Halloween and New Apartment

Who knew we'd still have fun celebrating Halloween in Romania? Halloween isn't very big here, but we're a bunch of Americans and it's still kind of fun to dress up. We went to a party with our friends from church, Amy and Cristi. It was also a birthday party for Amy.

Here we are at the party: Josh - a Jedi, Missy - a fall fairy, Me - a Jedi master, Rebecca - a Flinstone, Haley - little red ridinghood, Steven - the big bad wolf, Amy - Frankenstein's bride, and Cristi - Frankenstein.

There were lots of other people from church there too. We played some fun games and watched a nice video that Amy and Cristi made of their wedding which was just last year.

We continue to have a good time teaching our kids, our classes are going really well and we are enjoying staying in one location and working with so many more kids now.

We had worked with many of the kids only at summer camps, like this little guy here. But just those couple days of camp were enough to start building a wonderful relationship. He is probably one of the most excited and loving kids when we come to his school, he runs up and jumps in my arms every time! It is so great to be able to continue to build on these relationships. It is so great to see the joy on their faces when they see us, so rewarding!

Lately you've heard us talking a lot about our new apartment, and today you're going to be able to see it! The reason we needed an apartment is because we're now working in our southern location the whole week. It is about a two hour drive from Bucharest, and last year we only worked here two days. We only got to work with very few kids out of many, and this year we are working with the majority of them because we're here longer. Now that we are staying there more than anywhere else, we really needed our own space as opposed to sharing an apartment with some other staff like we did last year for the two days we were there.

Here's the entryway.

And the kitchen, not too big but we have it arranged so it's pretty workable now.

Across the hall is our pantry and refrigerator.

This is the living room. We spent the last two weeks putting together all the furniture (from IKEA) and mounting things on the walls. There were no light fixtures in the whole place, just lightbulbs hanging from wires. It would be a lot easier if the walls weren't solid concrete, but hey, that's why they make really big hammer drills.

This is the opposite view of the living room, showing the balcony. It is attached and adds some nice space to the living room.

Here is our bedroom. Rebecca made/ is making the curtains (they weren't quite done at this point).

Here is our bathroom. I put up the mirror and towel hooks, and we put a nice organizer in the corner which you can't see. Try and find the silhouette of George Washington, we noticed it when we were looking at the pictures with some friends!

And here is our new washing machine. The only space that would fit a washing machine is really small, so we had to get this kind, it is a top loader but the drum is the same as a front loader. The drum actually opens up so clothes can be loaded in there. It is pretty slick, and it works great.

We are really enjoying our new place, we feel like we finally have a place to call our own again after quite some time. We are so thankful to God for providing this place to us and thankful to you for all of your prayers!