Strawberry yogurt is my favorite!

It's official! Strawberry yogurt is Nicu's favorite surgery recovery food. Zach and I have been to visit him several times since he arrived home and he seems to be doing very well. On Saturday, he informed us that he has very little pain in his legs but is just tired of sitting. Boredom effects us all in the summer time when we try to stay out of the heat but this little guy is about to go crazy just laying around because he is use to playing futbol with Zach all afternoon. Tomorrow, I am going to try to go to a toy store somewhere and find some board games. These will be fun to take on our visits to Nicu and also probably will be very useful on many such occasions in the future.


Nicu - I don't have any pictures of him post
surgery because I didn't want to make his
family uncomfortable by taking pictures of their
home. Just wanted you to be able to see the
precious little boy you have been praying for!


Aside from visiting and taking Nicu & his family food, Zach and I have been involved with the local group of boys as normal. Zach has continued to play soccer and build relationship with these boys. A few years ago, I met a young boy named Robert and his brother. After talking to their mother for a while, it became apparent that she did not value education for her children and did not wish to send them to the Ruth School. Three days ago, this mother proudly informed Zach and I that Robert will be attending the Ruth School in the fall pending registration. We praise God for the fact this mother has begun to realize just how life changing education can be for her son!

In the office, Ali & I have been working on school reports for all of the Ruth School children which has been quite a task. I am so glad that Ali was able to help us so much :) This coming week, I will be finishing those and then exploring some new design programs for Project Ruth newsletters and other print formats.

Casts, new shorts and watermelon...

Nicu had his surgery! We arrived at the hospital about two hours after his surgery was over and he was still very sleepy. He seems to be in a lot of pain and winces fairly frequently. Please be in prayer for his healing process and his mom who is his caretaker and is broken hearted to see her baby in pain. She was very happy to have lunch. After we talked to his mom for a bit, we went to buy Nicu some new shorts,. You see, he has casts cover his feet to his upper thighs so his jeans wouldn't fit. So to avoid him being completely embarrassed when he woke up we headed to a second hand store for some new shorts. I purchased to pair for three dollars so that he would have fashion options.

After visiting Nicu, we headed to his house to check on his brothers because theynhad been without their mother for two days. They seemed to be doing fine but were all very concerned about Nicu. We talked to his dad and Zach will probably be helping transport Nicu home tomorrow by carrying him since they don't have access to a wheelchair. More updates on that when it happens.

This evening we gathered some of the children for a night of soccer, spaghetti and watermelon. The soccer ball was quickly kicked over the fence into a construction yard so my cooking process had to be accelrate quite a bit because without a ball little boys become very hungry and loud very quickly. So I boiled the noodles really really fast... After spaghetti and all the mess associated with consuming it, Zach and Andrei went to visit the man who sells watermelon out the back of his truck on the sidewalk in front of the bank. They returned home with a beautiful and delicious eight pound watermelon for just over a dollar. This melon was enjoyed by all.

That's all for today. Thanks for all the prayers and words of encouragement for Nicu. I will pass on your love to him.

Hopefully tomorrow morning...

So today after making four calzones full of ham, cheese and veggies along with a loaf of zucchini bread Zach and I set out for the hospital to visit Nicu. Once we arrived at the hospital, I realized that I had little clue who to pronouce his last name and I am still not completely sure if Nicu is his full name. After some hand gestures, really bad Romanian on my part, and busting into some random hospital rooms, we found Nicu. He has not had his surgery yet. It was delayed until tomorrow morning at ten, hopefully. His spirits were good and his little face lit up when he saw Zach walk in the room behind me. We gave them the food unknowing that Nicu is not allowed to eat at all today. Whoops. We promised to visit tomorrow afternoon after his surgery. Our plan for tomorrow is to go the store early in the morning and get some supplies. nicu's family does not have hot water nor do they have money for bandages and ailments for his wounds. So we are going to buy an electric tea kettle very cheap here that can be used to heat water to keep his legs clean to prevent infection. We also might pick up a new outfit for him to wear home from the hospital because he is currently wearing jeans which will not fit over swollen legs. The social worker at the Ruth School informed us this morning that he desperately needs clothes. Tomorrow evening, it is our plan to take dinner to his siblings that are at home because their mom isn't there to care for them and we wouldn't want any hungry tummies.

Please continue to keep this family in your prayers and we will update you tomorrow :)

Nicu's surgery is tomorrow :)

A few weeks ago I mentioned a little boy named Nicu who has struggled with a physical disability all his life. He was suppose to have his surgery last Tuesday but it was postponed until tomorrow (Tuesday). Please be in prayer for him and his family as he undergoes this life changing surgery. Zach, Ali and I are planning on visiting him in the hospital tomorrow evening. This means that I will probably spend most of the day cooking and baking for Nicu and his family. I'll update this as soon as we know something :)

Thanks!

Thank God for Facebook!

Good morning everyone! I haven't posted in forever because of Switzerland. We had a wonderful time minister to the youth of EuroVenture by meeting their physical needs for hunger during their week long camp so that their could concentrate completely on their spiritual hunger for the love of Christ and the Bread of Life. After the camp of approximately 204 teenagers from 13 different countries was over, it was time to tell my mother goodbye and head back to Romania. This is where things got complicated. Our Passports were stolen in airport. I had put our travel bag with tickets, passports, money, camera so pretty much our entire lives down at my foot when I took my sweatshirt off and transferred some chocoladgr from checked bag to my carry on because my bag was overweight. When we went to grab all our bags our travel bag was no where to be found.

So in panic we all dumped out all the suitcases on the sidewalk of the airport. Dirty clothes everywhere! We even had British Airways pull mom's checked bag off her plane to make sure someone hadn't accidently thrown it in there but no luck. I ended up telling my mom goodbye while in the Swiss Policr station because I was filing a report for our two missing passports. Luckily, mom had her passport in her purse so only Zach and I were stranded. I then went to Lufhansa and cancelled our flight back to Bucharest which was nonrefundable of course. 

Then we were off to the American embassy which is located in the capital of Switzerland, Bern, which is of course not where the airport is. So we took the train. The first train ride was short from the airport to the main train station and we rode with the Waddells who had been in Switzerland with us and were headed to Austria to visit family for a few weeks. After arriving at the main train station we boarded the train to Bern.

 Once in Bern with all our luggage we set out on the quest to find cheap lodging. The American Embassy didn't open again until Monday morning at nine and this was just Saturday afternoon. After quite a long trek, we finally found a hotel that we could sort of afford with my mom's bank card. After checking in and each of us claiming our twin bed, we set out to the grocery store because we were pretty hungry by this point. We arrived at the store three blocks from the hotel just in time for the guy washing the store windows to tell us that it closed five minutes ago. What kind of store closed at eight on a Saturday? Luckily, we found a pizza shop and picked up a cheese pizza for dinner. 

After eating out pizza, I checked my Facebook so that I could message my dad so he would know what was going on. I figured my mom would still be in a state of panic when he picked her up at Dulles Airport that afternoon. When I logged in, I noticed a message in german which I thought was spam but opened it anyway so that Zach could practice his German. The only word I recognized before calling him over was passport. This man had found our passports. He listed his phone number but of course we didn't have a phone. So using Zach's four semesters of German and Google Translate we were able to message him back. We made plans to meet him on Monday morning in Zurich. We considered meeting him on Sunday but quickly decided not to because it would be much safer for us to meet him at his place of work rather than his home. 

On Sunday morning, we woke to the sound of pouring rain. After checking the weather it became very apparent that it would rain all day. So we packed up our stuff and checked out of the hotel and off to the store we went. Well, in Switzerland everything is pretty much closed on Sundays so no store. No store meant no food and no umbrellas. We walked back down to the main part of the city where we had reservations for the next night at a much cheaper rate. By the end of the 1.5 kilometer walk we looked like the people that you steer your children away from. I believe if we would have put out a cup we would have gotten some money. Soaking wet people with bags and pieces of bread look pretty pitiful. Around eleven or so, we found a McDonalds and got some good ole chicken nuggets. After devouring them, we proceeded to stay in the nice dry McDonalds for several hours. I even changed my shirt in the bathroom and attempted tin dry my other one under the hand dryer. Once we decided to brave rain again, we walked around the city some more and found another train station. In this train station were grocery stores that were actually opened. So we stocked up on sandwich supplies and instant soup mixes. Then it was check in time at our accommodations for the evening. After checking in, I had the hotel receptionist call the man who found our passports to confirm a meeting time and to make sure it wasn't some set up to get money. He seemed like a really nice guy and much to our surprise he found my purse along with the passports. 

Monday morning we got up at 5:45 and got on the first train to Zurich we could find. Once in Zurich, we jumped in a cab to the man's office (he is a doctor). He recognized us instantly because of our passport snapshots and the fact that we had all our luggage in the medical center. He had his nurse translate for us. He told us that his son found the bag with passports inside in the Marriott hotel in Zurich. My credit card and a necklace from Zach were the only two items missing which I feel like was a huge blessing. After thanking the man, Jorge, we headed back to the train station to catch a train to the airport. Once in the airport, I talked with a travel agent to figure out what mode of travel would be best to get us back to Romania: train or plane. After hearing that being on a train for 32 hours would save us less than a hundred dollars, we booked a flight. 

Our flight was from Zurich to Vienna and then Vienna to Bucharest. We had twelve hours of sitting around in Zurich before our first flight and then a nine hour layover in Vienna. In Vienna, I literally slept on the terminal floor using my book bag full of Swiss chocolate for a pillow. When we checked in our big bags, the lady made us take out some of the brownies mixes because the bag was overweight. Zachary then proceeded to shove the mixes in our carry-ons because "we have carried them this far. I want to eat them." Our flights went smoothly. Zach almost cried when security took away our two pound tub of peanut butter especially when I told him that there went his peanut butter cookies. It was a sad moment. 

We are now back in Bucharest and have been since Tuesday mid day. Our days have been full of seeing the kids who were shocked to have us back so soon because they thought they had to wait until next summer. Today, I have been making homemade pizza sauce to can and use in homemade calzones tonight for dinner. Time to get that pressure cooking going :)

Switzerland

Hey everyone!

Wee have officially arrived in Switzerland. We just finished dinner at restaurant right outside of Zurich. Tomorrow morning we will be meeting up with the rest of the team and headed to Interlaken. We will probably not have internet at the camp where we will be preparing meals for the teenagers so if I don't post for a while don't worry. Zach and I will return to Romania on July 16 and my mom will be back in Virginia on July 16.

Have a great week!

Updates on the week!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of posting but life here is in full swing and I have a hard time finding time to sit down and write out my thoughts. Last week we had what I like to call two a days which means we had club(VBS) in the mornings and in the afternoons. During the week we worked in three locations, the Ruth School and two villages. All of these clubs went very well and the new energy that Callom and Lakey from Mineral, Virginia brought to our group was amazing. In the midst of all these clubs, my mom and I were preparing three meals a day for our crew. I may have mentioned before that we were cooking on a hot plate with two eyes well two weeks ago I decided to can some homemade salsa for the winter and the weight of my pressure canner broke one of the eyes. So we got very creative at cooking a meal for five with one eye. Luckily, yesterday the cabinet man came and installed my kitchen cabinets along with my oven and stovetop. The oven had been installed maybe four hours before chocolate cupcakes were being baked. It was wonderful to now have a fully functional kitchen, it is really starting to feel like home!

Tomorrow, Mom, Zach and I will be heading to Switzerland. While there we will be cooking for a camp of about 200 high school students that live on US military basis all over Europe and Northern Africa. Zach and I will return to Romania on July 17. Our Internet there will be iffy but I'll try to update when I can.

Please be in prayer for one of our boys, Nicu, who has a severe birth defect that has made walking difficult for him his entire eight years of life. According to his older brothers, he broke his arm on Monday and went to the hospital. Now he has met a doctor that wants to do a surgery on his legs on July 19 to correct some of the problem. God really does use all things for good if he hadn't broken his arm he might not have ever met this doctor or had the hope of having this surgery.