Romania Mission Trip

Each semester the students have a 10 day break to travel anywhere they'd like. Nearly half of the students choose to spend their break serving others on a mission trip. The University helps facilitate mission trips to Sweden, France, Hungary, Slovakia, and several locations in Romania. 

Our family joined a group of 8 students on the trip to Baia Mare, Romania.

Baia Mare is about 9 hours (by car) directly east of Gaming. From Austria, you travel through Hungary to reach Romania. On our way there and back, we broke up our drive by staying the night in Budapest, Hungary (more on that in another post).

This was our family's first time traveling East into formally Communist countries. Both countries are now part of the EU but have their own currency and language. (Hard to imagine traveling 9 hours in the US and changing currency and languages twice!)

We were in the central part of Romania called Transylvania - which is a large area; we were 6 hours from Dracula's home (didn't make it there).  Romania apparently does have several interstates, but we did not encounter any. Rather, we traveled slowly on two lane roads, often slowing down even more when we encountered locals traveling by horse wagon. 

Our purpose in going to Baia Mare was to serve at the Sacro Cuore Foundation. They are an amazing foundation that serves at-risk children and teenagers by providing them with meals, a place to stay, tutors to help them with their studies, and a faith-filled community. We were helping at the after-school day care center for the poor and at-risk children, grades K - 8, who come to the center from noon to 5pm each day.

High school students come one or two days a week and are the regular volunteers for the younger children. We also came to minister to these students. So from 5 - 7pm our University students spent time getting to know the high schoolers and sharing their faith and testimonies of God alive in their lives.

One evening with the high school students, Brian talked about God as Father - and His love for us as a father.  Our kids were good props for his talk :)  He also shared part of our story, how God brought us together, and what it means to lives as a married couple with God at the center of our relationship.  We, of course, got to show our wedding highlight video again!

Most days we were able to gather in the chapel of the Foundation for Mass (in Romanian -- never ceases to amaze me how you can always follow the Mass despite the change in language) or Adoration.

Everyone placed their phones at the altar as a way to "surrender" during Adoration

Each morning our group went to local high schools to talk to their English classes about American culture and why they chose to go on mission (due to the affects of Communism, volunteering is a foreign concept for many).  They start learning English in Kindergarten (as it is the universal language in all of their neighboring countries) and they know a great deal about American culture.  Some of the things they seemed baffled by were Donald Trump and why Americans own guns.  Most of them hope someday to be able to visit the United States.

Our first full day in Baia Mare, the high school students took us around the city (population 136,000).  We climbed Stefan's Tower for a great view of the city.  And we visited the city's largest Eastern Orthodox church, which is still under construction.  Over 80% of Romania's population is Eastern Orthodox; close to 5% of the population is Roman Catholic.

Each meal of the day we gathered together for a delicious home-cooked meal prepared by the Sister and some of the girls who live at the house on the Foundation's property.  It was a long and exhausting week, but so powerful to be able to see the work the Foundation does and the Franciscan students at work serving them.  I don't know of many universities where, given the choice to spend your long break in Europe anywhere you want, nearly half of the students decide to go on mission and serve others.  Brian and I are continually in awe of the students here, and so blessed to have them as loving role models for our children. 

Photo cred: ALL of the high quality photos in the post were taken by one of the amazing, talented students, Shannon, who was on mission with us!

Austria's Population is on the Rise!

Here is the reason for the 6 week gap in blogging.....

We are having another baby!! 

And yes, that means come early May the kids will outnumber us! The baby is due around May 2, which is Brian's birthday. It's only fair that this baby is due on his birthday since Francis was due on mine.

So yeah, I'm 12 weeks now and the morning sickness and extreme fatigue has passed! Hopefully now I'll go back and blog about some of the more exciting recent happenings here... Like our nephew Billy visiting (huge shout out to him & Ashley who are getting married this weekend!!), the mission trip to Romania, our stop in Budapest, and Scott & Kimberley Hahn watching the Steelers game in our living room (ok, so that may not be blog worthy - but I know my mom will be thrilled :)

Back to this baby growing inside of me... We told the kids last night that we're having a baby by giving them a cake. Ellie has been asking God for a girl baby for months, so as soon as I told her I was pregnant with either a boy or girl - she firmly insisted that it is a girl! 

Francis was just super excited about the cake (or more accurately, the frosting).

We do plan on finding out the sex of the baby. My next appointment is at 20 weeks (they do things differently here!) so that puts us at December 22. I'm thinking we will have the doctor write down the sex and then we'll open it 3 days later on Christmas. We will keep you posted!

So now I get to document what it's like to be pregnant and give birth in Austria.  The only big difference I know so far is that they don't regularly use epidurals, so natural birth with midwives it is! You meet with the OBGYN six times leading up to the hospital visits at the end of pregnancy. His office is in a town 30 minutes away. He is very nice, has delivered a LOT of the babies in the Franciscan community here, and speaks very good English. 

His office is huge. Here's me in the waiting room...

Here is Brian! Despite his choice of picture poses, he's been AMAZING helping out at home with a lot of cooking, cleaning up, and diaper changes while I have been on the couch as much as possible. 

When you arrive at the office there are two receptionists. One speaks some English, so that's who I go to. You provide all of your personal info right there at the front desk, she then gets your weight, blood pressure, etc. - still just sitting in the front room. Different. You then collect your urine sample and carry it out to that entryway room. Nothing like trying to be polite and use the Austrian greeting "Gruß Gott!" to other people entering the room while carrying a cup of pee in your hand :)

The doctor's office is huge. There is an exam chair - used for internal ultrasounds. And a standard exam table. A little area where you de-robe (but no sheet to cover yourself). And an area next to his desk where the doctor takes your blood. That is a huge plus not having to travel anywhere for that. And he did great drawing my blood. 

Everything from my appointment is recorded in my Mutter Kind Pass (Mother Child Pass).  You get one at the start of each pregnancy and it has all of your info and all of the kids' stuff - all of their vaccinations, etc. I already had one for Ellie and Francis - and now I've got number 3!

I can't really understand anything written in it though... But my weight does look really small in kilograms :)

They also gave me a Mutter Kind box...

Which has a bunch of brochures in German and promotional baby stuff. Always fun to  get a little care package to celebrate this new babe!

So that's our big news!!

One closing thought... October is Pregnancy, Infant, and Child Loss Awareness Month.  While we rejoice over the health of this baby thus far, we also pray for all of the families grieving the loss of a child - no matter the age.  We remember especially our second child, Dominic Mary, who we lost in miscarriage in 2014.  We look forward to the day when we will be together once again!