Already halfway through the trip, and time is flying by! We’ve packed in a ton so far. On Monday, we visited an adult day center which is run by some friends of ours. They provide activities for people with a range of mental and physical disabilities, as well as counseling services for their family. In Romania, it’s still a stigma to have a disability and there are very few organizations that offer services to these individuals and their families. This group does really great work and they’re very busy.

On Tuesday, we met with a county official who works closely with the public services administration. We’ve known her for many years and she’s become a friend. On this visit she had good news for us: there’s a strong possibility new legislation will pass to give more money to NGOs like Chi Rho. In her words, the government is realizing that groups like ours can provide the same services they do, but are “twice as effective and half as expensive.” We’ll know by early next year if the legislation is approved. Later, the house had a surprise visit from the mayor’s wife and a children’s choir. They brought homemade pastries and sang traditional Romanian songs. Our kids had a blast, and it was great to see the local community reaching out to them.

Today we visited our foster kids and their families. Hands down, this was the best part of the trip for me. I got to share all the old pictures I had scanned this summer of the kids when they were just toddlers (before we took over the house). For a lot of them, it was the first time they had seen these pictures. We were all pretty teary!