Last post...

Hi guys! So I'm about 10 hours away from flying out of Romania. Lots of different emotions over here, but mainly thankfulness for the past six months and all the things I got to do, places I got to go, and people I was blessed to be able to spend time with. It truly has been the most fun, hard, challenging, long, AND short six months of my life! :)

The last two weeks since I posted have been wonderful. They started out on a sad note...one of the very ill bedridden children I have been working with at the Don Orione Association passed away November 6th. I was able to attend his funeral, and it was such an amazing service to experience. Other than that, everything went very well there and I said goodbye to everyone there feeling very content with my work there over the past few months.

At Touched, meanwhile, there was a bit of a misunderstanding of when I was leaving the country...they somehow got the idea that I had left two weeks ago and so I had to let them know that I was in fact still in the country. :) But it all worked out and this past week I was able to go there one last time and worked alongside students pursuing their master's degrees in psychology, which was really great! I'm very sorry, but I'm not allowed to share pictures from Touched or the Don Orione Association, but there are a ton to come from Stepping Forward's ministry times! :)

Last week, we frosted and decorated Christmas cookies. 

Denisa enjoyed this craft very much! :)

Iosif took his decorating very seriously.

This week (today, actually) we drew pictures of what we were thankful for.

And took silly selfies. :)

I also completed several fun tasks on my intern bingo list this week.

I went to the George Enescu symphony on Thursday.

And Hard Rock cafe yesterday!

This is a very large cat whom I have named Henry who lives outside one of the apartments we visit. He has to weigh over twenty pounds and is the tamest tomcat I've ever held.

As I finish my time here in Romania, I would like to thank you, blog reader, for taking the time to read my long, sometimes uninteresting posts on here. It means so much to me to see all the different places I have viewers and it is extremely encouraging! 

Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I adjust to being home again. It's going to be quite a change and I'm very excited!

_______________________________________________________________

I would like to include a bit about my future plans for those of you who may not have heard. I will be continuing to take dual enrollment classes at Greenville Technical College starting in January. I also recently applied to the IMB (International Mission Board) for their Nehemiah Teams program for Summer 2017. I was accepted and given my first choice of assignments: Botswana. So I will be there for two months this summer. In Fall 2017, I plan to attend USC with a major in journalism (pretty sure you all already knew that). So those are my immediate plans, Lord willing of course.

Again, thank you so much for reading, praying, and/or donating financially to me these last six months. I can't wait to see you all again very soon!!

Love,

Maria

My trip to England!

Hey everybody! I hope you are all doing well and that you are finishing up a great October. Happy Halloween this Monday! :) I have about three short weeks left in Romania, in case you were wondering.

One of the bonuses about being a somewhat long-term intern here at Stepping Forward is that you get to choose one non-ministry "vacation" in Europe. I found this out in May and my choices were between Paris, Rome, and London. Even before camp started, I chose London because it was the city I hadn't already experienced. I knew the trip would take place in late October (it seemed soooooo far away back then in early June) and I was so excited. Then, we had a British team of two families with a combined 7 children come and volunteer for two weeks of camp in late July/early August. We immediately hit it off and when they left, plans were in the works to visit them at their homes in Cambridge and Norwich when Cami, Rachael, and I went to London. We also were going to meet Ellie, one of the interns here this spring, and her boyfriend while we were in London, since she is studying in Ireland currently and that's close to England. :) So many meetups!!

So that is the backstory behind this great England adventure that happened. By the way, this post is just about England, not really any ministry I've been doing. I apologize. You'll hear more about my ministries during these last few weeks, though.

On Friday, October 21, we hopped on a plane to London! It is still just so amazing to me that I can be in an entirely different country in a two hour plane ride. We spent all day Friday and Saturday in London and then on Sunday afternoon we took a train to Cambridge. We spent Monday there, Tuesday we drove to Norwich, then on Wednesday back to Cambridge for a few hours and then flew home Wednesday evening. Here are a ton some pictures. ;) If you're on facebook, feel free to skip these pictures. They are the same ones in my album.

Our street where our hostel was located.

Me and Rachael outside the hostel Friday as we arrived.

We saw Wicked Friday night.

Saturday morning: excited to explore London

Tower Bridge

Southwark Bridge.

The Tower of London

Another view of the Tower of London.

London Bridge.

Millenium Bridge: this was the bridge used in filming Harry Potter.

Another view of Millenium Bridge featuring my shadow. Notice the sunny blue sky!!

Our whole crew.

Trafalgar Square.

Big Ben and the Parliament building.

The London Eye.

Cliche telephone booth picture.

The Harry Potter store!!

I got to visit 221b Baker Street on Sunday.

Krispy Kreme! Haven't seen these in a while. :)

Pancras Station.

The Beatles Store (I realize these captions are completely unnecessary)

Globe Theatre

The National Gallery

Saw the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum.

The British Museum

King's Cross Station.

Yay I'm in London! Now off to Cambridge on Sunday.

The Round Church, one of the oldest buildings in Cambridge (11th century).

There are 31 colleges in Cambridge and we saw many of them!

The American WWII memorial/cemetery.

This is Trinity College, where Isaac Newton studied.

On to Norwich! This is a herb garden at the Norwich cathedral.

Norwich Cathedral.

Norwich Cathedral.

The North Sea on Tuesday...we even saw seals in the water!

Tuesday night the sun set on my England adventure. :(

Just to quickly overview the next three weeks...this weekend we are carving pumpkins with our orphanage and apartment kids. And I have my other two ministries that I'm working with as well. Sometime before I leave, we are going one more time to camp for a few projects as well. 

Look for my next update sometime next week! Love to you all, see some of you in 20 something days! :)

Maria

Recent highlights pt. 2

Hey guys! Welcome to my first post of October...ahhhhh!! This fall is passing so fast I can't even believe it. I only have 44 days left here in this amazing country and I'm trying to make each one as meaningful as possible. To begin with, here is a quick peek of my calendar, just so you can see how busy I actually am this month...

I pretty much have something to do or go to EVERY DAY this month, with the exception of a few days toward the end of October that haven't filled up yet. 

Let's continue with a sad story. Once upon a time there was a girl on a six month internship in Romania. Her loving mother, who definitely was pining day and night after this daughter, decided to send a care package to her in July. That way, the package would come just in time for the halfway point of the daughter's internship as an encouragement. Well, the halfway point was August 24th, which came and went, with no care package for the daughter. Frustration abounded. Both the mother and daughter knew the Romanian postal service was not the best, but really...two months?? Finally, on the fateful day of September 26th, the daughter, accompanied by two missionaries, received the note from the post office that said a package had arrived. They went to the first of three post offices, each time collecting bits of paperwork and paying small fees. When they arrived at the third post office of the day, they were happy to receive the package!! All was right with the world. They sent this picture to the girl's mother. Notice the joy on the faces. The Saga of the Lost Care Package had been going on for two months now.

All was great, until the girl's mother responded to the picture with "That looks bigger than I remembered". NO. The missionaries and the intern looked carefully at the return address only to find that it was a package from Bud's Cookies. Yes, that's right. It was ANOTHER package for the missionaries, one they didn't even know they were receiving. And so the saga continues...will the care package come?? Vote in the poll on the right your opinion. :)

All jokes aside, it HAS been a great few weeks of ministry. My favorite apartment belongs to eight little girls 5-12 years old. They are the sweetest ever. We take selfies and do fun activities and talk about Jesus. It's amazing. I am so blessed to be able to visit them every Saturday.

They are SO adorable!

Every Wednesday, I visit the children's oncology and hematology department at Fundeni Hospital for five hours. These kids are so strong and it's so nice to be able to see them playing in between their visits in the playroom.

Musical chairs (Scaunele muzicala) in Romania.

 The other ministry I'm involved in is Asociatia Don Orione, where I'm working with severely disabled and bedridden children. I'm not allowed to take pictures of the kids themselves there.

Since these kids are unable to communicate (a few can smile and laugh, but none verbalize), hand holding is a significant part of my job. I'm not complaining!

The view of the foundation's chapel from the room in which I work.

I'm also having fun, for those of you have asked. :) I just got back Monday from a weekend spent in Constanta, Romania, which is a town right on the Black Sea. I visited the YWAM missionaries who brought kids to camp this summer. I also got to visit the kids, who live in a community called Henri Coanda. It's basically an environment like the projects in NYC.

The kids' families all live in these buildings in tiny apartments.

Me with Monica, who is with YWAM for two years, on the beach at the Black Sea. It was such perfect weather!

Sorry this post was kind of long. To wrap up, here are a few prayer requests and praises.

Praises:

-Awesome weeks of ministry...very productive times, indeed.

-I have met and have been enjoying getting to know my new roommate, Karin, who is from Brazil.

-I FOUND ROMANIAN GINGERBREAD FOR ONLY 3 LEI. This is quite inconsequential, but yummy. And for those of you who don't know, 3 lei is less than $1. And it's a whole bag of gingerbread. :D

Requests:

-Safe travels for several people...we have visitors coming next week from America and also Sarah, another intern, is leaving on the 19th. And we are going to Sinaia. Lots of coming and going all the time. :)

-Pray for me, as I'm kind of mentally preparing to leave next month. I'm kind of nervous about adjusting to life back in the States after six months away.