love in romanian

I thought that since I'm still editing some photos that will be on the blog... today I'd write about something that is really important to me and is a big part of who I am.

When I first talked to Jeff Holt about this blogging thing, I told him I didn't have one because I didn't know what to write about and that people don't want to read about my life, they just want to see my photos and I do that through my website.

He told me that wasn't true. That people do want to know about me because that is what influences my work. So that was why I started to blog. All thanks to Jeff.

Previous to this conversation, I had told him about our trip to Romania this winter. I told him about the hardships we saw and the hearts we fell in love with. He then said this is something I NEED to blog about... so here I am.

If you're not interested in the whole story, there are photos below and you can skip down to them. I won't be offended. To be brutally honest, that's what I usually do when I'm on a blog.

But I'm wanting to get this story out.

It's hard to talk about, but needs to be told.

For those of you who don't know, I am a Christian. I'm not a religious person. I don't beat people over the head with the Bible and judge people who don't go to church. I'm real and I love people (which is what I believe Christians SHOULD be about... but that's a whole other blog entry right there...)

Anyways, the reason I tell you this is to answer most people's first question about our trip:

                      {Why Romania?}

I'll tell you, even though it doesn't make sense to me. 

Ever since a missionary guy came to our church and talked to us about his time in Africa, holding orphan babies with AIDS, I knew I wanted to do something like that. My heart breaks for orphans.

I assumed it would be the typical AIDS babies in Africa thing... but then I learned about Romania and their orphanages and corrupt systems and knew that was where I was supposed to go.

After that, just hearing the word, "Romania" gave me chills and excitement.

So that's why.

To make an incredibly long story a bit shorter, here it goes:

My husband, Ryan, and I headed over to Bucharest, Romania this past January. We stayed there with an agency for 7 weeks. 50 days to be exact.

We helped out in the orphanages, just playing with kids, arm wrestling, coloring, games, and whatnot. This was a large part of our stay.

The other part that I can't shake is our time in the hospitals with the abandoned babies.

Many have families that just left them cause they can't take care of them. Some are sick and have been there since birth.

We divided our time between two hospitals... one with about 10 kids, the other with about 30. The smaller one had the little sickies (about 5 of them). They stole and broke my heart every time I walked into the room. Some had Cerebral Palsy, some, we weren't sure.

Hospitals in Romania are not at all like they are here. They do not have suffice care to say the least. We were there to help give them the love and care they needed. We changed diapers, fed them, and played with them. Some nurses appreciated our help, some didn't.

I could go on and on about the backwards society in Romania and the history that has gotten them to this state, but I want to focus on the kiddies. They're beautiful.

We are so thankful that we were able to take this time to pour into them what we could, and are comforted in knowing that even though we aren't there to help and love them, Heart to Heart Int'l has people there all the time, and teams coming to love these forgotten ones.

Here's some photos of our time there. And keep in mind, we weren't 'supposed' to take photos, so the quality isn't the best...