Day 9

This morning we did some laundry and hung it out to dry quickly in the nice breeze on the balcony. 

We worked quite a bit in the kitchen preparing lunch and dessert. Sally is an awesome cook. 

The guys worked hard setting posts and pouring a concrete floor for a new wood shed at the transitional home. 

I walked to the store with Tialyr, Bianca, and Denisa for a few items. The cashier counted out eggs for us and put them in a plastic bag to carry home. Thankfully none of them broke. ☺️

A few sights on the way back to Sally's.

Sally took us ladies on a drive through different areas of the village. Talpos has about 1,400 people. 

These stork nests are pretty common. We saw a lot of them in Slovakia too. I heard that if a stork builds a nest by your property, it will bring you good luck.

A colorful gypsey house.

This horse was grazing over by the river. Horses are still used here for pulling wagons and plowing fields. 

An interesting contrast of the work horse with a tractor in the background.

Entering the village.

This is where the village witch lives.

Back at the transitional home, the guys finished the foundation, and looks great! 

They are tired and very sunburned, but it was a successful day! They've really accomplished a lot this week. Tomorrow is the last work day we'll have here.

Marius was helping out and said, "Look, I am very clean!" He's a little jokester and I love hearing him speak.

Lots of games played with the children.

This afternoon I did a live video at the orphanage. Hopefully you saw it posted and got a little tour of the outside. This is their large garden.

A new calf. 

Milk cows. They also have pigs, rabbits, and chickens, all for eating.

Georgi and brother Ionel. 💕

For supper we had chicken, delicious pasta casserole, baked beans, carrots, fresh bread, cheeses, a traditional Romanian salad, and cherry cobbler. Yum!

Someone asked about Sally's dogs. This is one of her 3 dogs, Tyson. Pretty much everyone in the village has a guard dog, due to high theft. 

Such a fun sight! (The church in the background)

Game time again!

Denisa and Alexandra. We all walked to the outskirts of town to the river. Sometimes they'll go swimming there in the summer.

Great friends and good memories.

Sweet Neli, a precious soul. And...dimples 😉

Jer and his buddy Ionel.

Ionel had such a blast with Jeremy and Josh! He is one of the cutest boys ever! 💗 On the way back from the river, he was so tired. Jeremy carried him on his shoulders and Ionel was yawning and about to nod off. 

Tialyr with wonderful sisters Bianca and Neli.

After our walk, the kids had a devotional and prayer time before bed. On Friday nights they sleep over at Sally's, which is definitely looked forward to! One of my favorite things ever is listening to these children pray. Their heartfelt and sincere prayers are so insightful and such a blessing. I know God must be smiling when he listens to them.

Day 8

It's hard staying up late to do these posts, but I don't dare get a day behind, or I'll never catch up! 😂

It ended up working best for our work schedule to visit Oradea today; we were waiting on some supplies to be delivered. Oradea is a large city about an hour away. Sally goes there once a week for groceries or doctor visits with the kids. 

Some of us rode in Sally's car, and some in Tim's car. Lucci, Tim's brother, had to be taken to the hospital to look at his thumb he injured the other day. 

We went to a large market, where you can buy fresh produce from many different vendors. There was also a meat section and a cheese building too. 

Tasting and purchasing pig fat to fry up for sandwiches.

We were in cheese heaven! I believe most were from sheep.

Next stop was the beautiful downtown area. They're refurbishing many of these old buildings, but still preserving their same historical look.

We had lunch at this American burger spot...

Next up was the Moon Church, completed in 1790. There's a lunar mechanism on the outside of the church's tower that rotates with the phases of the moon. If you want to learn more... https://www.expedia.com/Moon-Church-Oradea.d6141251.Vacation-Attraction 

When Jeremy and I were here last, we had our photo taken sitting on these chairs in the moon church. Guess it's a tradition now.

Then my favorite... Climbing up the clock tower at City Hall. Such amazing views from 170 ft). You can go as high as the flag. It's survived 2 world wars. The faces of the clock still have bullet holes from 1944. (There's a face on each of its 4 sides.)

The view is definitely worth all the steps! 

Love our fun group!! 

Another tradition... 😂

This was a beautiful Catholic church we walked through. 

I just love these pretty apartment balconies.

Some gypsey ladies out shopping in their colorful clothing.

We stopped off at the mall for groceries and a few other items. At the "farmacia" we met a lady who asked what we were doing, and if we were there on a mission trip. She said that she used to be a missionary with New Tribes in the Philippines. One of our church's other partner missionaries is with New Tribes, so that was cool. Small world! 

Sally took us a different way back to Talpos. We got to see some of the rolling hills nearby, and larger fields. 

We literally started singing "the hills are alive...with the sound of music...la la la laaaaa". 😂 

Cows comin' home! We had to dodge a few with the car.

Josh gave another great Bible lesson with the teens tonight about not conforming to the world. We are called to be different and set apart. 

They closed with singing "Here I am to Worship". I just love hearing their beautiful and sincere voices. If you didn't already see the video, Amelia Jensen posted it.

More volleyball! Then we took a short walk down the road to the orphanage. These neighbor girls are so precious and sweet.

We took a tour of the orphanage, House of Hope, and the kids showed us their bedrooms. We'll be spending more time there tomorrow.

New friends! 💕

This was from yesterday at dinner.

Our later evenings are spent chatting with Sally and Tim; lots of laughter!

Noapte buna! (Good night) (Sally's house)