My Summer

I thought I'd start off by sharing a little bit about my summer since it was probably the most life changing experience of my life. Last fall I felt God calling me to do missions somewhere, particularly orphanage work. With much prayer and consideration, I decided to go to Romania with an organization called Heart 2 Heart International Ministries. For those of you that know me, you'll know that this is something way out of my comfort zone and I spent many hours worrying. It is still amazing to me how God provided the means for me to be able to go despite my doubts and concerns, it was definatly affirmation that this was where I was supposed to be. This trip was the hardest thing I ever had to do, yet it was the most rewarding, and I would never trade the experience in a million years. In Romania, I worked at an all-girls orphanage with a team made up of 8 young women from accross the United States and Romania. I fell in love with the kids and my heart broke every day as I witnessed what they had to live through on a daily basis. I couldn't imagine not having someone there to take care of you and love you. It broke me how these kids responded to love, some of them soaked it up but other pushed away because they did not know how to react to love. God taught me so much about building confidence in Him, about his unfailing mercy and I learned more of who I am in Christ. Anyways, I could go on for hours but here are a few pictures to give you a bit of an idea,

This is one of the girls I got really close to, her name is Mirella.