Announcing Mr and Mrs Dudas

Its kind of weird how quickly life goes by. I remember sitting in a basement living room a few years ago, eating sunflower seeds with a lanky, dark haired friend of mine, discussing what age we wanted to get married at. Neither of us had any serious guys on our horizons, but its always best to have a plan. (Then you have something to change, right? Plans are made to be broken.
:-D) We were having one of those girly conversations, and discussed what we wanted our future husbands to be like, how he would propose, etc.
"What age do you want to be when you get married?" She asked me.
"No younger than 24." I replied. "You?"
"I want to be 22." She said. We both then giggled, thinking how ridiculous that was, planning out the age of our marriage.
Who would've thunk, Miss Ramona is getting her wish. At the age of 22 1/2, she and Emil will be getting married. I haven't met the guy yet, but I have talked to him on the phone. So far I approve, as does her family, which I guess is more important than MY approval. ;-)
The two lovebirds will be moving to Italy after they tie the knot, and will live there for a few years while he finishes business in Rome before they move back to Romania to build a house.
I must confess a TWINGE of jealousy, that my dear friend not only gets to marry during the age of her choosing, but that she gets a guy who is not only a very committed Christian but rather well-off financially and who likes to spoil her as well. Handsome, rich, and Christian. ;-) All the essentials.

Just kidding. :-) But it's wierd, thinking that just a few years ago Ramona and I were throwing sunflower seeds at each other giggling, still girls, and now we are both launching into womanhood.

Now there's a rather scary thought.

Its been on my heart a lot lately to pray that God would keep me from drifting, or being distracted. Its so easy to be distracted, and always by important things. :-) But when I get distracted, I'm so much more easily discouraged. Seeing my faults and failures is much more up close than when I am focused on Jesus and the amazing plan He has for me. Tests and papers may come and go, college dorm-room drama shall pass, miscommunications and inter-friend-conflicts shall not endure, but the Word of the Lord will last forever! :-)

Time goes by so quickly. There's been several points this summer where I want to hit the 'pause' button and enjoy the moment for a few more days, both abroad and at home. Time is wierd.

The only thing I have against Miss Caba becoming Mrs Dudas is that married women are ridiculously busy and don't have much time for keeping in touch with old friends. Then once the kids arrive you never see them. That is my only complaint about people getting married. Other than that, I think twitterpainted friends are an amazing source of amusement. All you have to do is say the beloved's name, and a glazed-over, donught type look comes over the person's eyes, and they start to giggle giddily. Its amazing. :-)

Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to this wedding. However, I am under request, or rather, order and threat, to be there when baby #1 arrives, so am praying that I'll be able to do that. :-)

So praying for this lovely couple, and looking forward to what God has in their - and my - future :-)

~Princess Ouch~

Traveler

My friend Corina who is a Social Worker in Romania wrote this and put it on her blog.I thought it was very beautiful, and so am sharing. It kind of sums up this summer for me. :-) What with traveling all over, learning new things and being exposed to so many different paradigms, saying 'see ya later' to friends due to different locations - wordly and other-worldly :-)

You can visit Corina's blog at: http://corinacaba.wordpress.com She has both a Romanian page and an English page.

~Princess Ouch~

Traveler

by Corina Caba

lift up your eyes to heaven

remember you are HUMAN:

your source is not earthling

and your name is not on earth.

your origin does not belong

to this perennial earth

the name you carry here is one destined

to be forgotten,

an eternal name awaits for you,

a name destined to never be forgotten

yes, your origin is from another world,

from God Himself your soul is sprang.

I live on earth, but I am a stranger here,

my longings can not be satisfied herein,

my home is from a world above,

my destination is not on this earth…

Until we meet again

(Me, Ramona, and Haruna at McDonalds in 2006)

The thing about being young is that you think you are going to live forever. Not only do you think you are going to live forever, but you think all your friends are going to live forever. The plan is that we will all become what we dream of or even better, we will find Prince Charming or Lady Fair and get married and have the perfect number of gorgeous, brilliant kids who will always be obediant and we will be far better parents than everyone else we see. The job we plan on will of course yeild an excellent income, the ministry we are preparing on will of course yeild good fruit and seminaries will be writing about us in 50 years or more. We will have perfect health and happiness always.

And then reality hits.

A friend of mine died this last week. We weren't the best of friends, and we had fallen out of touch for about a year. He was Nigerian, and was in Nigeria when he keeled over suddenly and after being in a coma for a few hours was pronounced dead.
Its wierd, because I had just assumed that he was going to be around for the next 50 years. Of course we would somehow see each other again someday. He was going to be a cardiologist and led Bible Studies at the International Church where we met, as well as lead worship from time to time and also give the sermon when the Pastor asked him to. He always had great insights and every interaction I ever had with him I walked away blessed.

(Haruna and Christian talking after church)

Ramona and I would often hang out with a group from the international church after Bible study or church and would go to the mall for ice cream and walk around the city. Ramona - who is Romanian and had a New York-ish accent at that time- could imitate Haruna's deep Nigerian accent almost perfectly; albiet a few pitches higher than Haruna actually spoke. Haruna would, after much coaxing from me, try to imitate Ramona, and would do TERRIBLE at it, leaving all of us in the group doubled over in peals of laughter.

I've been thinking how awesome Heaven is going to be, with all the reunions we're going to have. I am pretty sure Haruna will be up somewhere in the Heavenly Chorus, his deep gorgeous Nigerian voice belting out Hallelujah's to the Father.

Thank You, Father, for faithful servants like Haruna. Raise up many to pick up the torch that he put down when You took him home. Help me to bless others as much as he blessed me. Amen.

~Princess Ouch~

(Faith, DiAnne, Chevelle, and Haruna planning the weeks Praise and Worship scheduale)

Mullberries

Someone in the history of our property's settlement planted three mulberry bushes behind the duck shed, and every year the bushes take turns in producing gorgeous, juicy berries.
This year Dad discovered three more HUGE bushes in the ditch up the hill, and so on Saturday I took Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum berry picking.
Or rather, I took them to go berry munching while I picked.
We started with the bush that is growing wild in the field on our property before heading towards the planted one. Between bushes Tweedle Dee used the excuse "Gotta go bathroom" and fled to Mom and Dad where she reported that I was "Slaving them" and begged for parental intervention.
However, my parents live to see their children's character built and jobs done, so they threw her back outside to help me and Tweedle Dum finish picking.
We got at least two gallons worth of berries (I know you measure them in bushels but I don't know how many bushels we got and I know how many gallons we got so there) and now we have to figure out what we are going to do with them.
Tweedle Dee voted for Mom to make juice, but we need to buy canning lids for that. And that means long hours in the kitchen boiling stuff down and getting hot and sticky. Yay.
KB said she hated me when I walked in with the big tub full of berries with TD and TD marching proudly in front of me. :-) I guess she figured all I was good for on my visits is creating more work for her to do. That's what big sisters are for, right?
TD and TD and I drove to the bushes on the hill as we had to take a detour around the once-again-flooded river, and on our way back we discovered ANOTHER mulberry bush.
"Hey guys, look! Another one! Should we stop?"
"NO!" they screamed in terror. We had been outside for at least three hours and for the last half of it they had both routinely been informing me that the "clock inside my tummy says its lunchtime."
So fun times on the farm. I couldn't find my camera so no pictures of our deeply-purple stained hands and scratched arms :-(
In other news, trying to finish the Coopertive Program assignment for school and figure out the job situation before heading back to school in August. Oh joy. Being an adult is not always all it is cracked up to be.
Anyhoo. Made Romanian coffee today and dipped some of our home-grown zuchinni in eggs and garlic-salted-flour and fried them up. YUMMY. I wish eating healthy wasn't so dang expensive most of the time. And to be perfectly honest, I far prefer the taste of my own cooking to any gourmet cafeteria at any school. But the powers that be decree otherwise, and so off to the meal-plan-paying office I go first thing when I get on campus. Pooh. But other than that I am looking forward to buying interesting theologically-based books and studying them and learning different missions techniques and writing papers and cramming for tests and ridiculous hours with friends sharing some kind of chocolate something or fried something and swapping different types of tea with girls of various majors and theological viewpoints. Although it has been good to be home and live in a HOUSE and home again for a while.

Later gator,

~Princess Ouch~

Back Home

(Neighbors watching the river rise and the road dissapear)

So I successfully made it back home :-) There were a few points when I was switching planes when I was pretty sure I'd be stranded. Little things like the airlines forgetting to display which gate my flight was, or not giving me a boarding pass in Budapest which complicated things in Amsterdam, or new customs and checkpoints that weren't there last year. Yippee! But Praise God I made it fine, and am safely back home.

So I promised I'd put up pictures of the flood, so will do that now :-) Funny thing is the computer I used in Romania was faster at loading pictures than the one I use in the States. Now does anyone else see anything wrong with that??? lol

Anyway, it started as we were getting ready to go to Church in Sacuieu, and for the next hour or two we watched the water rise at an alarmingly fast rate. At one point the river was flowing about two feet away from the house. I really wished we had some sandbags, but we had something better: prayer! :-) The interesting thing was that the water made a circle around the garden and the house, making two little islands. Further down the road, a house that was higher than ours had the garden completely washed out and water in the basement. And the neighbors had their garden washed out as well. So after the flood Silvana and I went inside and each took a nap. I had been stressed and was going to have a full night traveling by bus over the mountains and across the Panonian plain to Budapest for my flight that left at 7 am in the morning. After waking up we sang Praise and Worship songs to Nicu's playing the guitar, and then Silvana and Nicu showed me some goofy songs from Christian bands who took secular songs and put Christian lyrics to them. It was fun!

(Silvana surveys the rising flood)

(Leo watches the road dissapear to the waters)


Naomi and I decided to snitch some cherries while we were outside. We kept 'accidently' pulling branches down which let loose a shower of water that had caught on the leaves when it rained)

(The house and the rising flood. Woot)


Silvana told Tanti Marioala that I was sad because we couldn't go to Sacuieau. I was going to buy a Gypsy outfit from Dita while we were there. Tanti Marioala asked if I wanted to see what was in her attic and we found this costume which I bought from her. :-) Pretty Gypsy. Apparently her daughter in law wore it for a high school play or something.

My family and me back home!!

(Sorry that this ends rather abruptly, I figured if I was going to get this posted I should while I had the computer, and its late at night. If I waited until I could give the story a nice ending, you might be waiting for a while. Since this has sat in my drafts box for over a week, I figured it was time to just finish putting up pictures and post it as-is. Sorry again!)