The First Snow of Winter

This past Friday it finally snowed as it had been threatening to for over a week. Well, still being a true Southern Californian I was VERY excited until I realized I still had to walk to school in the snow and worse, frozen ice. So there I was in my new winter boots (that never saw the light of day last year) walking (ok perhaps creeping) extremely carefully as not to fall. Never mind that all around me were my Romanian neighbors, running so it seemed to me in their high heels and tennis shoes-like there was no snow and ice at all. After teaching my two classes at school, I "ran" home and put Samuel in his snowsuit and took the kids outside to play in the snow. I thought we were having a picture perfect winter time till Samuel said, "Mom, can we go home now?" I asked him why and he replied, "Snow is COLD!" Apparently he too somehow is a southern californian at heart. (As I type this it is snowing heavily!)

A Taste of Romanian Cuisine

The traditional big Romanian meal involves several courses. Here is a sample:

A true Romanian meal always begins with soup like the one pictured above. The most common type of soup is called "ciorba" and it is a sour soup and can be served with vegetables and a variety of meats.
A common appetizer: Salata de vinete is an eggplant spread with mayonnaise and spices served with tomatoes on bread.
Appetizer #2: salata de boeuf. It is a mayonnaise and mustard salad with potatoes, beef, pickles, carrots, peas. It is often served on bread or with hard-boiled eggs. It really is very good-much better than it looks and sounds!!
The Romanian delicacy: sarmale (pronounced sar-mall-ey) is sour cabbage stuffed with a mixture of rice, and minced pork and beef. It is steamed for over 24 hours and served with a smothering of sour cream. The yellow stuff in the background is called mamaliga, (one of my favorites!!)kind of a corn-bread mush often served with a pork sauce or cheese and sour cream.

And nothing better to top off a good Romanian meal than gogoşi: home-made Romanian donuts sprinkled in powdered sugar and dipped in Romanian fruit jams. Yum!! So come and visit us and we will treat you to all the good food!!

BCA Girls Group

I have the opportunity to be the leader for a small group of girls at BCA. The girls range in age from 13-18. We get together and discuss everything and anything, although some of the purpose of the group is to discuss the topics presented in our weekly chapel. We spend time bonding and praying for each other. From left to right, they are Abby, Rebekah, Rachael, and Ji Hye. Most of them have spent the majority of their life here in Romania and at BCA. It has been my pleasure to get to know them and fun too because I have only one of them in class and otherwise would have had limited interaction with them. Please pray for me as I try to be a good example to them of a godly woman and as I attempt to answer their questions about life and God. This awesome responsibility weighs heavy on me at times.

Family Photo Time

Who knew that trying to attempt to get a decent photo of the four of us could be so difficult? It seems one of our little toddlers is always having a meltdown!! These fabulous pictures were taken after the wonderful Thanksgiving we shared with our OC International Team. (although a Thanksgiving without turkey!!-not a very popular meat here in Romania)

"Grounded"-the BCA Coffeehouse

Every Thursday morning Eric and I bring Samuel and Hannah to eat and hang out at BCA's coffeehouse-"Grounded" they call it. It is located in the basement, really a one car garage of the main building. The Seniors organized it and work there selling all types of coffee, tea, hot chocolate and breakfast treats. There is also often live entertainment! (See photo above with our student Matews-a Brazilian missionary kid) Its a nice way to start out the day before school gets too busy and a good way for us to bond with the students. Plus, those of you who know me well know that I do indeed love coffee and love this opportunity to drink a lot of it!

Happy 1st Birthday Hannah!

I think Hannah will always be one of our markers for how long we've been in Romania as she was born 2 and 1/2 months after we arrived. I can't believe its been 1 year since God blessed us with such a wonderful and safe birth of our beautiful little girl! She is VERY active and started walking about two weeks ago as well as climbing on everything. She definitely keeps us busy!

Romania: A life of contrasts

Right across the street from our building is a gypsy camp where they have many horse carts. Samuel still loves seeing the horses everyday. Interestingly, the EU (European Union) laws adopted in Bucharest say that peasants from the countryside are no longer allowed in the city with their wagons and horses. Driving on the highways in Romania is a kind of like watching two time periods living side by side. I have never seen more Mercedes and BMW's in my life than in Romania. But then you pass these and get behind a horse and wagon. Or, you see a field with a large combine, followed by a field with people working with a horse and plow. Thus, Romania is truly a life of contrasts.

Fun with students at the Progressive Dinner!

We had the opportunity to host the appetizer portion of the high school progressive dinner last week and had a great time. Both Eric and I love hanging out with the students and getting to know each of their unique personalities better! It was fun to have the students in our own home and share our lives with them also. Samuel also enjoyed having what he calls the "kids" over. He probably talked the most out of everyone there sharing all his new words!!!

My Daily Walk To and From School

Most days I walk to and from school because 1) I enjoy walking and it gives me some time to be alone with my thoughts and 2) I have not yet tackled driving in this city. These pictures are from one of the nicest parts of my walk. Although somehow the pictures portray it nicer than it really is. BCA is near "the river"(well, as much as Los Angeles has a "river") and I cross that little bridge everyday. I also pass by 20 concrete block apartment buildings on my walk as well. Here are other things I see every day on my walk: 5 car wash stations, 2 tire stores, 3 pizzerias, 1 vacant lot, a minimum of 20 street dogs (this alone will have to be a topic for a whole separate post!), 2 beauty salons, 4 bus stops, 1 model train store (very odd!), 3 pharmacies, and 2 industrial type plants. This is for sure: my walk is NEVER boring.

Samuel at 2 1/2 and Hannah at 11 months

Hannah is everywhere constantly-she is our little mover and shaker. There is no rest for her-she wants to GO, GO, GO!! She also loves to wave all the time and at EVERYONE! She also shakes her head no just before she does something she knows she should not be doing.

Both of them are at such fun ages!!

Samuel is pretty much out of his "NO!" stage and has become Mr. Helpful around the house-enjoying doing his "chores" like helping Mommy with the laundry. He loves his little sister but is often annoyed by her constant presence in all his stuff. He does love to kiss her though! His current favorite word is MINE! (big surprise there!) and his favorite sentence is "What cha doing Mom?" which must be immediately answered!

The Views from our Apartment Windows

Our favorite view-from our bedroom

What Samuel and Hannah see out their windows

As I sit on our sofa I often watch these women chat with each other out their windows

The view from our living room windows

From our kitchen window

BCA Secondary Cookout

We were excited to chaperone our first Bucharest Christian Academy Event-the annual cookout. Basically, the students hang out after school- cooking hotdogs, hamburgers, and mici (Romanian sausage type things). We had a fabulous time playing games and bonding with the students.

A Year in Review

It’s hard to believe we have lived in Bucharest, Romania for just over a year now. We wanted to take some time to not only reflect on what God has done for us but to thank you for being faithful in your prayers and support of us. Many of the items below were only possible because of your prayer and financial support.

So what did this year look like?

*Hundreds of Hours Studying and Learning Romanian-we enjoyed working with our language teachers and practicing with our new friends and neighbors. We are so thankful for the foundation of the language we now have. It makes all the difference in being able to function here. Our plans are to continue language learning on a much-reduced schedule as we teach at the school.

*We added another member to our family!! We are now 4! Hannah Alice was born November 9, 2006. So many of you prayed for her safe arrival and she has been an extremely healthy baby! We can’t believe she is already 9 months old and standing up and attempting to walk and do everything her big brother Samuel does.

*We bought and remodeled an apartment here in Bucharest. This is one experience we will never forget! How thankful we are for our new home!

*We were blessed to have family visit. Eric’s parents were in Bucharest for Hannah’s birth and then again in April. Heather’s parents and siblings were able to visit for Christmas and again this summer. We can’t express what a difference it makes to have such supportive family.

*We watched Samuel grow from a baby to “real little boy”! It is such a joy to interact with this very loving little child. Heather’s sister Amanda was such a blessing in taking care of him.

*We spent time learning the history of Romania, reading books, and also traveling around to places outside of Bucharest to get more familiar with our new country.

*We worked and bonded with our OC International Team here in Bucharest. They are like our family. We went on retreats, had fellowship times, weekly prayer meetings, and also occasionally helped out with their ministries.

*We worked on preparing for our classes at our ministry focus at Bucharest Christian Academy.

And although we would never say that this past year was easy, it certainly was full of many blessings from God at every twist and turn!!