Love Your Life

Well, my apologies for not updating in quite some time. So much has happened since when I last updated that I don't know where to begin. Well I can't really remember what happened right after my May post so I'll just go as far back as I can. (You can also go to my mom's blog and and read and see pictures: norcalbrumfields.blogspot.com) Well, on July 23rd I left for Romania with my mom and was there until August 6. Best two weeks of my life. I miss the kids there so much, but it was so great working with them and making them smile. To let these kids know that they have someone who cares about them and loves them is priceless. We put on three Vbs type of camps with three different age groups from two different orphanages. One was called Peris, (pronounced Parish) and the other Rosior. (Prounounced Roshir) Peris is close by and that's the orphanage we visited, but Rosior was 2 1/2 hours away, so the kids we saw at the camps from Rosior was the only time we saw them. Anyway, the first camp was 3-8 year olds and our whole team did that camp. The other two camps are team split in half, one was at the camp and the other was at the orphanage or the baby hospital. So the first camp was kinda exhausting because the kids were at the age where they would go everywhere and hyper, well you know. But I love those kids to death, some of them were just so crazy hyper, it was hilarious to be with them. A couple of highlights is when I played with Stefan (crazzzy kid) after dinner one night with the soccer ball for about a hour. These kids love soccer and they are brilliant at it especially the older kids. Another highlight was at the complex, a park, I was playing with this boy named Georgita and he was super shy and wouldn't really talk and then at the complex he totally broke out into smiles and just had fun. The second camp was older kids, 18-20 year olds. The kids stay in the orphanage until they are about 21 or 22. Now, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this camp because there were going to be 10 guys and 5 girls and I wasn't sure how I would bond with the older kids. I decided to do it because I really wanted to meet Catalin who had bonded with my other team member and he just sounded like a great guy. So I decided to do the camp, and it was my favorite. I got close to a few of the guys and it was just great to work with them. The guys were oh so flirty though, I earned my respect by showing them I wouldn't tolerate that and Lenuta told me later that at the complex the second day the guys were calling me their sister. :) Florin, one of my boys, was so sweet and nice. He is a great kid and wants to become a professional soccer player. All the guys are ridiculously good at soccer, because that's all they do at the orphanage. I also got close to Catalin and his twin brother Aurel. Catalin is super sweet and protective, not in a bad way of protectiveness but you feel safe with him. Aurel is an artist, and an amazing one at that. Marian, who was really disrespectful to me at first was really sweet. I started talking to him through a translator and he is such a good guy. He wants to go to an university and he has two older and two younger sisters and he has just so many stuff he wants to do. Florin and Marian are from Rosior and Catalin and Aurel are from Peris. Marian speaks and understands English really well, better than all the other kids; most of them just know a tiny bit like Thank you, your welcome, how are you, and good. On the last day, Marian told me he would miss me and he hopes I will come back. I love them all so much. I left a piece of my heart in Romania. When I went to the orphanage, at first I didn't like it at all. It really upset me in fact. I was frustrated with how it was run, (the first time I went I didn't know any of the kids) and just it kinda looked like a prison to me. One of my team leaders, she had been before, told me I needed to go back. When I went back the second time I was really excited to go and see my other kids and I enjoyed it so much. I met this girl, Maria. Such a sweet girl, one of the girls I got close with. She showed all around the orphanage, showed me her garden, and drew on me. I told her about my garden in America and it was great meeting her. My last day there she was hanging on to me as we walked to the van, it was really hard but great to know that she cared about me that much. I told her I loved very much and would miss her. Adjusting back to here has been very hard. But I've been doing a lot better, there are good and bad days. I'm counting down the days until I can go back, but in the mean time I am writing letters to the kids, praying for them, and focusing on what I can do here. If you haven't been on a mission trip, I would definitely encourage you to go. It will chang your life, it changed mine. I have so many more stories from Romania which I can't all say here because my post is already super long. Well, I can't figure out how to post pictures right now, so I'll try to post some soon. Have a wonderful day/week!