Happy Birthday Russell!!!!

Sorry we are missing it! We hope that you have a great day!!

Love, 
Brandon & Becky

Week 1: part 2

ROMANIA FACTS

~ Romanians refer to a draft as a current. And they think that every sickness or ailment you have is due to over exposure to the current. If you have a neck ache its because you were in the current, or if you have a cold its because you were in the current. So they rarely have a window open in their house. This is problematic in the orphanages and baby hospitals where you have multiple people piled into a room with no air conditioning, fans or fresh air. 

~People park everywhere. In the middle of the street and yes even on the sidewalks, sometimes they actually park in designated areas too!

~Proper Romanian greeting - kiss on both cheeks.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

The base home is very beautiful. It is a 3 story home and it has a very large basement. The first floor has a large dining room and living room, a kitchen, a few bathrooms and 2 bed rooms. The second floor is where all the incoming teams stay. There are numerous bedrooms with bunk beds and a few bathrooms. The third floor is reserved for Jim and Jodi Sorrels. They are the founders and directors of Heart to Heart International. The basement has a large garage/storage area, the laundry room, the pantry, another room for teams and an office. The office is where Brandon and I stay. It has a desk, some book shelves and a bed. It is a perfect little room for us. We could have stayed upstairs with the rest of the team members but since teams will be coming in and out all summer they thought it would be best if we stayed in the office. That way we don’t have to move to a different room every time a new team comes in. In the backyard there is a porch with a few different sitting areas and there is a pool. One of my favorite parts about the backyard is the cherry trees. One of the staff members made a yummy cherry cobbler with the cherries from the backyard yesterday and it was delicious! Heart to Heart uses every inch of this house to serve God. It houses all the short term team members through out the summer and they throw all kinds of parts for the kids - in the summer they have pool parties and youth group parties. They also have Christmas and Thanksgiving with all of the kids who graduate through the transition home program. It is really like one big family.

Dining room 

Living room

Kitchen

Backyard and pool

Back of the house

Front of the house

Front Porch

Stairs that lead to the basement

Our cozy room

PERSPECTIVE

This trip has been very different then I thought it would be. I’m not sure exactly what I was preparing for. I guess I thought it would be like all the stories I had read about from the late 80s and early 90s when the world was just finding out about the conditions of the orphanages here. I thought the orphanages would be filled to the brim with kids who very malnourished, dirty and lonely. That the baby hospitals would have hundreds of abandoned babies who need attention and care. And I thought that our new home would in some way reflect these things too. That it would be run down, tiny, and deficient of every day needs. At first I wasn’t sure how to take it all in. Our first visit to the orphanage was kind of confusing.  All of the kids seemed very happy - they were clothed, they seemed very clean and healthy. I noticed that they were much smaller than we are but I wasn’t sure if that was because Romanians are naturally smaller than Americans or because of the food we eat and the food they don’t eat. And there were only about 8 babies that we took care of in the baby hospital. And they had clothes, food and people taking care of them daily. 

Brandon and a few boys from Peris orphanage

Craft time - Brandon & Robi

But God has been giving me a new perspective - He has been showing me that I was only looking at the surface and judging the conditions here by my expectations of what I thought mission trips should be. They should be really dirty, really hard, really sad and it should never feel comfortable. In a way these things I though mission trips should be are right just not in the way I was thinking about it. Emotions, feelings and struggles can get really messy in our lives and even walking through them with someone else. And it is hard to give up the things you are use to and the things you want, to serve someone else. And sometimes it is sad, but we don’t have to be overwhelmed by the sadness and darkness. Because God always provides joy and hope. And in our flesh, we will ALWAYS be uncomfortable with the things of the Spirit. But we don’t have to worry when those things start to feel comfortable - its just a testimony to how God changes us and make us new! And I know you can understand these things because we all experience them whether we have been on a mission trip to a different country or not.

Brandon's twin - a boy from Peris orphanage

God has also given me a new perspective on how I was viewing all the kids in the orphanages and baby hospitals. A major thing I was over looking when I first met all these kids is that they are abandoned. Their parents left them in these places by choice. Some of the parents use the orphanage as a free day care or a boarding school, so some of the kids actually know their parents and they get to see them on weekends. But the conditions of the orphanage are rough. In Peris, there are 80 kids between the ages of 4-20, boys and girls living in the same house. There are limited workers to take care of the kids and most of them simply view it as their job, they do not have compassion for these kids. The rooms are packed with beds for all of the kids and when it rains outside it is raining inside too. I noticed some of the workers placing bucket under some of the leaks but the bedroom floors where still drenched. The conditions of the baby hospitals seem better. The babies have plenty of clothes, toys, diapers and food. The thing that is obviously lacking is parents to take of them. There are about 10 babies that we care for at the hospital. There are nurse who tend to them and a worker from Heart to Heart visits them everyday but nothing can really replace the actual parents. The nurses are rough with the babies and they do not pick each one up for feeding time. They lay the babies on their sides and use a rolled up sheet to prop the bottle in their mouths. 

All these things can be a lot to deal with but I am thankful that we serve a God who is in control all the time! He is continually giving us hope and joy in Him. I hope to write another update soon to explain more about the history of Romania and about the work Heart to Heart does here. Thank you for your support!!

Brandon & Becky

Tour of Bucharest - us in front of the symphony hall

Week 1 - Part 1

Brandon & I outside of the Austin Airport

Hello from Romania! Our first week in Romania has been wonderful. Almost too much to describe. But we will try our best to give you a taste of what we have experienced. We decided to break our first week up into a few different parts so they will be easier to digest. And then once we get into more of a routine it will be easier to give weekly updates.

PART 1: TRAVELING

Checking our bags

Our bags were right at 50 lbs!

Our bags were just the right weight, we didn’t have to leave anything behind. The official weights were 50 lbs, 49.5 lbs and 48 lbs! All of our flights went well. They were on time and we had great seats. Here is a quick run down of the flight times.....

Thursday
3:40 pm - 4:50 pm Austin to Dallas
4:50 pm - 7:45 pm lay over in Dallas
7:45 pm - 11:00 am (Friday) 9 hour flight from Dallas to London and a 6 hour time change

Friday
11:00 am - 6:00 pm 7 hour lay over in London
6:00 pm - 11:15 pm London to Bucharest, Romania
12:00 am arrived at our new home away from home

The flight from Austin to Dallas was short and sweet, and the lay over in Dallas seemed that way too. We had enough time to get a snack and find a seat until we boarded the plane. Brandon did some reading while I did some journaling. The flight to London was long but not too bad. We were able to watch a movie, eat dinner and then tried to sleep the rest of the time. I think I was able to get about 4-5 hours but Brandon only got about 2 or 3. There were a few reasons - 1) He was excited 2) He couldn’t get comfortable 3) The man sitting in front of us lost his dinner a few times... if you know what I mean..... yuck. 

Brandon in the London Airport

Our 7 hour lay over in London felt very long. We got another snack and found a place to rest until our next flight. Brandon was able to get a few more hours of sleep while I journaled. We sat next to a very nice girl on the plane from London to Bucharest. She was very talkative which made the plane ride much more pleasant.  And then we finally landed in Romania! We grabbed all of our carry ons and headed over to baggage claim. Brandon found our 3 checked bag in a jiffy and then we headed over to customs. Customs was very simple, they asked for our passport, they stamped them and that was it. Then we headed towards the doors to the pick up area. It was very crowded and we were unsure of who we were even looking for, so we just kept walking. Finally we were greeted by two woman who said they were from Heart to Heart International -  Jen & Kirsteen.  They were able to easily spot us because we had out “To Romania with Love” shirts on. They helped us with our bags and then we were on our way to the team house. I originally thought we would be staying somewhere else to get to know the team we would be working with, but I was wrong. 

Sneak peek of the team house

We arrived at the team house, brought in our bags and then Jen gave us a quick tour. In a nut shell - she said here is the kitchen, here is the bathroom and here is your room, goodnight. We were very thankful that she kept it short and sweet because we were ready for bed! But it turns out that we were too excited to sleep. So instead of going to bed we decided to unpack, everything. I think we finally went to bed around 2 am. When we woke up the next morning we were still really excited so it was easy to forget how tired we were. And we had a big day ahead of us. On the schedule was breakfast, devotion, orientation and our first visit to one of the orphanages! - stay tuned for the next update!!

Prayer Requests:
Please pray that we will have continued unity among all the team members. Brandon and I are specifically praying that God will continue to transform our minds and make us new all day long. And that we would find our strength in HIM always!


Thank you for your support!

Brandon & Becky

Buna!! We made it!

Hello!! We have arrived safely in Romania. We got in at about 12 midnight Saturday morning (May 18th) Romania time. Which is about about 4 pm Friday in Texas time. We have settled into our cozy room, met a lot of great people who we will be working with and we even got to visit an orphanage in Periş (pronounced pair-eesh). The little comma under the “s” makes it the “sh” sound. And we also got to go to a birthday party for one of the girls in the transition homes in Snagov.  We are excited about all of the things planned for this week. I will be writing a full week update in a few days. But for now it is time for bed! It is already midnight. Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. 

Noapte bună!! (Good night)

Brandon & Becky

Follow our Blog!

We have added a new feature to our blog for your convenience! You can now follow our blog by email. In the right margin there is a section that says “Follow by Email” with a text box beneath it that says “email address”. By typing in your email address and clicking “submit” you will be notified by email every time we post an update. Once you have clicked “submit”, you will be sent a confirmation email to follow our blog. Make sure you follow the steps in the email to complete the process!

Becky :)

Getting Ready!

      This past Friday was our last day of work. It was a very exciting time. Although in a way it seemed like a normal Friday. I know the closer we get to actually being in Romania this whole thing might sink in a little more. Or it might just hit us like a big slap in the face when we take our first steps out of the airport in Bucharest.  This past Sunday was our last Sunday at church before we leave. During second service our church prayed over us. It was very powerful and moving. I am pretty sure I was crying as soon as he called us up to the front, and it was down hill from there. I lost it once everyone started crowding around and laying hands on us. At one point I wanted to wipe my tears away and the best option I thought I had was to lean into Brandon’s shoulder and use his sleeve to wipe the tears. But instead I wiped them on whoever’s hand was on Brandon’s shoulder, oops... sorry! I promise it was just tears :) I am so thankful to have so many strong, loving and giving believers around us. Everyone has been so encouraging and supportive. God has blessed us with some pretty great friends and leaders. We have been filling these past few days with family and friends. Brandon and I have enjoyed spending time with everyone, we have had some fun conversations and delicious food! 

       We are almost done packing, we only have a few more small things to add to our bags. As I type this Brandon is triple checking that the weight of our bags is not over 50 lbs each. We were originally planning on taking one bag for all of our clothes and personal items along with our carry on bags and then using our other complimentary checked bag for all of the donated ministry materials. But everyone has been giving so many items that we started to run out of room. But God provided us with another option! We decided that we would check a third bag. So as of right now we have three bags that we will be checking (that already weigh about 50 lbs each), two carry on bags and my “purse”. We are trying to utilize all the space that we are given because we want to be able to take as much ministry materials as possible. So my “purse” is practically another carry on bag (within set airline guidelines of course!).

      We head out for the airport tomorrow around 12 noon. And our flight is at 3:40. We want to get there early just in case something doesn’t go as planned! Our first flight is to Dallas and then we have a 2-3 hour lay over. From Dallas we fly for 9 hours to London. We will be in the London airport for 7 hours and then we take our last flight to Bucharest, Romania!! Total flight time is about 14 hours. Total travel time is 32 hours (including lay over times, flight durations and time change). Romania is 8 hours ahead, so we will be one meal time ahead of everyone at home. During our lay overs we will be meeting up with some of the other team members who are flying in at the same time we are. We were all given shirts to wear to identify each other. From what I understand we will spend our first few days in Bucharest getting to know each other, exploring our new home away from home and getting over our jet lag! I will update yall as soon as I can. I’m not sure what our schedule will be but I hope to at least write an update every week.

Thank you for taking the time to read our posts and for your prayers and support!!!

Brandon & Becky