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.

Ants on a Log!

Caleb needed a haircut, real bad. We went 4 times to his hair guy and he was never there. Yesterday we tried again and found out that now, as of yesterday, he's on vacation until February. That meant I had to take him to my hair dresser and he wasn't so happy about that (she's a girl, you know.) Still, he survived and looked pretty darn handsome after the cut! I asked him to pose below and he would only take pictures with his eyes closed - he was in silly mode. The box he's holding in his hands is from a local grocery store. He noticed it a little over a week ago and asked the women working there if he could have it when it was empty. When we walked in yesterday it was still full but the women felt bad so they emptied it for him. He was SO excited and has been playing with this cardboard box non-stop since yesterday evening.


Ants on a log! I have received some recent donations through the mail to help the kids' diet at Casa Alba orphanage. Two of these are : jars and jars of Peanut Butter (thanks April!) and raisins (thanks Aunt Connie!). I bought some bananas and during the middle of program on Wednesday morning we made ants on a log. They had never eaten them before (well, as far as I know) and they LOVED them. Although Joni (picture below) was doing homework Wednesday morning (when I do program with the 4 year olds) he popped in at the end. I ask him if he wanted to try one and he willingly agreed : ) All he could say was (with a stuffed mouth ) "More Kelsey, I want more, I want more!"

9 in '09!

Are you willing to pray about it?

9 in '09

Zoning Out...

That's what I've been doing for about a week now. My Dad arrived and I checked out : )
I've been really thankful for this time to do absolutely nothing, well almost nothing. It's hard to be able to take breaks here. I can't leave the country (for upcoming Residency purposes) and Caleb isn't allowed to leave the country at all...so pretty much leaving the country is out of the question. Travelling in Romania is difficult with a 4 yr. old, of course, seeing as how there really aren't kid friendly travel spots. So the best solution to the problem was Dad coming just after Christmas and it has been great!

We did head down to Timisoara for 2 days and it was like a little mini Vienna. Very beautiful - lots of lights - and a small Christmas market. FREEZING cold - out of control cold. My Dad has always wanted to visit the site where the Revolution that overthrew Communism started - so now he has!

Caleb did really well; I was so proud of him. His favorite parts were :
1. McDonalds
2. Pigeons in the square of Timisoara
3. Live Sheep in the Manger Scene in the square

My camera battery died after 3 pictures in Timisoara - sorry.... : (

Monday marks the return to 'everything' : ) The kids are all returning to Casa Alba on Saturday afternoon so programs will be up and running starting next week.
Today though will be a bit of a change as Dad is going to preach at a small, local Hungarian congregation. No, not in Hungarian - ha! A good friend of mine in town speaks English and it's her church home - so she'll translate. It's really common here to have a New Year's Day service. Their service starts at 5pm tonight.

My old neighbor insisted on making our New Year's Eve dinner for us last night. When it was finished she called me, and a friend and I went over to pick it up. She said that we HAD to eat foods that brought good luck (interesting) which meant that she made a meal of Rabbit in a Red Wine/Garlic Sauce and Pork Snitzel. I made some veggies, mashed potatoes and Sarmale (Cabbage Rolls). Well, I heated up the Sarmale. They were left over from the lunch we had at Caleb's kindergarten teacher's home the day before. Oh, and my neighbor made this huge cake - good gracious. She knows that this particular one is my favorite and so she made me a huge one, big enough to feed 15-20 people. It was out of control. I told her "You know you're crazy, right?" She said "You know you're crazy for all of the ways you help me, right?"

If only she knew that I love helping her and her husband, very ill with cancer, out for NOTHING. I think it's something she'll never understand - I just keep telling her though...maybe someday it'll sink in!

I'll post some pictures later...right now I have a request from Caleb to play "Go Go Giraffe!"