Our adventures in 2012 actually began in 2010……….let me
explain. In Oct. ’10 I took my 1st
mission trip. The entire time in Romania
I felt at “home”. I even remember
telling Gabi, the Missions Director, that I could live and teach here. Now put that thought in the closet for a
while.
During the 2011 year we both began getting “itchy feet” –
the phrase my grandmother used when she felt the urge to move. We didn’t know where or when, just that we
were ready for something new. It also
corresponds with our previous times of itchy feet – we stay about 10 years in a
location before we head out for a new location.
Only this time, we spent almost 13 years in Kingsland. Even though we were ready for something new,
we weren’t – Dennis wasn’t ready for retirement yet, and we had the house. But plans for retirement were in the
forefront of our thoughts.
June 2011 Dennis and I both went to Romania on a mission
trip. It was then that we thought about
our next possible move; but way too many things had to happen for that to even
be a possibility.
Whatever we were to do, our first priority was to sell the
house. It had been on the market for
about 6 months with 2 contracts that fallen through. After consulting with our realtor (on a
Friday), we decided that August would be the last month; if it hadn’t sold by
then, we’d take it off the market and wait for another year before trying
again. That Sunday morning at church, we
were told that our house was going to be purchased – a couple in our home Bible
study group said they had always wanted to buy our house, and the time was
now. Even better was the fact that they
were in a lease agreement until February 2012 and wanted to know if we would be
interested in leasing the house until then…….heck yeah!!! That would give us plenty of time to dispose
of things and get ready for whatever our next move would be.
Now fast forward to January 2012. We began the year in our new place…….a 26’
travel trailer that was parked in our landlords RV spot!!! We sold everything except the tools, vehicles
and a few personal items of importance.
All that we owned now occupied a 12’x’20’ storage building, with room to
add some of my aunt’s belongings. How
freeing it was to no longer be trapped by things!
Our landlords just happen to be another couple from church
whom we somewhat knew. But living next door to Katy and Forrest Scarborough was
the best time ever!!! Oh how we miss
sitting on the back deck in the evenings with a strawberry drink in hand. You two are the best landlords we’ve ever had!!! Please keep the camper ready for when we come
home (we’ll need a place to live).
After a January meeting with Dacian, the director for
Fundatia Buckner in Romania, we began making plans to move to Romania. There I would teach English and Dennis would
do construction. Anticipated move date:
June 21, 2012. Now the ball was rolling
to get ready for a MAJOR move.
I resigned from Llano ISD in March so that I could spend the
month of April in Chicago. There I would
get my certification to teach English as a Foreign Language (same basic concept
as ESL only the location for teaching is abroad). I miss working with the folks there, as well
as Robert and Savannah, but I don’t miss the job.
Dennis began his paperwork for retirement about the same
time, with an effective date of May 1.
Now he was on the clock to get his stuff in order. Not wanting to leave a bunch of “to-do’s” for
his working co-worker, he managed to get his inventories and audits completed
before time to leave.
We spent the month of May visiting with family and out of
town friends, making connections for support and saying goodbye for a
while. One such visit was to Dallas,
where we took several plastic totes filled with our winter clothes and stuff to
send via shipping container from the Buckner warehouse. It was important to be sure of what we sent,
because everything received in Romania becomes property of Fundatia
Buckner. We would be able to use
whatever we sent, but will have to leave it when we return home. While in Dallas, we also caught a Rangers
game.
June was spent packing bags – over and over and over. It’s difficult to pack everything you need
for your future and still stay under 50 lbs per bag. We had already decided to check in a 2nd
bag each, and had an extra one for Deb Guinn to check in for us. So here we are, packing 5 check in bags with
our clothes, as well as items to take for the children in Romania. Thank goodness for the lady at the FedEx
store – she allowed us to use her scale and reception area to substitute,
remove and re-weigh our bags several times!!!
The night before we left, we had dinner with Rick, Keisha,
the kids and mom. Location: Chicken
Express! Nothing like the best for us :) Cameron begged to go with us to the airport,
but I didn’t think I could handle another 2 hours of crying. Knowing that I was leaving, he latched onto
my legs for life........more tears.
June 21st, the day arrives.
Mom drives Dennis, Deb Guinn (a lady from our church) and I to San
Antonio to catch our flight. Arriving at
the airport was both exciting and sad…….this would be the first step to our
next adventure, and the final goodbye to family for a while. None the less, the adventure begins.
Our flight would take us from San Antonio to Chicago. There we were hoping to connect with the
others on the mission trip…….but no.
They actually left Chicago an hour after us and arrived in Bucharest an
hour before – go figure. Anyway, from
Chicago we headed to Frankfort, Germany; waited 2 hours before heading to
Bucharest. Once we gathered our bags, we
headed out the gate to the rest of our awaiting team. After some quick introductions, it was “load
‘em up, and move ‘em out”, for now we had a 4 hour drive to our hotel.
Our first week in Romania included camp with children from
the Zau orphanage. Most of the kids were
older teenagers, with a few younger children who belonged to group home
parents. It was a difficult time for
some of the kids, as they had just been removed from the orphanage (it had been
closed by the government) and placed into group homes. Despite all the changes, camp was great!!
We made it to our new home on Friday, June 29th –
a communist era apartment located on the 8th floor (which is
actually the 10th floor because there are businesses on the ground
and 1st floor) of a very busy intersection. This would be a challenge for us because we
were so used to the quiet and dark – this intersection proved anything
but. We spent the next week with Deb
Guinn, visiting sights around the area, getting our bearings with where we now
live, and seeing some spectacular sights as we took her back to Bucharest for
her trip home.
The week after Deb left was lonely – we were now on our
own. But we spent the time rearranging
the furniture in the apartment (all bedroom furniture as the apartment had been
used as the transition home). There are
no closets here, so wardrobes are standard.
Since this is considered a 3 room apartment (that doesn’t include
kitchen or bathrooms), there was a lot of large furniture – 4 twin beds, 3
wardrobes, 2 computer desks, 3 dressers and a storage closet. None of the rooms had been used as a living
area, so we had to buy a couple of camping chairs to sit on. Two beds we pushed together to make a king
size bed; the other 2 beds were moved into one room for a guest bedroom, along
with the smallest wardrobe and smaller computer desk. My mom would be proud as to how much
furniture I stuffed into a 10’x11’ room, and still have room to turn around J Our next step was to purchase a couch (one
that would fit our tiny new living room).
Found a great little furniture store that made one to our specs. Once completed, now it’s time to move it
in. The furniture store would deliver,
but only to the curb. Dennis and I
decided that we’d pick it up and haul it ourselves. It only took 2 trips to the store and 5 trips
up the elevator with pieces. Then when
we got it inside, it didn’t quite fit the space L Somehow, we didn’t allow for the knob on the
radiator – bummer! Ended up having to
get a plumber to rotate the valve in an upward position.
The summer would be spent with 3 more mission teams coming,
and going. Each team had their own
program, so nothing was repetitive. It
was great to see to everyone come, but hard to see them leave. The month of August was a time to spend with
the girls at the group home. We took a
week and went with the family to Oradea (located 4 hours northwest of
Targu-Mures and just minutes from the Hungarian border). Here the girls visited a waterpark every
day. One day Dennis and I headed across
the border……..we had to leave the country for at least a day in order to get a
new entry stamp on our passports (our paperwork for visas was not going as
quickly, or easily, as we’d hoped). We
enjoyed a day of touring and was thrilled to exchange $$$ - we exchanged $100
and received 22,500 forints!!! Thought
we were rich until we paid over 1600 forints for lunch; still ended up with
about 17,000 forints to bring home.
Guess we’ll save them for our next trip to Hungary.
School began at Point of Hope in September. I am teaching 5 classes of English a day on
Tuesday - Thursday. My students range in
age from 3 years old to 4th grade (I also have a couple of teachers
who are learning with the kids). The
older kids are currently taking English in school so conversing with them is a
little easier. The youngest kids are
just a joy to be with!! I make a point
of going into each class every day I’m there.
They are so willing to learn and fun to be with. I LOVE my job!!!! Wait......job would imply pay, and there is no pay with this work. OK, I LOVE my volunteering!!!!
I also work with the girls at the group home on their English;
two have pretty good language skills, although they all think they have no
skills. Most are willing to try and
speak English, and all are willing to hear and repeat the correct
word/pronunciation. I can’t really
complain because I have the same problem with Romanian. Which brings me to the language……..
Dennis and I began our Romanian language class in
September. Our tutor is a Romanian
English teacher at one of the local high schools (she also happens to be the
pastor’s wife). She is fluent in English
and has lived in the states for several years.
Our class is every Friday morning (before school for her), with homework
each week. As with most students
learning a new language, our skills are much better at reading than
speaking. The language itself is very
similar to Spanish, so that helps.
Unlike English though, Romanian words have gender L That means each word is defined as male,
female or neuter, and is referred to by the masculine, feminine or neuter
article. The possessive is also defined
by the gender and singular/plural. And
then there are those words which don’t follow the rules…………….ugh!!!
November was spent baking cookies in preparation for the
mission team that would arrive in Dec.
In total, 403 sugar cookies were baked and frozen. And while I was in the mood to bake, I also
made 14 chocolate zucchini bread loaves for the staff at Point of Hope.
The last mission team of 2012 arrived on December 9. One member, Kim Gaskins, was from our home
church – Packsaddle Fellowship in Kingsland, TX. Three men came from Christ United Methodist
Church in IL, along with Tim Oloffson, ACF Director. What a great time it was to meet these men
and work with them. Kim and I spent our
time with helping the kids decorate Christmas cookies. The men worked on the conference room (which
is now being used as an additional classroom for some of the 1st
graders). Thanks to Dennis, Jim, and
Kevin for their efforts to complete the room – especially since there was no
heat. I also appreciate them for their
willingness to come into the classes with the youngest kids and dance away to “Bean
Bag Boogie” and “The Freeze”. Thank you
God for bringing these new friends into our lives!! The time we spent together was awesome. Saying goodbye to everyone was really
hard. Our little piece of “home” was
leaving, and we won’t be seeing anyone again until June :(
Christmas day was spent with the girls at the group
home. They were so excited to share with
us as to what they received. Although
few and simple, they all received what they asked for. Dinner included sarmale (cabbage rolls – yuk!),
sausage, snitel, cartofi (potatoes) and 2 different types of salad – all prepared
by Andi. What a great day to share with
our Romanian family.
New Years came in with a bang – literally. The fireworks began around 11:45, with the
finales starting at midnight and ending around 12:30. We got up a couple of times to see fireworks
being shot from balconies across the street, as well as on the streets. There was a huge display from the centre,
which we watched from our kitchen window, with music. Once back in bed we listened to a few more
explode before the car alarms and dog kicked in……….too funny!!!
Welcome 2013. Can’t
wait to see what this new year has in store for us!!!
