PHOTOS! (finally!)

Alright! I think it's about time to put some faces to these names! I have gathered some of my favorite pics from facebook (since I forgot my camera!) to show you here with captions.

Our traveling team at the Minneapolis airport before our grueling 9 hour flight. Tim was a brave man... not only was he the only guy in our group, but also out of all the other women who joined us when we got there!

Listening intently to Costel's stories.... ok more like trying to figure out what he is signing to us! :) 

Playing a "Minute to Win it" game at the New Year's Eve party... that's me in the tan sweater trying to stack 5 apples... I did!

Making friendship bracelets while watching Titanic. The guy in the blue is named Resvan and I now have a bracelet he made for me. He is one of the transition house boys for this year's program.

Our group touring Bucharest- this is People's Palace, the bad guy's office. Ridiculous, right? It is the second largest government building to the Pentagon. It wasn't finished when the bad guy got caught and sentenced to death, so the good guys decided to finish it and use it for govt. 

Playing out on the frozen lake. This is the slippery patch of ice I was talking about that the kids made to slide on like a slip n' slide.

Niku and I arm wrestling... this kid had guns!

This is Megan and Sunny. Megan was on the team with me, and Sunny was the girl I told you about earlier. She has gone through the transition program, is 26, and wants to work on staff with H2H. They will probably hire her when they get another open position.

This is Nicoletta! Isn't she just adorable? This is the girl who we just colored and cuddled for the couple hours we had at the younger orphanage. The one who called me mommy. :)

These are the transition house boys for this year. They all insisted that we each take an individual picture with their group. So funny! The one in the front and the one to my right are twins. The one on the left could actually speak a bit of english... he was such a jokester!

The whole team... team members, interns, and H2H staff included!

Well, hopefully that helps give you a better "picture" of my time in Romania (Harhar!). It was such a life experience and huge blessing to get to serve all those kiddos. I hope it's in God's plan for my life to go back someday, but if not going definitely changed my perspective on my life and what I could do with it.

I got some more pics taken with the babies at the hospital and such but none that have been put up on facebook yet, so there might still be more coming. 

DAY NINE... The LAST day.

I can't even sum up in words how I am feeling tonight... all I know is that I don't want to be heading home on a plane tomorrow morning. I have fallen in love with the kids here... with their unconditional love, their constant touch, all the non-verbal (and verbal) communication. Every day there was a new kid to be entranced by, and today was the hardest because I knew that since it was a new one for me, I wouldn't be able to build on the interactions. His name is Niku, and he's 13 years old. Today we had a great time playing cards, arm wrestling, and just hugging. It's weird how the kids are 'younger' here, and touch is essential.

Needless to say there will be lots of thinking over to be done on my 10 hours of flights tomorrow, and lots of processing. I'll get back to you all, but right now I'm just going to soak up my last few hours in ROMANIA!

DAY EIGHT

Today held many special moments with the kiddos. We went to Voluntar in the morning and played with a bunch of little ones for a couple hours... a little girl named Nicoletta attached herself to me when we got there. We had a great time just cuddling and sitting together, which doesn't happen much with the older kids at Parish since they are so active! We colored and I used the few affirmations I know- "good", "bravo", how pretty" over and over again! When we were leaving I tried to say goodbye to her but she was pretty distracted and didn't fully understand that we were going, so it was just a quick "pa!" (bye!). Then, as I was going down the stairs a few moments later I heard her yell "mami!" down to me and I turned around and she was waving and smiling and saying bye. My heart is just fluttering as I think about this because it was just so sweet... lots of emotions.

We then went to Parish in the afternoon and again there were many special moments as I got to play some card games with a girl that they think is autistic and she did really well compared to my interactions with her in the past week. Most of the kids were playing outside for awhile that I was inside so it was good to get one on one time with the few kids that stayed inside. I also got to meet and interact more with some of the older kids (teens) which is always fun.

Tonight an older man named Costel came over and told us stories about the revolution and the day that all the fighting happened and how he comandeered a tank, etc. It was very exciting and interesting to hear first-hand accounts. And now I am off to some good team bonding at 10:30 pm! I can't believe tomorrow is our last day... waahhh!

DAY SEVEN

Monday was fun and exhausting! In the morning we went to the market... it was so interesting! You would walk into a little shop which would lead to a whole alley of shops set up in a big structure... it kind of reminded me of China Town in NYC or possibly how the parents describe market in Mongolia. There was also a whole food and meat section with huge hunks of meat sitting out in the open next to a dog doing his business type of thing. YUM! :P I was able to get some fun souvenirs. On the way back to the house we saw a woman wearing a dress and cloak standing up in a big cart that she was driving by horses and behind her in the cart was a can with a fire burning to keep her warm... it was so bizarre! The flames were licking at her skirts! SO crazy!

After the market we went to Parish again. It had just snowed so the kids took us out onto the frozen lake... it was scary! To get to the lake you had to cross a little concrete "bridge" about a foot wide covered in packed down snow with a dropoff leading to running water on either side. BAH! The kids just walked across like no big deal but it took me a good five minutes to work up the courage then I had people hold my hand from the edge for as long as they could. Once on the lake it was completely frozen so that wasn't bad, just exciting because I don't think I've ever been on a frozen lake. The next couple hours consisted of LOTS of snow in the face, chasing kids for revenge, and sliding around. They kids made a lane where they cleared the snow so they could run and slip on the ice since the lake was covered with snow. It was similar to a slip and slide but they would stay standing and slide on their feet. Very ingenious!

Then we went inside and played with the kids more... and guess what? We watched more Titanic! The kids here REALLY like that movie! And don't worry aunt Rebecca... we did skip the bad parts, since TV here doesn't! It's just so funny how they all know about Celine Deon and love to sing along. During the movie I talked with kids and made a girl a bracelet.

At night we had a great couple hour conversation with Jen, the staffer that gave us the tour. I asked her so much about H2H, the kids' stories, her story about how she got here, etc. It was incredibly interesting... she just tells great stories and knows so much. So that was a blessing to get to do!

But yesterday was just so exhausting with playing out on the ice for so long! So hopefully I will have more energy today. We are going to Voluntar again, the orphanage that we handed out the gifts to, then to Parish in the afternoon. I will be so sad to leave! Pray that these last two days we have with the kids can be fruitful and enjoyable and that we can all stay energetic!

DAY SIX

Yesterday was a great day! Since it was Sunday, we went to a church called alfAOmega (Romanian spelling). It was a contemporary service much like I go to in the states. It was also very small, about 50 people with our big group making up a third of that. The service started at 1pm and went til about 2:30... however they normally have worship but they didn't this week because they were at a retreat when they normally practiced. So that's a bummer that we didn't get to experience that.

After church there was lots of hang out time and conversation. I met a missionary's kid... her name is Jessica and she is a freshman in college. Her parents moved to Romania when she was a senior in highschool and she loved it so much that she is taking online college so she can stay. She has her own apartment and is very fluent in Romanian after being there for about a year and a half. It was fun talking to her and getting her perspective on things.

We left church and went to the mall. The mall is a huge very nice building, that in the reign of the bad communist guy that totally screwed up Romania was built to be a feeding center. This guy's plan was to have a bunch of big feeding centers around the city so that noone would cook in their homes, and that way he could control how much food everyone got. Crazy, right? But now it is a mall, very opposite of communism! Ha! So I was very suprised by how nice it was and how it had many recognizable stores such as Reebok. We didn't shop around, just got lunch which consisted of Schuarmas! They are big tortilla type things wrapped around chicken, french fries, cabbage, and then an array of toppings and condiments that you can choose from. It was delicious! I also got gelato... all of this I got for 16 lei, which is about 5 dollars.

Romanian History, if you're interested (as told by Heather)
After the mall, one of the H2H staff, Jen, took us on a grand 2 hour tour of the whole city of Bucharest and told us all about its history. It was SO interesting! We learned all about the revolution in 1989 and were in the square where it all happened while she told us about it. It was also very interesting to learn about how Romania got to where it is today. Back in the day it was three separate countries, so this one guy thought it would unite the country if they brought in a foreign king... so they got a king from Germany and it worked! Romania was united and the king was very good. There were three more kings after him until the 30s/40s when WWII happened and since they had this tie to Germany, they were forced to fight on Germany's side. So Romania supplied all the oil to the Nazi army, until finally the army got far enough away that they felt safe, they then stopped supplying oil, and that is when WWII ended. After that, the US gave Romania to Russia, which led to all the years of oppression under communism. Through a series of events the bad guy got into power and his goal was to rule the world (literally!). So we got to see all the CRAZY things he did and built to try and make himself appear as a God. His plan was to build an army to help him take over the world and do this through children that would be brought up with that mindset and training. Enter the Romanian orphan problem since he outlawed birth control and for women who bore children gave them better jobs and money etc. If they couldn't take care of their children, no big deal just hand them to the government and they would raise them. Thankfully, after a very sad event where the bad guy had a bunch of kids shot in a square, he and his evil wife were caught, found guilty, and shot. And now Romania just has to keep recovering. The mindset is still very much there that if you have children that you can't take care of, just have the govt do it. A lot of parents use the orphanages as boarding houses and will visit their kids or have them come home for Christmas, they just don't have enought to take care of them all the time. All very interesting as I said! 
End of Romanian History

After our tour, we came back to the house and watched Titanic with the transition home boys. They were all very excited about it, which made it fun. They don't have TV at the transition home, so it's a bit of a treat. And they love saying the few english words and names they know like "Celine Deon" and "Jack." So funny! During the movie a couple of us were making friendship bracelets and one of the guys named Resvan motioned/through translation that he would make one for me and I make one for him. So that's what we did! It's so funny how they will just be very straight forward with what they want or think!

This morning we are going shopping in the biggest marked in Bucharest. They sell everything there apparently! Then we are headed to Parish, which I am so excited for since I haven't seen the kids for 2 days because of the baby hospital and Sunday's activities yesterday. It's going to be so hard to leave! I can't believe we only have three days left! :(

DAY FIVE

Today I got to go to the baby hospital again... and it was even better the second time! I knew the babies and kind of how they acted, so it was fun to just get to enjoy them. If I had favorites :), it would be a little girl who doesn't have a name but we call her Sophia. She is about 10 months old but soooo little. Today she cuddled with me a lot which was so precious because most of the babies will just hang out, rather than put their head against your chest and hold on to you like a little monkey. :) So it was a good day!

We have the five boys that are in the transition house over at the H2H house tonight because the transition house leader is out of town. They are probably between 18-23 I would guess. None of them speak very much English at all, so it has been just gestures and a little bit of translating. But it is really fun to get to interact with Romanians my age... seeing as I came on this trip expecting to be spending a lot of time just with kids and babies.

Our team seems to be doing great. So far this trip has definitely outweighed any expectations I may have had for it. Every day is just a great adventure, but at the same time so comfortable and natural feeling! Tomorrow we will go to the church here and then to the mall to have lunch and one of the H2H staff will be giving us a tour of the city... should be exciting!

DAY FOUR [ringing in a NEW year!]

Yesterday. Wow. Let's just say that Romanians are MUCH better at ringing in the New Year than Americans are! :) So yesterday morning we all worked around the house to get ready for the party. I peeled potatoes for a good couple hours. We then went to Parish in the afternoon and had a small little celebration for the orphans there. We watched Kung Fu Panda (in Romanian with English subtitles), then handed out little goody bags. Bad idea considering the bags had every kind of noise maker imaginable and the rest of the afternoon consisted of all the kids coming up to your ear and blowing as hard as possible. :) We spent the rest of the time just playing with the kids. Yesterday was the first day any of the kids told me they loved me... which I realize they say to everyone but it's so adorable and I can say it back to them and really mean it! During the movie a girl who's probably about 10(?) named Catalina came up to me and we "cuddled" the whole movie while we joked around and taught each other words. She also thought it was a hoot to tell us that the only guy team member was her and she was him and all that silliness. So that was really fun. I played "Go Fish" with a 13 year old boy who would read the sea animals names off the cards which was very impressive but also very hilarious how he would pronounce things! I also interacted with an older (maybe highschool age?? It's so hard to tell!) boy named Berkey (sp?) who knew a lot of english- one of the first orphans there that I was really able to communicate with, so it was fun. He has a really big heart and I've never seen him be mean or beat up on any of the other kids which really can't be said about most of the other orphans. I left the orphanage with a huge smile on my face yesterday, just absolutely beaming because the kids are just so great, despite the fact they can be mean to each other at times. I guess it's just like brothers and sisters!

After Parish, we came back to the house to find some guests had already arrived for the New Year's Eve party. It was a party for all the graduates of the Transition Houses, so there were about 30 that were able to come (out of the about 100 that have graduated). Most of them were in their twenties. At first it was kind of awkward because our team speaks only English and everyone else speaks only Romanian except our few translators. However, as the night went on it got very comfortable. We had dinner, then got into teams and played "Minute to Win It" where there are a bunch of challenges to have to complete in one minute to get a point. My team won, which was VERY exciting for everyone. We then had dessert and just played cards and talked. At midnight we went outside to witness the huge city fireworks that were being fired off in the street and at surrounding neighbor houses. And teenage guys are the same here in Romania, they were lighting fire crackers and throwing them at us, just loving watching us American girls scream. It was frightening and I thought of mom just being very unappoving of it all. :) Haha! But it was so great because we literally just ran through the streets tooting little party horns, screaming and running away from fire crackers, and yelling "La Mutzan!" (Happy New Year!) During the evening, a guy named Costel had a translator come over and a few of the girls on the team talked with him for a good portion of the night. He shared with us his great love of singing and sang a few songs. I have noticed that a lot of the people we meet will want a translator to come over just so they can tell us random things about their life like how they like to play soccer, sing, or eat sweets. I wondered aloud if it was a Romanian thing, but then someone on my team suggested that it could be an orphan thing, since everyone who has done that has been an orphan and they don't have parents or family to tell those kind of things to. Which made me really sad because it reminded me of how whenever I have something exciting like I ace a test, a lot of the time the only people that really care are my family. I've especially noticed this since my parents have moved oversees that a lot of what I would talk about on the phone daily is stuff that noone else really wants to hear. But it's awesome because H2H and the staff have really become these ophans family. That's where they come for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc. That's who they tell their exciting news to and who they share life with. So this New Year I am SO thankful for H2H and the opportunity I have to join their family for a short time!