I just realized I haven’t blogged in nearly two weeks, and only have a few minutes, so here goes:

It’s full-on fall here, but much wetter than I’m used to in Minnesota. We are planning to have an “American Thanksgiving” here, but there will only be two Americans present and about 30 Romanians and 1 Canadian. It’ll be interesting I’m sure, as the stories I’ve heard from the last attempts they’ve made for Thanksgiving have had live turkeys perched in the kitchen or other similar shenanigans!

I’ve had a struggle with packages, and am learning the hard way how lucky we are in America to have a reliable and not completely corrupt postal system.

The Bible study with the older girls is going well. One of the girls is doing well at memorizing scriptures I give them, and all the girls enjoy the time to talk about the Bible and life….and enjoy the tasty treats I always make too. Whatever brings them, I don’t care, as long as the end result is that they’re in the Word and hopefully it will impact them.

We caught another mouse, and later I saw two more but haven’t heard/seen them since that day, so……..I don’t know where they are. I’m just pretending they left our house when they heard the racket I made seeing the last one. One thing Romania (or at least my area of Romania) doesn’t sell, are mouse traps! It’s the weird little things that you take for granted in the States that I’m missing here. So……..pray for my sanity. 😉

The two kids at my home have had a struggle with their Mom recently, talking to her a few times by telephone. She’s wanting to take them with her for a few weeks over Christmas and there are mixed emotions from both of them. Hudson doesn’t want to go because he doesn’t want to be around the boyfriend, and said “She says he loves me, but just because he buys me things doesn’t mean he loves me.”….pretty insightful for an eight-year-old. Camille told me that she wants to go, but is sad that I would be alone over Christmas. She told me….”If we go, and you can’t see us, can you sleep in my room so you’re not afraid?” That was pretty sweet I thought. Pray for them, for there are some real deep wounds that they carry and this time with their Mom will certainly bring those to the surface.

Another timely request, is that our directors’ Dad just fell and broke his neck. He’s 87. Tomorrow, both of the directors will travel back to the States to help him in his healing/adjusting process and there are some serious family struggles going on as well, so they’ll have to deal with that as well. Pray for their travel safety, for the Dad’s healing, for peace and God’s grace as they enter into this. Pray also for us, as we divide up the responsibilities they carry here, and miss them while they’re away.

Lastly, you don’t know the struggle it took to get the picture below, but I tell you what. I think the end result is great! I’m so thankful and honored to be able to chosen to help guide these children as they grow. There’s real hardship some days, but there is also joy. The Joy of the Lord is my strength!!