucharest does a great job of putting up lights and decorating the town. A couple of different times I took the kids to look at the lights. It wasn't so cold, however, the first time we went, it began to rain/snow. We got home before it really started to come down, though. I let the girls borrow hats and gloves and scarves. They had fun accessorizing.

These trees appeared that they were hanging in the sky. I still can't figure out why they used green and blue!!

Me with all the girls

Me with Flori

Me with Ionela and Claudia

Me with Ana and Elena

Me with sisters Ioana and Alina

During this same time, I bought a Christmas tree for my house at Pipera. I was actually able to get it in the pot and into the house with the help of my two little elves, Ionela and Claudia!

Everyone kept telling me that it wasn't full enough, but I liked it!

My little elves, Ionela and Claudia helping to decorate the tree!

Sometimes it is necessary to have a little fun and decorate ourselves!!

We also had our first snow of the season...about two feet. Luckily, I had on any given day 3 to 4 elves to help me shovel!! :)

They really were working quite hard! Just look at the big pile of snow!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Thanksgiving 2012

There are always SOOO many things to be thankful for at this time of the year. I really love to teach our kids about thankfulness. One of the many things that they like to complain about is the food...usually that they don't like what is fixed, especially at the beginning of the program. So, Josh and Missy started having the girls say one thing that they were thankful for before they were able to eat. When the boys were at our house, we asked them to do it as well. After a couple of weeks of doing this, we stopped. One day after we had stopped, one of the boys asked if they could say what they were thankful for at the table. I love it when something sinks in and they actually learn something from what we are teaching them!

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year about a week before the actual holiday. We typically have to celebrate on Saturday because of work schedules. I think we served about 80 people this year! We give the kids a time to tell things that they are thankful for! What a blessing to hear our graduates and current kids realize just what God has done in their lives and what we have done for them through our programs!