Today, I am sitting in a coffee
shop...in Tempe, Arizona. I've been home for a week now, but I hate
the idea of not documenting in the blog world my last amazing day in
Romania. So even though this is one week removed, I'm going to do my
best. :)
I got up early that Friday morning and
cleaned and packed, then headed downtown one last time. My plan was
to go read at my favorite Bucharest coffee shop (ok, the only one I
tried). It was still cold and a little bit rainy, but I loved how
confident I felt about getting downtown, and I was getting pretty
used to the weather. I stopped at a little pretzel stand I'd been to
once before, and got my favorite apple-filled pretzel for 1 leu
(about 25 cents, a totally cheap and delicious breakfast). Then I
walked to Origo...only to find no empty tables. So sad. So I went
for a walk around the block, hoping a table would open up by the time
I got back...but no such luck. I got my latte to-go (they still did
beautiful latte art that I hated to cover up with a lid), and made my
way back to the subway, only to realize I'd lost my subway pass and
had to buy a new one to get back to the apartment. All in all, not
the most successful morning, but I was still pretty cheerful.
I had prayed that the rain would let up
by noonish. I had to check out of my apartment by noon, and was
going to go from there to my friend Adoriana's apartment, which was a
30-minute walk or 10-minute drive away. Taxi drivers really don't
like short drives, so I was going to probably have to pay someone
extra to do it (plus taxi drivers are notoriously dishonest in this
city) so I'd prayed the rain would stop...and it did! I had a
mostly-pleasant walk (after being yelled at by a shop owner for
throwing my trash in their trash bin), and arrived safely at
Adoriana's flat. I got to meet her husband Bogdan and their son Paul,
and she fed me a delicious lunch (complete with Romanian soup! I
miss it so much!). While her husband worked (he owns a photography
business) and her son napped, I walked down the street to the mall.
I'd avoided American chains the entire trip, but I was actually
pretty happy to sit in their really nice Starbucks in their really
nice mall on a still-chilly day and read to my heart's content.
Adoriana met me a couple hours later with Paul, and we walked back
together after watching Paul explore a fun little play area for
awhile.
 |
| with Paul and Adoriana |
My evening in their home was truly one of the highlights of my trip. After two weeks of traveling alone, I was in
a home again, with sweet believers, enjoying fellowship and a
home-cooked meal. Belonging to the body of Christ is truly amazing –
how sweet and easy it was to have conversations with these friends,
and what a joy to see God's kindness toward me in their hospitality
and friendship. I was filled with so many emotions – it is hard to
love people and know that in just a few hours you'll be separated by
thousands of miles – and so thankful that my original plan of
hanging out at the airport for the evening was not God's plan for my
night. I felt safe and loved and overwhelmingly grateful.
 |
| After purposely dumping a bowl of popcorn on the carpet, Paul got to help Bogdan vacuum :) |
Bogdan helped call me a cab in advance,
to come pick me up at 2:45 Saturday morning. He and Ado both got up
with me at 2:30 to say goodbye, and Bogdan walked me out to the curb
and made sure the cab driver was doing what he was supposed to do :)
I cried a bit on that cab ride – not the first or last time I've
cried about leaving Romania behind.
The rest is pretty much history – a
flight to Amsterdam, then to Seattle, then to Phoenix. I'm horrible
at sleeping on planes, so I think maybe I got about 2 hours of sleep
in 24 hours of traveling, but everything went smoothly and for that I
am thankful. My sweet parents met me at the airport, and since then
my full-time job has been adjusting to “normal” life back home
(oh yeah, and working at my full-time job, and my part-time job :) )
 |
| My heart wasn't happy at the airport, but my finally-free feet sure were! Flip-flops! |
I have so much more to say. I feel
like much of this blog has just been a chronological outline of my trip's events and not much about the many things going on in my heart. Here
is one thing I wrote – wasn't sure if I'd publish it here but looks like I will. I wrote this while sitting in the Starbucks that final
afternoon. I'd prayed earlier that week that I would see blue sky
before leaving Bucharest. It felt like a silly thing to pray, but I
just wanted to see with my own eyes that the city wasn't always
gloomy, and I had seen God answer prayer after prayer all month and
felt confident that He would do so again, just because He is kind.
And answer it he did! When I saw blue sky out of the Starbucks
window, I wrote this:
(side note, I use the word “pocaitii”
toward the end. This is the Romanian word for “repenters” and
is a label for evangelical believers there that is meant to be derogatory but that they've adopted as their own. I could write an entire additional
entry about this word alone...maybe another day)
“Keep tearing up a bit, I sure will
miss this place. I thought about adjusting to life at home once I
get back, but I didn't give much thought to the actual leaving, the
pain of it. And there's a beautiful patch of blue sky out this
Starbucks window that reminds me of a God who answers prayers, even
seemingly silly ones, and the really big ones, and who plants hopes
and dreams in our hearts and has us wait and then sometimes fulfills
them. And sweet Ado and Bogdan are at home in their humble flat and
hardly know me but are welcoming me so very kindly, and this too is
evidence of a kind God who dwells within them. It is strange to feel
simultaneously sad and weary and peaceful and joyful and excited and
nervous. And I love this place, not in the naïve way that I think I
loved it before, but in the way you love someone you've actually
gotten to know. This is not an easy place, and I don't understand it
still, not completely. But there are so many dear ones here, and
they are dearer to my Lord than they are to me, and He has watched
this country suffer and fight and lose and win and grown and change,
and I only see in snapshots, both literally and figuratively. And I
will go home, and will love the people and the place God has given me
there, and maybe I will come back again. And there will be a day
when God brings all His ransomed ones, pocaitii all of us, home for
good. And there will be none of the strangeness left, and all of the
joys.”
