Blogger, I'm finished with you!

This Blog is officially over...on blogspot that is.

All older posts will remain on this site.

My updated (hopefully more often than recent) regularly blog is now (drumroll please...)

http://kelscaleb.wordpress.com

Make the change, come and visit. Please and thank you.

Blog Issues

So, the deal is this. I want a better template. No, I want a cool template for my blog.
I tried last night to put one on. I got it saved but then it won't let me put in my title or anything. No, I'm not smart enough to figure out how to change the HTML so that I can do that. Nor, do I want to be : )
Anyway I'm not settled on this pink deal you see now. It's a temporary fix until I get get "cooler."
Can someone help? Please?

I was clearly in the wrong...

When I first dissed this guy. Actually I dissed his name. Someone asked me in August if I had ever heard of "Phil Wickham." Since the team was from England I kind of made a joke about how English the name sounded and who the heck was Phil Wickham and how the heck would or should I know him? (And, I'd just like to add here, how in the world would I know whether or not a name sounds English or not.?) They went on...he's a worship leader, he's my friend, he's from the States, thought you might have heard of him so on and so on. (Something like that - can't exactly recall the conversation.)
Well during the time the team was here they played a CD they had of his. Secretly I got hooked to this one song they seemed to have on repeat a lot. But, I couldn't let them know that I actually liked the song. I mean, c'mon, I dissed him Day 1. You know? Hopefully, since I haven't been posting to this blog so often lately, some of those team members will have forgotten to check this blog and still never find out the whole truth.

The truth continues...
I searched for him on iTunes. I know. Although I honestly and completely didn't expect him to have anything there. Afterall he was just "a friend of _________" and let's be honest. There are about 5 million male worship leaders in the States who have put together a little record. Just because this team had an album didn't mean he had reached iTunes.
But, there he was. iTunes. Not just 1 album, but more than 1 album.
Dang it. There was nothing stopping me now. I really, really wanted to have that song I had heard. There was no way I could ask the team for it because then they would know that I actually liked his music. I couldn't remember the song exactly so I was going to have to buy the entire album. To make it a little more worthwhile I set a personal goal and once I reached it I would allow myself to buy it...but just for that "one song."
I reached that goal last week and finally bought this guy's first album.
This is al I have to say after listening to it pretty much 24/7 since getting it.
I, Kelsey Corrina Winters, swear to never ever ever ever judge someone's name as "sounding English" ever again.

Seriously. I'm going to be really honest here. This guy brings a musical style to worship that is so lacking in Christian music. And, it's good. Really good. Just speaking from hello dorky Kelsey went to music school point of view. I'm serious - he's really talented. And his voice is so unique as well. That is awesome as well to hear. Not that he was the one who decided what his voice would sound like but...you know.
Now, to put this in a Jesus perspective. Right. The words that God pours through this guy's songs...the music He led him to put to it...all of it....it has cracked open a part of my soul that I didn't know needed to be laid bare before God.

You and Jesus need some time together? Put this album on and be on your face for awhile.
It was like streams of water for me today...
http://www.amazon.com/Phil-Wickham/dp/B000EU1PNM

I found his website earlier tonight if you want to check that out instead...
http://philwickham.com/blog/

I think I'm ready now to deal with the consequences from the team. Maybe it's good that I got this out in the open before I see them in a week and a half. I'm not going to try and save face - just going to be honest. I more than like the music. There - it's out!

How am I going to see the team from England in a week and a half? Let's just say that when a $33 roundtrip plane ticket shows up you just buy it. Actually ended up being $46 when I checked my bank account. Not sure how that happened but still $46 roundtrip. Are you freakin' kidding me? I'll fly from Budapest up to Glasgow and stay with really close friends there. After spending some much needed time with them, and hopefully some me & God in the beautiful hills alone time, I'll head down to Carlisle, England to visit the team. (It's just a little over an hour by train from Glasgow to them.) I've been trying to save up for a trip to visit my friends in Glasgow for a year and a half...just haven't been able to pull enough together. God has been so incredibly provisional. All my bills are being paid each month. My rent is paid each month. Caleb and I have food each month. But putting anything aside for Scotland just doesn't work. And, that's okay! I had been praying though, since September, that God could somehow make a trip work this year. The only tickets I had found were at least $120 roundtrip - a no go for Kels financially. Then one of the cheapy airlines 2 weeks ago had a 2 day sale with these roundtrip tickets in February and March. "For fun" I decided to check out some dates and ended up buying one. I had been able to put aside the amount for the ticket over these past months so I definitely had peace that God had prepared this ticket for me to go. Hard, as usual, that Caleb can't come. Ugghh. I just miss my son so much when I'm away from him - and I know he has such a hard time without Mom. Thankfully though, he'll stay with my good friend and her son (Caleb and him are like brothers) while I'm gone. I'll be returning the favor for her when she takes a week break at the end of April and her son will stay with us!

The Latest from Casa Alba...

And that would be...TUG OF WAR.
This is how we started off our program 2 Saturdays ago. It was HILARIOUS. The girls won once (the first time actually) and the boys won the next two times. I am so thankful for our very creative donation warehouse boss, Martin, who came up with this extremely creative "rope" for us. (Old hospital blankets tied together!!)
Enjoy the pictures below from the fun! (Click on Shutterfly Link Below)



6 pictures
View Album at Shutterfly

Let's see...what else. This weekend the foundation I serve with hosted a youth conference. This is the second year in a row and it was amazing. The speaker from last year returned and the Club was PACKED. Only the very last two rows way in the back were empty. (Which turned out to be the perfect spot for Caleb to spread out his memory cards, as well as color, while Mom soaked in the teaching!) This particular speaker is very blunt and very transparent...I have so, so appreciated the impact his teaching has made on how I view God. If I can find a website with some info on him I'll post it.

CRISTINA LEFT TODAY! WOOHOO! All of you who have prayed for this day - well, it finally came. She was able to permanently move to the home of an immediate family member. How many years has it been since she arrived...2, more than that? I can't even remember now.
Some of the kids were crying during her goodbye party today. I think in part it was that their friend was leaving but also they were crying out of hurt that they weren't the ones leaving...well, at least I'm going to guess that was part of it. Please continue to pray that these kids would be able to leave SOON to families that desire to love and raise them with HIS love and wisdom. Amin!

By the way, this is "fun." I made the cake for the party today. My friend had it in her lap as we were driving to Casa Alba. As I turned the car around, the top layer slid off into her lap.
Yup, that was grrrreat. Then, I carried the cake into Casa Alba and the top layer slid onto my shoulder. Even more grrrreat. The staff at Casa Alba were, thankfully!, able to patch it up enough that I didn't feel like I had ruined the party : )

Gray, Rain, Cold...

That pretty sums up the weather we've been having here since the beginning of December. Okay, I know we've had some exceptions to this but if you took a majority count...it would come down to just that "Gray, Rain, Cold." I am a sun person. In and out sun. I've asked the Lord to relocate Romania to the desert but so far He's decided against that...(perhaps piggy backing too much on Lost?). When the sun is out - I feel that I come out. Do you know what I mean? When the sun is shining it just reminds me so much of who God is and who He desires us to be and I overflow with joy! When it's gray...uggghhhh...Kelsey goes into a shell. I don't WANT to, it just happens.
I think that's why I've been not so good about updating the blog this past week. So much rain, so much gray, so much cold. Sorry everyone!
We had a couple of hours on 2 days this week where the sun came out and the weather was warm enough to just have jackets on. Boy, was I pumped or what. Then after a couple of hours it returned to the theme of this winter : Gray, Rain, Cold.
Yesterday morning I told Caleb how God is in charge of everything. Even the sun has to obey God. We began praying that the sun would come out! It didn't : (
It rained pretty much all day and all night (I heard it everytime I woke up...and especially when Caleb woke me up from seriously a very deep sleep YELLING "Mama! Mama! My bed is cold!"
I think I somehow mumbled "Please just stop yelling at me and climb into my bed then."
(Laughing about it right now...)
Anyway I woke up and the same - a nice thick of gray covering everything. BUT, looking out the window now I see little pockets of blue sky through that gray. Oh gosh, how awesome would it be to have an entire day with sun??

What do you think?

I had a conversation with someone yesterday who has been gone from work because their son was ill. I wanted to speak with them and let them know that I had been praying but also to find out what exactly had happened. All we had been told was that they had to go to the hospital in the city for it to be treated. Basically this person told me that the left side of the boy's face had been paralyzed. He initially couldn't even see out of his left eye and his mouth was distorted on that side of his face as well. He's not that old of a child so I asked this person "How did this happen?"

The answer was really interesting. This person replied with "We were out in the country where the air is a lot colder and harsher. The cold air made him paralyzed on his face."

I've heard from others who have also been to other parts of Eastern Europe that there is a similar thinking pretty much across the board that cold air and breezes are dangerous.
For instance, if you are in a taxi in the summer time you generally (from many personal experiences) are not allowed to have windows open on both sides of the car. Why? The cross breeze can make you sick. This concern is elevated most when young children are in a car, train etc... If you open a window to get a breeze there is immediate words and action taken to close the window because the child could get sick from the breeze. It is an extremely common site here to see people with cotton stuck in both of their ears...especially when it is windy out (even if really warm outside) and now, too, when it's cold outside. From asking about it I am told that they don't want the breeze to blow through one ear and out the other because it will either make them sick or hurt their teeth.

Really interesting, right? For me, now, I don't really think about it so much. Hey - it's their culture and honestly sticking cotton in your ear isn't going to hurt you at all is it? Go for it!
I do get frustrated when I'm not allowed to open windows when it's really stuffy or unbearably hot but, to be honest, those instances aren't really that often. Now that I have my own car I don't need to take the taxi's to the city anymore.

So, back to this boy's paralysis.
My initial reaction was really sad. How in the world could they believe that cold air created this paralysis? I didn't say anything to this person other than how sorry I was that their son was going through this and that I was praying for them. I have to admit though I was a little mad at the doctors in the city for telling them this load of something or other. This reaction of mine is based on some experiences with medical care here. One time I was with a gypsy mom and her baby at the hospital. The baby was receiving injections for an infection that it had. When I asked the Mom what was wrong with the baby she told me that the baby was getting injections in the hand - to get rid of the infection in the arms, injections in her bum - to get rid of the infection in the back of her body, and injections in the front of her leg - to get rid of the infection in the front of her body. When I heard this I didn't know if the doctors had just told the Mom this because they didn't think she'd understand the real reasons or, did the doctors truly believe this themselves? Really interesting.

So this time, in regards to the paralysis, I really wanted to go and see what I could find on online. I mean, let's be honest, these very - very different medical views had to come from somewhere. Just because they aren't embraced in the States doesn't mean they don't have value, you know?

I was really surprised at what I found by a quick Google search.

Traditional Chinese Medicine
believe that face paralysis is caused by cold air freezing the Qi (life force)
and blood that normally flow freely in the face.
Meanwhile, western medicine diagnoses the condition as a viral infection that attacks the nerves in the face.
TCM doctors treat patients with acupunture, as well as a ranged of other natural treatments.
While they may look a bit unorthodox, many patients regain use of their facial muscles after several visits.

Now, I know for a fact that this child is not receiving acupuncture. BUT, they are doing electrical massage (which I've had before in physical therapy) and lots of other creams and masssages. He has regained the sight in his left eye already.

What do you think?

Romania's Neighbors...

aren't really being friendly right now. (To put it in Caleb's language.)
Russia says Ukraine is stealing gas, Ukraine says that what they are taking is allowed under their contract. News can't really find the absolute truth - only those dealing directly with this situation in both those countries really know what's going on. What the rest of us know is he said - she said and the effects of the decisions they have made. Which, this time round, is hitting pretty hard in a very real way in Europe. Russia decided to cut us all off from importing their natural gas because of their issues with Ukraine. Nice. Bulgaria and Poland are pretty much without any gas at this point. Romania's temperatures have been at about 10 F, before windchill, steady so you can only imagine what no heat in weather like this is for the people of Bulgaria and Poland.
Now, onto how this affects Romania. I actually hadn't heard about it at all (yikes) until a friend brought it up at lunch today. Then I came home and found an e-mail from some friends wanting to know if there was any heat in Marghita. I figured I'd better go read what was happening : )
I found out some really interesting facts about Romania's natural gas industry and importing on some Romanian news sites. All which helped explain why there really isn't anyone talking about a gas crisis here (and why it hasn't hit us in Marghita.)

Here's the deal :

Conflictul dintre Gazprom si Naftogaz incepe sa afecteze si Romania, ieri compania ruseasca sistand furnizarea de gaze naturale prin statia Isaccea. O treime din gazul consumat in Romania vine din Rusia. Daca situatia persista, Romania poate compensa deficitul de gaz din depozitele subterane, aflate in cea mai mare parte in proprietatea Romgaz, companie de stat. In prezent, capacitatea Romgaz este de 2,8 miliarde metri cubi, iar oficialii societatii spun ca depozitele sunt pline. In lipsa importurilor, aceasta cantitate acopera consumul normal pentru cel putin patru luni. Intr-un scenariu optimist, potrivit ministrului Economiei, Adriean Videanu, cantitatea de gaze stocata poate asigura consumul Romaniei chiar si pentru sase luni.

Okay, so what does that say?
The conflict is beginning to affect Romania as well because yesterday the Russians shut down the station from which Romania gets their imported gas (The Isaccea Station...located on the Black Sea.) A third of all consumed gas in Romania is imported and comes from Russia. If the situation persists, Romania can compensate for the gas deficit from subterranean deposits. These deposits are found mainly on the property of Romgaz, a national Romanian company. Presently the Romgaz capacity is 2.8 billion metric cubes but officials say that the deposits are full. If having to make up for the missing imported gas, this quantity can cover the normal gas consumption (for Romanians) for at least 4 months. In an optimistic scenario the Minister of Economy, Adriean Videanu, says that the stocked gas could assure Romania's consumption for even 6 months.

To sum it all up.
Kelsey's apartment, and the rest of Romania, has heat for at least another 4 months, maybe 6, despite being cut off by Russia and the possibility of still being cut off for awhile.

Sure wish I could share some with Bulgaria...oh gosh those people are really suffering right now.