My Mom in Romania

I've often dreamed of being one of those bloggers that posts almost daily on her blog, providing readers with a perfect mix of humor, transparency, challenge, depth, helpful tid-bits of information, possibly an occasional recipe or DIY just to round it out. On this dream-cloud I would obviously have hundreds of followers and be pasted across everyone's Facebook as a "good read."

However, as you can see, there is nothing in the previous paragraph that adequately describes my blog. I'm erratic in posts and I've not once posted a recipe on my blog! As my former housemate and I grew fond of saying about anything and everything:

"It is what is is." Period. The end.

 I can dream, dare myself, become more determined... but in the end, it is just my blog. A blog where I occasionally share stories of my life, thoughts that cross my mind and ways that God is challenging me. It is a blog that is rarely read by more than 25 people. It is what it is: my blog.

So, here it goes, once again.

When I moved to Romania ten months ago, I knew I would be experiencing a lot. My list of things to expect was long: culture shock, strange looks, spending my first Christmas away from my family, struggles in learning a new language, loneliness, adjusting to living in a city, learning to navigate the public transportation, missing my favorite foods from America, being confused, making ridiculous mistakes in Romanian, and missing my family & friends at home. However, one thing I never expected was for someone from home to come visit me. I knew my family talked about visiting me in Romania one day, but we always said it made more sense to wait until I was here for longer than a year. My mom just couldn't stand it though. She started talking about trying to come early in the summer. She mentioned it to me and I replied that of course it would be great, but inwardly wrote it off as impossible. I didn't really think she'd be able to make it work. Then Mom's birthday was getting closer and my older brother mentioned helping mom with her plane ticket as a part of her birthday present. I still didn't want to get my hopes up, but I was starting to believe it was at least possible.

Possible it was. September 5th my mom flew into Romania and I was so excited to hug her and see her in person for the first time in over 9 months. I've traveled and lived away from home before, but I've never been away from my family for more than 3 months. Mom coming here was a such a blessing during my first year away!

 So, Mom & I began 19 days together in Romania. There was something so special about sharing this place I love with my mom. Mom is one of my most favoritest people on earth [yes, I know that's not grammatically correct, but sometimes you have to be incorrect to state something correctly!]  Introducing her to this new world I live in here and the people I care so much for was amazing!

Mom was her natural helpful, joyful self. I loved living life with her here for a bit. We got to explore together in Bucharest, Brasov, and Sigisoara. We spent a week in a beautiful valley with a kitchen window view Mom wanted to take home! I showed her around to all my favorite places in Oradea. I introduced her to all my friends and "family" here. I made sure she tasted all my favorite Romanian foods. I made her walk all over the place and take all sorts of public transportation, like a "real European." We served together in various ways: sewing, baby-sitting, telling Bible stories, carrying bricks, encouraging, loving and laughing with many.

Then I had to say good-bye. It was a bit tearful, but not nearly so bad since I know I'm headed home in December. After going 9 months, two and a half feels like a little bit of nothing!

Mom, I'm so glad you got to come visit me! It was so wonderful to have you here! You've definitely set the bar high though. You got over jet-lag remarkably fast (thanks for passing that trait down to me!) The enormous amount of America-gifts you brought my friends and I created Christmas in September as we fondly refereed to it. You jumped in and enjoyed, served, loved and lived in the moment in a way only few people can. Anyone else who comes to visit has a hard act to follow! Love you Mom!