Once Upon a Time...

As some of you may know, this summer I have the opportunity to combine my love for kids, traveling, and service as I head to Iași, Romania for about four months. While I am there, I will get the opportunity to spend my time as a volunteer in the orphanage and hospital, along with teaching english in a preschool.

I have gotten a lot of questions on why I chose this, and I guess it started a long time ago and the decision involved a lot of prayer and faith. For a long time, I thought I was going to serve a full time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That was a decision that seemed good, but for some reason I didn't get a sense of peace when I thought about it. So I kept praying and praying, but I couldn't find an exact answer on what to do, but I knew that something big was going to happen soon. Then, on a random tuesday in October, I was sitting in a lecture with one of my favorite professors. He was talking about the physical development of children and he showed us a video about Romanian orphans, and it hit me so hard. To see what it was like just broke my heart. I knew I wanted to do something, but I never would have imagined it would be any time soon. Two days later, we had a guest speaker in that same lecture. He was talking about something completely unrelated, but happened to mention a program called ILP (International Language Program) that teaches english to children in other countries. That afternoon I decided to look up this program. To my surprise, they had opened a new part of the program just a three weeks earlier...and it was a Romanian orphanage program. I immediately broke into tears as I realized this was an answer to my prayers. I knew right then that I had to apply. When I called my mom she probably thought I was crazy, but was happy for me and is so supportive of everything I do. And just l like that, I did the paperwork, applied, and was accepted a few weeks later. I finally felt at peace and had found my answer. I couldn't have asked for anything better. To spend the summer serving, but also getting a chance to see the world! All while helping children...it is absolutely perfect for me and I couldn't be more excited!

So here I am...packing and eight days away from leaving! I am so excited for this next adventure in my life! I hope this blog helps update all of you guys (my friends and family) on what I am doing in Romania, and hopefully all the other things I set out to do! So let the fun begin...Romania, here I come!

Love,
Madeline