Sunday and Monday Dec 26-27
The flights started out eventful already- a 1hr 10 min delay for the flight to Chicago to Germany. Those of you who know me, this is no surprise. Somehow with the help of some encouraging prayers and text messages, I was able to not stress. The long flight was the same as always, filled with movies and not a wink of sleep, as I can never sleep during flight. I did, however, have an amazing view of the moon, a first. It was a half moon with the light reflecting off the wings…relaxing to gaze at while the rest of the cabin slept. When we arrived in Germany, we were late as planned, but should still of had an hour and a half to make our connection. We stood up, eager to stretch. We gathered our bags in the isles, and we stood some more…and kept standing. The “Cherry Picker” for the door was frozen and would not work. No worries, we would use steps out the back. We stood waiting somewhat patiently. The stairs needed to be de-iced first. We waited, and finally the back door opened…only to be closed again. The stairs were attached but were not yet deiced. Finally, somehow the original exit plan succeeded after at least a 30 minute delay. We made it to our gate on time and quickly loaded the bus to board the plane. Boarding went quickly and we sat and waited for them to load our bags…and waited…and waited. I said I cannot sleep during a flight, but apparently I can sleep on a plane- I took about a 45 minute nap while someone took forever loading the plane. I was awoken by the engines as soon as the plane began to move, my only sleep during all the travel. We were now delayed over an hour on what was a little over a 2 hour layover. When we arrived, we had to walk all the way out of the security and back in again at the ticket gate. Somehow, this also meant paying for our extra checked bag fee…again? Annoying. Only after paying were our boarding passes printed and we proceeded on a long walk to our gate at the other end of the airport. We went straight to the bus to board the plane. At this point, I was starving from all the travel. My brilliant father decided that the best way to make my medicine cold was to scoop up a quart size bag full of snow while we waited on the bus…and the ziplock bag was carried on the plane to act as my very own portable fridge. We had a long wait on the plane once again, and I was able to drink some of the coldest medicine I’ve ever had while traveling. Finally we arrived in Cluj, only a little late, and of course, missing one bag- my checked bag. This was no surprise to Emil, an expert at dealing with the Wedgwood team and our various travel issues. It was taken care of quickly and we were off to TM. A warm shower later, I was ready to crawl in to bed, stretching my legs as much as I wanted without the pain of airplane noise.
Tuesday, Dec 28
In the morning we went to a Gypsy village for a short kids program. I was so tired and really just observed more than anything. Dragos led and was great with the kids. It was good to see the village, but a hard start after so little sleep. From there we went to lunch at the LOC houses. The kids were coming in from sledding and were so excited. They chatted about random stuff and met my dad. Gabi took us from there to the baby hospital via bus. Somehow, I was able to fall asleep on the way there and back. It was nice, but now as I sit up writing this, I regret it a bit. The babies were sweet and as always it was heartbreaking to see them stuck in their cribs. Gabi knew each one by name and knew their personalities as well, which was encouraging to see how God was using her there.
She dropped us off at McDonald’s afterward for some fancy fast food. We then changed into warmer clothes to take the LOC kids down to the Center to look at Christmas lights. We saw two Santas (a bit confusing for young kids when there are two right next to each other) and took tons of photos. It was very cold, but a great time to just bond with the kids. We were anxious to get home to warmth and hopefully a good nights sleep before the next long but amazing day began.
Wednesday Dec. 29
Today we ventured out to a village a few hours away to see Maria, the LOC teenager I used to sponsor. She moved away with her boyfriend’s family and her sister and brothers had not seen her in a long time. Two of the staff members, Gabi and Dan, were able to take all of them for a short reunion. We had no idea what to expect from this family she lived with. They were so welcoming. As soon as we walked in, the served us a plate full of cakes and other treats, complete with Coke. We chatted for only a few minutes before her boyfriend offered for my dad to go hunting with him. He was in no way dressed for this (nor a hunter) so he declined but was then asked if he would like to see the guns. The next hour was filled with excitement as the guys posed for pictures with the shotguns and pistol. Apparently, guns are rare in Romania, so it was a treat for them to even see one. During this time, the siblings were each able to spend some time with Maria and hopefully have some quality conversation. Then the family fed us all a great Romanian meal..sarmalis and some pork (probably from the severed pig head hanging in the yard) plus some French fries added for my benefit ☺
Overall, it was a great experience and my first time as guest in a Romanian home. The family was obviously financially stable and treated Maria great, which is a huge answer to prayer.
After the trip back, we hung out with the LOC kids at the houses and watched videos and played with PhotoBooth on my laptop. Then Jeff took us in to town to an “authentic Romanian Italian” restaurant…aka some pizza and pasta. We finished the day with one of my favorite things, raiding the local grocery store for some Milka bars. We got in early in time to relax and even get to sleep in a little tomorrow.
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