A few of my favorite things…
Just one more post, my friends, to say thank you for your many prayers and support. The gratefulness I feel when touching down in the United States of America after being abroad never diminishes. As I close out this little “series,” I thought I’d share a few of my favorite pictures on a more personal note…
I arrived in Romania just in time for the first really cold days of the season. As I pulled out my jeans and sweaters several 
little mice also sought warmth in the House of Hope. This homemade mousetrap has always been one of my favorite examples of Romanian ingenuity. We caught five mice!
Of course, there are always a cheeky few who snatch the walnut and escape the jar. No one deserves more applause than my teammate Carol Stillings who spent her first night in Romania with a little mouse pushing his walnut across the floor of what sounded like the space under her bed!
In my first post, I mentioned how it strange it was to see the kids so grown up. To give you a better idea, I thought I would post these then-and-now pictures of Flavius, Teo, and Mircea. This first one is from 1999 on their first day of kindergarten.
Eleven years later, this picture doesn’t even do justice because Flavius (who is 6 feet tall) and Mircea aren’t standing up straight!
Every fall for the last three years I have run a 1/2 marathon called the Golden Leaf with a group of friends. The race takes place in Aspen, CO, on the weekend when the leaves turn gold. I got to enjoy a second golden leaf event while visiting Poland with my boyfriend, Ben. My father’s family immigrated to the United States from Poland and I’ve always wanted to visit. So before I left Romania, Ben and I visited Krakow and Auschwitz (a remarkable experience that I haven’t yet processed well enough to write about).
Krakow is a charming medieval town with a stunning Catholic church on every corner (you know, like Starbucks in the US). It is also the hometown of Pope John Paul II. On a little path that was once where their city walls stood, they have planted trees with these amazing, gigantic golden leaves. There was really no choice but to throw one’s self down and make a golden leaf angel.
Now, if you were thinking earlier that the fate of the mice in Romania is sad, you may not want to continue reading because the fate of the chicken (not to mention the pig) is much more so. So as not to rob Ben of experiencing any part of the Romanian lifestyle, he was given his own chicken to slaughter, 
pluck, and eat. (They did make the chicken soup for him.)
I want to say that I truly felt your prayers on this trip and I am grateful for them. I know I could not persevere without knowing that there is a body of believers upholding me. Please know that you have been a part of making a difference in the lives of these children. Thank you for allowing me to be your ambassador. Next year, I hope you can join me, too!