Running on Empty in Moldova

It's been a long 5 days in Moldova...

First, let me say that physically, it has been one of my toughest trips ever of my 6 trips to Moldova.  I thought that based on my trips to Europe in August and October that I would be able to handle the travel, but what I failed to realize was that the prior trips were direct to London and Dublin, so the travel time was not too bad.  Getting to Chisinau, Moldova means a 22 hour trip with a 7 hour layover in Frankfurt that has brutal on most of us.  I've been dealing with a bad cold most of the trip and the 30 degree weather is not helping.  But, I'm very glad to be here and do not regret the decision to come back.

Now, the orphans.  We have been to at least one orphanage a day since getting to Moldova.  Thursday we were in Drachia, Friday in Falesti, Saturday in Balti and Sunday in Chisinau.  All of visits have included a time to get to know each other, games, crafts, singing, worship time and then Father Christmas comes out with all the presents.  Oh, we also shot off fireworks, thanks to Cat Financial's givings and they were spectacular at Falesti.

Nancy had a nice moment in Falesti with an older girl that because of her size did not receive any clothing from the team that would fit.  So, Nancy gave her the Nashville sweatshirt that she was wearing and the girl did not leave her side the rest of our visit.  It was very touching on how much one act of kindness can have on a child.

I've really enjoyed spending time with my Moldovan boy, Igor yesterday.  His english is much better and it is a lot easier to communicate.  It was fun to watch him interact with the kids at Internat II, where he was an orphan for 8 years.  We had both Igor and Eduard along with us and they both sang and played the guitar during our singing time.

The new orphanages that we visited in Drachia and Balti had children that were very open to sharing their stories with us.  We also visited a transitional living home for at risk children in Balti that was amazing.  It was very clean and had big rooms, with one that included a number of computers.  It was nice to see the upgraded facilities compared to the orphanages, but with the limit of 18 months for each child you could see that they were all worried about what was going to happen to them after they were moved out of the house.

The winter trip is very much different from the summer trip because of the short amount of time that we spend at each orphanage versus spending a week at one camp.  But, the trade off is that you get to bring gifts to kids that get maybe one gift from the state.  They light up when Steve Davis walks in dressed like Father Christmas (Santa Claus).

Due to the limited bandwith of the Internet hear in Chisinau, I don't know if I will be able to post any photos this week.  I will definitely post photos when I get back home.