Reflections on Romania

This is a picture of me in Romania. I wish I had other pictures to send, but my bag was stolen that had my camera in it, so this will have to suffice (on a sidebar, I took the passports out of my bag just before the heist went down...God is good!).

Our main objective for this trip was to go to the baby hospital to love on a bunch of orphaned babies. Some of the kids had illnesses but the great majority of them are there because there is no one else to take care of them. It is really a sad state of affairs. Even though the nurses are very loving of the children, there are just too many kids for them to take care of. For some 15 kids, there are somewhere between 3 and 4 nurses. Our role was to go into their rooms, take them our for some TLC, give them some stimulation and just give them a whole lot of love. The hardest part of this trip was looking into their little eyes and saying goodbye full knowing that there would be no one to hold them the rest of the night. My heart broke everytime we had to go through this painful process.

On Sunday night of our trip, we got a phone call from another organization in Romania wondering if we would be willing to help a family lay some concrete floors. My first reaction was not very positive. I really didn't want to spend my days away from the baby hospital but then we were informed why this family needed concrete floors. The family had just had a baby and Social Services removed the child due to the fac that the living conditions were not up to par. They then said that the family had one week to get concrete floors or they would lose the right to their baby. Our team then decided that we had to do everything in our power to help this family out. Of all the things we did, this was the thing that I loved the most. I loved going up to the mountain region where this family resided and I loved being a part of their life. Even though they did not have a lot, they gave us their very best. They worked hard and were generous with multiple espressos and great homecooked meals. The baby was supposed to have come home this past Sunday. God willing I hope that this family was restored.

There is a lot more to tell. Maybe another time and another day...or maybe you will invite me over to your house for a couple of espressos...I'll even help you lay concrete.