Spain - Feb 11-25

We arrived in Spain to sunshine, warm weather and art.  I greatly enjoyed this city.  Adam and I spent the first couple of days exploring the streets around our apartment.  We walked everywhere from the beach to Gaudi’s beautiful La Sagrada Familia cathedral to the shopping district. 

On Saturday our friends Teguise and Tony picked us up to show us true Catalan food and culture. (Teguise was our exchange student 6 or 7 years ago) We started our day with a drive up a hill in the countryside to a restaurant that serves true Catalan food of the season, Calcots and grilled meat.  Adam and I saw a special on Anthony Bourdain about this kind of traditional food before we left.  Calcots are small onions that they grill and then dip in a cheese almond sauce after peeling off the outer shell of charred layers. This dish was followed by grilled lamb, chicken, sausage, and rabbit.  By the time we were done we were stuffed.  Tony and Teguise then took us to see the small suburb they lived in and then up this huge hill to see a view of the city.  We had an amazing day with great friend and amazing food.

On Sunday we attended La Laia festival in the city.  We watched the parade of Giants and the local spaniards build human towers with a little 5-7 year old on the top.  It was crazy. The last two days we spent our time observing the works of Gaudi from the La Sagrada Familia and to his park.  We felt blessed to be able to see these amazing works created by Gaudi inspired by the nature that God created.

Calcots

Our Friends Teguise and Tony

The Giants at the Festival

Human Towers at the festival

Casa Batllo

Casa Mila

La Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell

Italy Feb 1-10

We arrived in Rome at the start of our Italy trip and did a whirl wind tour of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican museum, the Sistine chapel, the Roman forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum.  We ate pizza and pasta every night and gelato about two to three times a day.  Our health meter was not great and when we arrived in Florence it became evident.

When we got to Florence both Adam and I fell sick so our time spent in Florence was not crazy active.  We saw Michelangelo’s David along with a couple art museums filled with frescos.  We spend a day going to the Cinque Terra, which is a set of villages along the sea that are only reached by hiking in-between or train.  We were disappointed to find that the hiking trails were closed due to major flooding that occurred during the winter in all the cities but we took the train and fully enjoyed these quaint little towns admits the afternoon snow.  On the way home we stopped at Pisa just as it started getting dark.

St. Peters Basilica

St. Peters Square

The outside of the Basilica

Inside of the Basilica

The Roman Forum

The colosseum

Trevi Fountain

Cinque Terra

Pisa

Florence

The Duomo in Florence

Michelangelo's Pieta at the Vatican

Romania Jan 23-31

Our time in Romania was simply amazing.  We went to Romania to visit an orphanage partially supported by Kidstown International.  An organization that my father is on the board of and my family has been involved with for quite a few years.  If you don’t know anything about Kidstown International it is a private Christian run organization that funds orphanages throughout Romania, India and Nepal.  The orphanages are run as a family setting, the children there become part of a family and are not adopted out.  There are house parents that stay with the kids each night showing them the love of God. Here is their link if you want to learn more about this great organization http://www.kidstown.org 

Adam and I spent a week at Casa Dorca.  We chose this orphanage because my mother sponsors a girl at this location.  After a 3 hour drive there on a very windy road Adam and I had started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into, however after the first day we forgot about the long journey and were filled with the love of the children.  Although most of them did not speak english we all bonded instantly through just playing.  We played from the time they came home from school into the night everything from Barbie’s, blocks, ping pong, soccer, and many more games.    Every night we were exhausted but filled with joy.  We were so blessed to be a part of this home for a week.  Our hearts were yearning to take all the kids back with us to America.  However, these children are part of a family now and we couldn't take that away from them.  

When it was time to leave on Tuesday our hearts were heavy as we didn’t want to leave our new friends but we know that some day we will return and Casa Dorca will be forever in our hearts.  In the mean time we will be praying for the children and the house parents for Gods love and grace.