update

I have a blog? Oh yeah. I guess I've felt the pressure off to update this as much, being that we'll be back in the states for the next three months for maternity/paternity leave (and hence will be seeing many of you). It's hard to believe that it's nearing the time to welcome our little guy. Josh is reading "The Baby Whisperer" (with mixed reviews) and I'm "nesting" in our new apartment. We moved a few weeks ago to probably our favorite apartment that we've had in our married life. It is seriously a 4 minute walk to the center (and 10 minutes back home...it's uphill and I'm very pregnant) with hot water, lots of space and comfy furniture. In addition to moving and preparing to be in the states, a few other things we've been up to include...

*Hosting Megan and Chelsea for 10 days. It was great!


*Seeing off the servant team. Over the past four months they have grown to be dear friends to us. We miss them already but look forward to seeing how these relationships will grow in the future.


* Making strawberry jam. You just can't go wrong when you add 10 kg of strawberries to 10 kg of sugar. This is my jam sampler, with apricot and grape jam from last year. (Sorry the picture is on it's side.)


See many of you soon.
Peace,
Robin

Spring pictures

I just thought it would be fun to share a few pictures. Here's a few of the garden at the center. Spring has been good to us this year. Also, week 24's belly shot. Our little guy is kicking lots these days. I think we've got a name picked out, but that will be a surprise until he arrives!

It's a Boy!

Can you believe this 4D ultrasound of our baby? I love his nose already. And the secret is out: It's a boy!

This past Thursday we had an ultrasound for baby Fowler. We are so thankful that everything measured healthy for a baby of 22 weeks. We made it clear to the doctor that we wanted to keep the gender a surprise until delivery. The doc was a great guy, but the power he had over us was too much for him to handle. He kept zooming in on baby Fowler's boy anatomy, asking me what I thought that could be. "A leg?" I tried to answer innocently. The doc laughed. "What will you name your little girl?" he joked. Meanwhile the nurse was whispering to Josh that it was a little boy, in case there was any doubt. Believe me, it couldn't have been more clear!

So our surprise came early, but it is still so exciting to know!

Catching up

I intended to blog last Sunday, but the sunny, 70 degree weather was too tempting. Instead I spent the afternoon outside. Surprisingly, the cemetery across the street is the perfect place to hide away...lots of benches, trees and flowers. I capped off my afternoon with an ice-cream sandwich...another thing to love about warmer weather.

At the center lately I've been indulging in lots of garden work, as I discover myself enjoying it more every new spring. We've got lots of new seeds in the ground and a few things divided and transplanted. However, my bigger belly is making it a bit more difficult to maneuver. My belly has grown since this picture a few weeks ago.

Josh has been working outdoors more too. A few new stone walkways and walls are helping to define the vegetable garden space. Here is a rare moment when I caught him taking a break.

We've experienced many other significant events since my last blog post...

• Traveling to northern Romania with the Klepac family, visiting Vatra Dornei and the Voroneț monastery
  
• Paul & Ana's wedding - Ana was a beautiful bride and I've never seen such a smile on Paul's face. We celebrated with a meal of several courses going until 2 in the morning. These Romanian know how to celebrate.
  
• Saying goodbye to our dear friends, the Klepac family. We can't wait to see them this summer.
  
• Traveling to Chișinau, Moldova with the servant team. We hope to have a WMF community there in the next year. Our trip served to expose the team to Moldova as several are seeking discernment regarding future involvement with WMF. We also visited existing ministries and churches to look for potential partnerships, and sought to serve and build relationships with the community that hosted us. We made it back to Romania just in time before the elections there. Have you seen the news? Many are protesting the communist party's victory in the elections.
  
• April & Bela's wedding - part one. With the marriage now legal, Bela was able to recieve a visa for the states, where they'll have their church wedding in June. We're happy he can be present at his own wedding! And, we're just plain happy for the two of them.

Of Course!

Megan, this post is in honor of you.
I still can't believe it. But if I wasn't on the other side of the Atlantic ocean I would totally be there to see it with my own eyes. I can't wait for the first hand report from Megan!

The Sacrament of Family

Dear friends,
As the weeks go by and my tummy begins to grow, Josh and I find our minds returning more and more to thoughts of family. About a week ago during our morning walk down to Casa Vale, we were discussing the idea of family as a sacrament. Just a day later, I found this sweet reflection on that very subject by my dear friend Monica. Rather than try to articulate what I've been thinking, I asked Monica if I could share her words with you. Being welcomed into Moncia's family, I can tell you that these words come not only from ideas in her head, but from the daily practice and working out of love in her home and beyond. Enjoy.

"though this is a painful going away time for us, our days have been brightened by the joy of close friends who are entering into marriage or becoming parents. their smiling faces are a gift to us and i hope this reflection is a gift to them.

"A sacrament is a means of or visible form of grace. This doesnt mean that every marriage or every parent-child relationship is grace-filled. we all know of many examples where families pass on pain, abuse, neglect and manipulation. What i want to talk about now is what God intended the bonds of marriage and the gift of children to be, a way of knowing Him more, a way of receiving the mystery of His presence in our lives. It is truly a wrestling, a working out of our salvation in the messy, tangled ties between us, with all our weakness and limitation and others with all theirs. but that is where the beauty lies. By joining myself to Joel for a lifetime, i no longer make decisions with my desires as the center. I hold up what i want to the mirror of my husband and see what he wants, and through this we see what of our desires is good, true and worthy of persuing. it is such a gift! such a means of grace for me to be given to one who is given to me. to learn how to live daily life in a way that lifts each other up and reveres the image of God in each other. From asking the other to do the dishes to deciding on our vocation, there is not one dominating, overshadowing the other. We learn, with lots of mistakes and forgiveness, to give and receive, to hold on and let go.

"And in God's amazing plan, this cooperation, coordination, construction of two lives into one isnt just an exclusive, closed club of two people who like the same food and music. It is a life-giving sacrament. These two trees growing together as one bear fruit. The most natural expression of this fruit is children. Man and woman become one and as they lay their lives down for the other, a new life comes along that gives them the chance to practice laying their lives down to a whole new degree. With that first newborn cry, their individual wants get less and less important, as the care and nurturing of this gift of flesh, bone and spirit is all that matters. And though at first the energy and time just seem to be drained from you, the incredible sacrament of this little babys presence in your life becomes quickly apparent. for if the marriage relationship is a mirror, the parent-child relationship is a spotlight. at 4 am, my usually concealed selfishness becomes very obvious and i must learn to put aside the me-center of my life and put the weakest, most vulnerable in the center. i begin to cultivate the practices of prayer, confession, and reconciliation, because i cannot live a false life in the light of this little one. I must be a whole person to love this whole little person.

"I have many friends who are not married and who do not have children. But i this doesn't exclude them from receiving from these means of grace. For families are never meant for just themselves. In Isaiah 54 we are told to enlargen our tents, to embrace others and bring them into the place where family has been created and to give them family too. Single friends find stability and comfort, married friends without children find joy and melody in the chaos. More chairs are pulled up to the table and we find that family is a means of grace that fills up the room, spills out the door, down the street and blesses more than just the biologically connected members.

"So to my friends on the doorstep of marriage and parenting, grace be with you. May you take time everyday to look in the face of your beloved and see the image of God. May every disagreement, every sleepless night, every scary doctor appointment refine your faith, draw you to God and show you what is truly real and important in life. May every cuddle, tickle, and birthday party infuse you with the knowledge of Gods goodness and beauty. May your home be bathed in Love."

Indiana

Perhaps it's obvious because I didn't take time to post anything for 2 months, but Josh and I have been busy relaxing. After saying goodbye to our friends (the fall servant team) on Dec. 15th, we packed our bags for Christmas in Indiana. We just returned to Galati after 5 weeks in the states, where our major highlights were mostly just spending time with you, our friends and family. We were also refreshed by the clean air, wide open spaces, hot showers, momma's cooking, and drives through the country. Neither one of us had noticed before how beautiful Indiana can be in the winter.


Being in Indiana was refreshing for us, though jet lag has left us feeling exhausted during our first week back. But I suspect that the pregnancy is also making me tired. Yes, I'm pregnant again and we hope to become parents this August! Things are looking good; we've heard a heartbeat and have seen little arms and legs from our first ultrasound. I have been sicker this time, though I'm starting to come out of that as I near my second trimester already.

Josh and I both got some good baby practice with our new nephew, Gabriel. Josh's sister Dawn gave birth on January 12th. Josh got to practice diaper changing for the first time. ;)

And here is Josh with our oldest nephew Preston. He and his sister Cadence were a joy to be around this Christmas.


We've enjoyed being back with the children in Galati, and are only days away from welcoming 6 people for our servant team #3.