I am just kicking it in Romania! I figured I should update this blog about my where abouts since we just started it! I am over here for the fall semester through a BYU program. There are nine of us here and we work in an orphange here in the mornings and then we work in the hospital in the afternoons. We are just creating relationships with the kids here and we are trying to improve their development because we are working in an orphange that mostly has disabled children. Life is going well! I miss my family and Jeremy like crazy! But I am having amazing experiences over here and I know this is where I am supposed to be. Here is a picture of me with a little boy named Ionut (pronounced Yo-nootz) at the hospital. At the hospital we ask the nurses if they have any kids there without moms and if they do, we play with them and change their diapers. The children I have gotten to spend time with have the sweetest spirits! I am one lucky girl!
"When the seas of life are stormy, a wise mariner seeks a port of peace. The family, as we have traditionally known it, is such a refuge of safety. 'The home is the basis of a righteous life and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfil its essential functions' (quoted in Conference Report, Oct. 1962, 72). Actually, a home is much more than a house. A house is built of lumber, brick, and stone. A home is made of love, sacrifice, and respect. A house can be a home, and a home can be a heaven when it shelters a family. When true values and basic virtues undergird the families of society, hope will conquer despair, and faith will triumph over doubt. "Such values, when learned and lived in our families, will be as welcome rain to parched soil. Love will be engendered; loyalty to one's best self will be enhanced; and those virtues of character, integrity, and goodness will be fostered. The family must hold its preeminent place in our way of life because it's the only possible base upon which a society of responsible human beings has ever found it practicable to build for the future and maintain the values they cherish in the present." Thomas S. Monson, "Dedication Day," Ensign, Nov. 2000