Sunday, June 28, 2009

Great Flood

So I took the girls for a walk this evening. It was a little warm, but not too sunny, so we went out to the playground by the ice cream stand. I looked at a big grey cloud in the distance and wondered which direction it was moving, then walked on. We were almost there when the heavens opened and poured forth rain. Sheets of it ... then blankets and comforters. We hid under a tree for a while before I decided that we couldn't possibly be any wetter if we were just walking home, so we headed out. The sidewalks were covered in water, several inches deep in some places. Noemi, shivering and running along side me commented, "I guess there's going to be another Flood after all." It was not a teachable moment to talk about God's faithfulness that never fails, etc, etc. It was time to run and run quickly to the sound of Isobel screaming. By time we crossed the street and reached the bridge by our house the rain had subsided to a gentle spring shower and there was a giant rainbow stretched across the sky. I'm sure God put it there just to remind Noemi that there will never be another Great Flood because He always keeps his promises.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Week at a glance

I'm trying to post more regularly ... at least once a week. The days here are flying by and I don't want to forget them or to forget to share them with all you.

- Joshua was able to pick up his Visa last week and the girls and I should receive ours on Monday!

- I had a great afternoon out with some sweet friends on Saturday. They showed me around downtown Bucuresti, waited patiently while I shopped for kids books in Romanian. There was ice cream, there was music and dancing in the park (folk music festival), it was a perfect afternoon. Adela took me with her to visit a mother in the hospital with her premature baby - a tiny doll of a boy. I was able to pray with them, which was really a blessing to me.

- Our grammar teacher is on vacation this week, but we should start meeting with a language helper for practice in conversation. Joshua might also be able to use some of the free time to take a day trip or two out of Bucuresti.

- Thanks to a generous tax refund we are buying a dryer this week! Some friends are selling theirs before they move back to the States and we are buying it. This may seem like a strange thing to be excited about, but I spend so much time hanging up laundry and tripping on the drying rack that I'm really looking forward to it. Now I'll have more time to post here:)

Friday, June 12, 2009

Summer at the Seaside

Noemi has been talking about the beach since ... oh, about January. Oh, how she enjoyed Darlene's beach last summer! In an effort to redirect Noemi's attention from the unattainable I told her about Constanta, the Romanian city on the Black Sea. She had a personal connection to it because our friend/babysitter, Lumi, is from Constanta. When Lumi heard about Noemi's desire to see the beach she offered to show us around her hometown. Last weekend we took the train (5 hours each way multiplied by 2 small children = a million hours spent on the train) to Constanta and enjoyed a lovely weekend away, seeing another side of Romania. Luminita was a wonderful hostess and made sure we experienced the best of Constanta. Noemi enjoyed the beach and a dolphin show. Isobel enjoyed everything because life is just so exciting when you're almost 2.


Here's a glimpse of our weekend away. It's far more exciting that the scenes of our weekday life of nouns, verbs, adjectives, the conjunctive, the accusative .........