Romans 6:4 “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Dear Family and Friends,
I am so thrilled and overjoyed that many of you can probably here me shouting for joy on whatever continent you reside!! Today I officially became the legal non-profit, “New Life for Children”. From what I have heard, the time that it took me to become legal is unheard of here. I thank you for all the prayers that many of you prayed to make this happen so quickly! Now that I am a non-profit here, this is what needs to happen:
- buy Crizantina’s family a house
- buy a vehicle
- secure the property to be donated in the non-profit’s name
- get licensed through local child protection to work with children
I leave this afternoon for a two day trip to Bucharest arranged by USAID for non-governmental organizations that focus on child welfare and international adoptions in Romania. I will be staying with my wonderful friends, Jan and Kent Greve and their two children, Beth and Seth. Since they also work in child welfare, I also learn valuable information from them. They have recently begun to process of international adoptions and I have lots of questions to ask since I am feeling led to become more involved in this area. Please pray for Divine counsel. I am being told this is a corrupt business and I want no part of having to pay off people to help children yet I do want to make sure children are removed from some of the horrible institutions here.
I am collaborating with a Romanian woman from my church here that is already doing wonderful full-time care for infants that are abandoned in the hospitals and then placing them in adoptive homes here in Romania. She is interested in placing other children in Christian, international adoptive homes but only if she can maintain contact with the agency concerning the child’s welfare. I am in complete agreement with her regarding this and we have both agreed that we will not advance our efforts in doing adoptions until we can resolve this issue.
I visited Crizantina again this past Friday and she was doing very well. I am proud of how her family has managed to keep her clean and well cared for in their impoverished situation. We were blessed to have Dr. Belinda Castor, an American physician working as a full-time missionary in Beius, visit Crizantina and examine her wounds. Crizantina’s legs are also a bit straighter than they were because her father is making her wear the braces almost all the time. Her wounds looked great and her mother has obviously done a superb job of caring for her. Any of you that would like more photos of she and her family, (I have some great ones of she and her sisters) please let me know and I will send them. I guess most of you have figured out by now that I am zipping the files for faster transfer time. Otherwise, it takes me days to send files from here because of the slow lines!
Dr. Castor and I both believe that the family would benefit greatly if Crizantina were on some type of mild anti-depressant. Crizantina’s mother continues to give us reports of self-mutilating behavior and violent behavior towards all the members of the family. I am doing other activities with her to work on the etiology of her behavior. We ask you to join us in praying for this situation.
Esti and Claudiu were married this past weekend and the ceremony was gorgeous. Esti looked stunning…very much like a princess. As part of the ceremony, the bride is “stolen” by the two best men and taken into town to hang out while her husband awaits for someone to pay for her return. Well, I put a little twist in the normal tradition because Barbara and I took the groom and went to steal her back. We were successful and everyone thought this was a novel idea except for that the bride was having so much fun eating ice cream with her captors that she didn’t WANT to come back to the wedding. We ate dinner for about six hours and I was so stuffed I didn’t want to walk to the car. I ate approximately 10 pieces of various little cakes and I am sure that I will have to run 10 kilometers a day to prevent this event from effecting my wardrobe!!!
Barbara continues to do a stellar job at the hospital coordinating care for the abandoned babies. We are trying to develop a volunteer program and Barbara has been given the green light for doing so. We thank God for all the connections that He has made to facilitate this happening!!
Many thanks to all of you for your financial, prayer, and emotional support. God bless you as you bless others!!
Basking in the Son,
Michelle
Posted on October 4th, 1999 by Michelle
Filed under: Michelle's Journal