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 :)