"How bouts"

It has been a very difficult week for me, no reason in particular just a tough week. You know we all have them...The summer is coming to a close the same thing day after day begins to get to you...Then you add a giant bucket of culture shock and you have yourself a very difficult week! I looked culture shock up on google to make sure that I was really experiencing that and yup! I am! I have all the symptoms and results. :) Look it up and see and you may understand. The good news is that if you are having a bad week in your everyday life you can't blame it on culture shock! Ha!

I mean if you just want to go to the store you can't cause the public transportation only comes at 7,8,2,6 and 8 and not on the weekends. Well...This is just one thing I can complain about and trust me there are many more...

Somehow those things mean nothing when you hear 30 children running in the sprinkler or when your very good friend from Germany who has been here one year returned home and you give 10 girls a gift to give her and the excitement of giving something that they did not even pick out is like a balloon just before it explodes. The excitment is uncontainable.

How bout spreading some pumpkin spread on bread and placing a cucumber and tomato on it with Ileana, who is delighted to help me in the kitchen, just me and her, to feed 30 children dinner. Or waking up at 5:30 a.m. to spread peanut butter and jam on 3 very large loaves of bread to feed 30 children for breakfast. They are delighted by the peanut butter and ask me every day when it is my turn to prepare the breakfast and if I will give them more peanut butter. :) (Thanks again Knox Church)

How bout putting beanie babies next to their head so in the morning when they wake they will have a surprise for being good. (Thanks Knox Church) However, it backfired on me as the first boy woke at 5 a.m. with such delight that he woke the others as well. I remembered the excitement of christmas in my own childhood that if you got there first you were sure to shake and stir the everyone else in the house. So how could I be mad!

How bout making your Granny's bannana bread recipe with 10 girls in Romania who can't hardly wait for it to come out of the oven and sharing 2 small loaves with 40 people. :) God is always more than enough!

There are so many "How bouts" here...It makes the really hard days, the really difficult moments fade away like a cool breeze on a hot summer day. After all the hard times are usually about me and the "How bouts" are about the children and what God is doing in their lives through us! We are blessing them each and everyday with the love of Christ...So the next time you are having a difficult time think about the "How bout" moments in your life!