Hello again friends!  Just as I feared...life has gotten the best of me...the "real world" is taking my time and I am not listening to God calling me to share my heart with you.  I may not post every day friends...but I WILL be posting every week...so check back! 
      I want to officially wrap up Day 2 (remember this is day 2 at the orphanage). 
After leaving Cupcui...Maxim's words haunted my heart...Tomorrow?  Would I return tomorrow.  He followed us down the drive way waving goodbye to us...and smiling...because we told him we would return... My heart said that I wanted to return every day that I possibly could.
      We were a bit of a solemn group after our departure from Cupcui that day...it wasn't our last day...but we new a last day would come.  We were all quiet...no silly songs were sung that day...we were tired physically and emotionally...and spiritually.  I again pleaded with God in my head...to reveal His will for me.  Why had he burdened my heart for Moldova?  Why couldn't I get it out of my head?  Why did He bring me here?  What was His purpose in all of this?  What did I have to give to these kids?  I am No One Special...I am just an Ordinary girl.  I wish I could tell you that God immediately answered all of the questions in my heart....but He didn't answer them all...but he continues to reveal Himself to me...

He answered one of those questions back at the house that night as we shared dinner with our Scottish friends and some of the girls from Stella's House (Galina made us some yummy manka...its like a sweet cream of wheat dish...YUMMO!)
The village house is NOT a big house...so having the 8 of us who were staying there...plus the 5 who came to join us for dinner.......well...lets just say it was a TIGHT fit.  After we ate our delicious meal...Elizabeth and I sat in the front hallway with one of the girls and looked through some of the treats we had brought.  We had some makeup for the girls at Stella's House and this particular girl had some amazing eye makeup talents...Elizabeth and I just sat and visited with her....and asked her about her story. 

She, like Galina, had lived at Cupcui....Philip Cameron's presence there changed her life.
 Let me tell you her story...Its a heartbreaking story.  Pray for her as you read this...she was raised with an alcoholic father.  He beat her mother often.   Her home was void of love.  One day she witnessed her father beat her mother to death.  This poor child witnessed the murder of her mother.  After seeing the conditions in her home, the mayor of the town said that she must be put in the orphanage at Cupcui.  She lived there for a little while...and then through changes in laws and authorities...she ended up in the home of her aunt.  Her life there was not much different from her life in the orphanage.  Her aunt only wanted her to help around the house.  She was brought in to the house strictly for her potential to serve the family...not out of love.  She did not welcome her in to her home.  Her uncle's treatment was even worse.  Eventually her aunt became concerned that the Uncle would rape her.  So she sent her back to the orphanage at Cupcui.  The orphanage was a cold and sad place before PCM came in.  At  Cupcui, she cried alone in her bed every night...wondering why no one loved her.  She was still just a child. 
Then one Christmas when she was 11, a cheerful American (with a Scottish accent), came into her life...and changed it forever...Let me tell you what she told me...He came and brought Christmas gifts to the kids.  They had been performing a Christmas Play and this stranger clapped and cheered and asked them to do it again.  The kids were all so excited.  Then he stayed and visited with them...what she remembers MOST from that day....is that it was when she received her FIRST hug.  This poor girl was 11 years old and had never been hugged.  Can you imagine that?  I can't go a DAY without a hug.   That hug changed her life forever.  The Camerons have become family for her.  They took her in to Stellas House...She speaks AMAZING English AND she hopes to come to Auburn University this fall!  She is a beautiful and intelligent young girl.  Even bigger than that...they taught her about Jesus and she just LOVES HIM!!!  How amazing is that?  God can do so many things through us when we heed His call on our lives. 

Her story kind of got me thinking about the blessings of my life...and how God is going to use who I am to change this world.  A lot of times I feel like God first needs to CHANGE who I am before I can make any difference.  I am great at telling God all the things he needs to fix in me...I tell Him..God I'm not smart enough...I'm too goofy...I'm not well spoken...and get this I even tell God I am not pretty enough...I mean really...who uses THAT as an excuse?  When has God ever mentioned calling the beautiful?  I don't know.  But this girl's story made me think....You know what?  God made me a little different...He made me quirky...He made me compassionate...He made me want to hug every single person I ever meet...is it weird?  Perhaps!  But HE made me that way and HE is going to use me just the way I am.  Isn't that refreshing? You don't have to be anybody but yourself for God to use you!
You know what I made SURE to do the next day at CUPCUI?  I hugged every single one of those kids all day long! (Don't worry I had already hugged them the days before too...but I did it with renewed zeal!) I didn't worry if they thought it was weird or strange....I just did it! And you know what?  They hugged me back! 

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Now that you have had a tiny glimpse in to village life...I will tell you a story from our first day at Providence Home for Orphans in Cupcui.  Providence Home was a previously state run orphanage that PCM is now running.  (Remember they turned it around and made it livable).  When we first arrived there, many of the children were still completing their morning routines (eating with their "families", cleaning, etc.) 

Quick Detour for information-Providence is set up in family units.  (apartments with 2-3 bedrooms, a bathroom suite, and a living room/kitchen area).  There are house parents assigned to each group of children.  There is a main living room and then bedrooms off of the living room/kitchen area.  The children are assigned to "families".  PCM does everything to encourage family like dynamics.  They eat their meals together, they fave family time, and family responsibilities.  Its pretty awesome!

I feel that now is the time to share some stories...now more than ever sweet friends I wish I was a more eloquent writer and could truly convey the stories the way they were shared with me...

I would like to share several success stories that came from Cupcui.  I want to begin with Galina.  I facebooked her yesterday and asked her if it would be alright if I shared her story with you my friends.  She said of course!  So I want you to know...that I am sharing this with her blessing.
Galina is an AMAZING young woman.  You won't meet a more beautiful, more godly, more amazing girl.  To know her past, and see her present...its JUST INCREDIBLE.  That girl has a servants heart like no one.   She also has tons of spunk! I spent a week with her and feel so much love and respect for her.  I want to share her story with you...
Galina gave us our tour of Providence on the first day...she showed us the room that was hers while she lived there.  Here is a picture of Galina in her old room (granted it is MUCH nicer now).  Galina looks lovely in this picture...but the picture does not come close to conveying the true beauty that she has inside and out. 

As we walked through the village of Cupcui, I asked Galina about her life...When she was four years old, her parents divorced and put her in the orphanage.  I continued asking her about her situation and learned that she had 4 other siblings.  Her siblings were NOT put in the ophanage.  Just Galina...left alone at 4.  She was the middle of 5 children...and they had to get rid of one extra mouth to feed.  Galina was taken to the orphanage at Cupcui at 4.  Can you imagine?  Looking at your five children and deciding that one had to go...and then choosing which one it would be.  I don't have children myself...but I know if I had brought 5 children in to this world that I would do everything I could to protect ALL of them...not just some of them. 

So that is how Galina's life started...feeling that she was the one who was the least important, the least loved...Cupcui orphanage was NOT the wonderful place it is now...and Galina struggled to stay warm and to stay safe during her time there.  She met Krissy and Philip Cameron when she was much older.  They were some of the first people in her life to ever show her that they cared that she existed...that her life mattered to them.  They took the time to learn her name, to learn her story, to love her.  I can't imagine what would have happened to Galina if Philip and Krissy hadn't visited Cupcui.  Their love (through God) changed her life.  They taught her about God's love for her...they showed her that she is important to Him...that HE loves her so much that He gave His life for her.  Galina is now on FIRE for God.  ( I digress...but Galina just amazes me.)  That's not all of Galina's story...the school at the orphanage was a place of torture for Galina...she struggled with academics and was constantly ridiculed by the teachers.  We would call it verbal abuse...and it would NOT be acceptable in our schools...but it was just another day in the life of an orphan for Galina.  Galina's academics did not improve and the unkind treatment continued.  When Philip and Krissy learned of Galina's academic troubles, they questioned her vision.  Krissy and Philip arranged to have Galina's eyes checked.  At the doctors appointment, they found that Galina had large tumors bearing down on her ocular nerves that were causing some pretty severe visual impairments...and were potentially dangerous.  The Camerons arranged for Galina to have surgery in the U.S. to remove the tumors.  Galina's eyes and vision are beautiful now...When Galina turned 16 and "aged out" of the orphanage she moved in to Stella's House and completed high school.
Krissy and Philip Cameron have done many other amazing things like this (because of their love for God and for His Children...they are able to do these things because of donations to their ministry.)

Galina served as one of our interpreters during our trip.  She currently lives at Stella's House but is currently working like crazy to serve the kids at Cupcui.  She is actually doing "camp" with the kids for 4 weeks of the summer.  She has planned and organized and made wonderful things happen for the kids at the orphanage that used to be her home.  When Galina left Cupcui when she was 16, she promised she would never return...and now God is using her in this place that once held so many bad memories for her....He is using her there to make good memories for others.

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