
the last few pictures on my phone of summer…
you’ve played hard when you fall asleep this way:
he has his own bed(s) and his own toy(s) and yet he thinks he is one of the kids:
so blessed to have (re)connected with tim and wendy:
our new best friend, orla…can’t wait until we hang out again either in Romania or Ireland!
just random metal things she wanted her picture with:
she thinks my bed is her bed…she’s basically right:
lego science from emmy and katie:
if the truth be told, i have probably talked to my sister (almost) every 24 hour period since moving overseas almost five years ago…minus travel days and maybe her honeymoon.
watching the olympics and cheering for way too many countries (my children are very loyal to every country, haha!
summer means impulsive…we love summer!
trying to convince my kids that summer movie nights don’t usually include their robes is impossible:
when did she start making dinner?!
if you put pink (bath approved) dye in the bathtub, your child will probably think that means it is okay to splatter blue (permanent) ink on the walls:
when ninja turtles fight my little ponies:
beautiful care package from my irish twinsie:
when rough days come, give your kids five lei and take them to the store:

these are just a bunch of snap shots from my phone…but we have been so blessed by the love, prayer, encouragement, notes, etc. we have received and we wanted to let you guys see what our past three weeks have looked like. one more week and hopefully mercy will get the green light to leave this house and venture to more exciting places!
friday morning, when i decided we were hospital bound…
first two days in the hospital. it was basically this for forty-eight hours…













the first signs of her ‘tude coming back…




























our four walls and view for eight days…




















last treatment (out-patient) and IV port removed…















two weeks down of complete sequester – – now we are going into a week of camp, where mercy, addy and i are going to sleep in a pensiune (think bed and breakfast minus the breakfast) in the town near camp (called buzau) and christian and i will trade of staying with mercy because she isn’t allowed to be locations like camp just yet. she is very disappointed about missing camp but in good, her puppy is coming with her!

Sometimes when a lot has been going on, I feel that in order to blog I need to recap my silence, explain where I’ve been. Then I realize that I’m not blogging because I don’t have time to back track. So for now…just me, running errands with this kid. We hit up the piata (uh, think bazaar), chatting with the men and women that bring their produce to sell from outside the city of Bucharest. Strange to think four and a half years ago I found this so daunting, so stressful. And now I find it enjoyable and relaxing. After that we went across the street to the mall (where the grocery store is) and ate lunch at our favorite, McDonalds…which you will never really understand until you visit an actual European McDonalds. And we talked. Chatted actually. Wow. The conversations I have with this kid. She is funny. She is creative. She is intense. And she can talk about so many different things at once. We covered space and Mars and the moon. We covered DNA. We discussed life and gymnastics. We discussed magic and the tooth fairy. We discussed boys please pinch me now. Conversations with this kid are never ever boring. I can’t wait to see what she becomes.

by far these past three weeks have been some of the best. the weather was amazing, the company even better. so while right now we just really miss dohdoh and tanner at least we have all these special memories to think about.
happy 2016. a year to move forward in peace and joy, forever changed for the better in 2015.

we have had such a wonderful visit with grammie and pops. i dont want to think about it ending because i am pretty sure the day after they leave winter will smother us. but who cares. the past six weeks have been amazing fall weather. last year we had one snow storm in october, two in november and two in december…all before we left for the states on december 12th! oh and last year we had thirty days straight of zero sunshine whatsoever. this year we have walked outside in t-shirts and sweaters and seen the sun every single day except for TWO. yes that is right, two. so while i am pretty sure next week is gonna be icky, rough and sad – – wow, what an amazing fall visit we have had with grammie and pops!

last sunday we had sickies. mostly overtired and overstimulated with a side of sickie. but enough to keep us home. so we did crafts. and science experiements. and had a great home family day that we really needed.
and a couple videos. mercy runs away both times and we thought she didn’t want to get dirty. come to find out she is just too smart for her own good, ha! she told us, “you said you making lava. and me learned that lava is HOT!” also even though you might see a yogurt bottle, it doesn’t have any yogurt. the bottle has baking soda and cinnamon mixed together and we were pour vinegar in. we were making mud volcanos since we live in romania, home of the mud volcanos!