We have 30 followers now!  Wooo Hoo!  For some of you, that is a small number....but across the pond it is entirely magical to know that we have 30 people who are intentionally reading our blog and want to know what is going on in our corner of the world.   
Let me catch you up.  We have had a very busy few weeks here in Moldova (that just seems to be our new normal...and I like it).  We have had guests come to visit and we have had intensely beautiful fall weather that is about to take a nose dive.  The high for the next few days is 40.  That will be a bit of a shock for this old southern girl.  I have a coat and we have a space heater and we say bring it on Moldovan Fall/Winter weather....Bring....it.....on!

As I type, the weather outside our window is gray and cold and misty.  My curtains are open and I can see all of our Stella's Houses right before me eyes.   This brightens the dreary a lot for me.  Because I know what these homes mean for our girls.  If you didn't read my blog about Straseni Orphanage, then you should.  I have been back to there twice since my initial visit and it still breaks my heart.   I hope God never lets me become complacent about this orphanage....that I never forget that my girls lived there and that I don't forget that I am personally connected....that it is real. 

This week when we visited, the weather was gray and chilly.  The kids were huddled in the classrooms learning and staying warm and dry.  There were some teachers who smiled at us and put on a good show and then the girls would tell us ghastly stories about the cruel treatment they received at the hands of these women.  Our girls say it so matter of factly.  Like it is some distant memory that happened to someone they don't know.  They are detached from it now. 

This visit, after greeting some of our new friends (remember SPider Man and Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi?), We actually got to tour some of the dormitories where the kids sleep...and they were cold and damp and lonely and my heart cracked open all over again.  The group of rooms we entered into was actually the home for three of the dearest boys I know.  They spent their entire adolescents inside those walls.  We walked into a room with a crumbling ceiling, cold flooring, and beds that had seen better days.  There were five beds in one small room and all of the belongings for all five children all fit into a small closet.  I took a picture of the room with my phone, because I wanted to show you the stark cold feeling of the place.  It was not a place full of love and warmth.   When I looked at the picture on my phone, I felt like my camera was trying to deceive me like the teachers had.  When I looked at the screen, light poured through the one window in the room and cast a warm artificial glow.  I looked from my phone to the actual room several times, perplexed by how the room could fool my phone.  I spent some time in prayer for the few teachers who watch over all 140 children at night.  I pray that God will our out His warmth and His love on them and that they in return will share His love with the kids who call Straseni Home.  If you think of it, pray for the staff there and for all of the dear children who live there and call that orphanage their home.  Pray that God will put teachers, adults, and friends in their lives who will truly show them the warmth and the love of Christ. 

While visiting and forming relationships at Moldova's orphanages often leaves me overwhelmed and broken,  I know this is all part of His plan for me.  He is breaking my heart for the things that break His and I know He will show me what He wants me to do in these situations and with these feelings.  When God breaks our hearts, He shows us how to love His world the way He loves it.  If seeing children in an orphanage without a family, or without warmth or kindness from adults breaks my heart into a million pieces and makes me feel like I am carrying ten thousand tons on my chest and that the floodgates that hold back the tears are at flood level......imagine how our heavenly Father feels when He sees the least of these going unnoticed and unpraised and unloved and forgotten by society.