The first days home were nice and chaotic. It was awesome to see everyone in church again. I still have jet lag which is why I'm writing this at 2:00 am. My impressions of America after 14 months in Romania are it is very luxurious and very busy. It's impossible to not get caught up in running around and driving all over.
We don't plan to return to Romania in the near future to live. I'm almost sure though that Fedi will be returning to visit the great people we met. I want to get the kids settled in the new church school and get some kind of routine in their lives.
One last word about the money people donated. At the end, after we sold our house, we were able to catch up with giving all the donated money to the Romanians. This was my goal from the start. There were times when we were short that we asked the people donating if we could use some for personal use. Selling our house made it possible to give all that back. We left our van which has about a $4,000 value plus $1,000 cash for gas and maintenence in Attila's care for church and Bible study use only. ( It is their only way to church.) The rest of our stuff we gave to whoever we thought could use it the most. The $200 tire chains we gave to Attila, $250 chain saw to Lehel, $400 washing machine to Lehel's Mom, lots of miscellaneous stuff like blankets, pillows, pots, dishes iron, cleaning supplies, etc, etc, to Erika, Eboya, and Csilla. We left gas money of about $300 to Csilla and another couple to make it out to Carta twice a week to lead the Bible studies. We gave our cellular phones to Csillas neighbors. Heuni and Toto and Tony we simply gave $100 each too because we felt they had been a big help to us. I left all the hats, mittens, shoes, coats that we didn't need to go to gypsy families. The reason I want to detail this is because I want the people who donated to understand that it did go to help very thankful people out. We came here on our own, not with a mission organization. No one was there to see how we spent the money or to tell us what to do. We just used our best judgment.
It was hard to leave our friends there but we commit them to God. It was a privilege to get to know them and watch God work in their lives. I respect them for looking past Fedi and my mistakes and failures to see the great message of God's love we had. Most of all it was a great privilege to be a part of God's work. On this word my diary is finished. All glory to our God, Ruth

We are in London waiting for our flight to Chicago. The last few days flew by. We got everything taken care of. All our possessions were either packed in the 12 suitcases, given away, or thrown away.
The church had a touching service for us. We stood at the front while people took turns praying for us. After that several people stood up to wish us well and tell what we meant to them. It was sweet-sad and several of us cried.
At the train about 10 people showed up to see us off and help us load all those suitcases in the 3 minutes that the train stopped. Some of these guys almost came with us as the train started moving before they were off.
It was a nice trip. We had a sleeper car to ourselves since we had to buy 6 tickets.
We arrived in Budapest in the morning. A taxi took three trips to get us to the Nazarene church where we spent the night. Early the next morning we took another Van taxi to the airport. Everything has gone well and the kids are thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Last week I concentrated on school and packing. Still when Friday rolled around it seemed we would never get done on time. We have only 5 more days now. How do you pack the things you have to use everyday? I also need to leave this place back how we found it. Anyway after a little panic attack, Fedi came home, went through all the garage stuff and we made a plan to have the kids be at Csilla's the last day. Now I think we can make it.
Fedi spent the last 2 days getting Leventa set up to go to the prison.
Lehel's Mom did say she reinvited Theresa's neighbor to come and she said she wants too. I'm still puzzled why she told her not to come in the first place.
There were some stories going around that turned out not to be true. Theresa told us that her neighbor was going to get kicked out of her house. Could we give them $3,000 to help them buy a place? Supposedly they had the rest saved up. Now she confessed that her family is not going to get kicked out and they don't have anything saved up anyway. What a pack of lies to try and get money out of us. I've felt though that if people have to go to strangers for help there is something wrong with the stories they tell. People deserving help have no trouble getting it from family and friends.
Well on the not so skeptical side, the two couples coming to the Bible study have been true friends to us. They have helped us as much or more than we have helped them. If only these 4 ever become Christians I am still well satisfied even thrilled with the results.
There have been other rewards from our year here. Our faith is stronger from seeing how God has been with us.

Back safe and sound. I want to say a word about the house that we were confident we would be buying. When we talked to the owner with our offer it surprised us that he didn't take it. His asking price was $12,000 which he assured us was negotiable. We offered $10,600. He said he would go down $30 or maybe even $60 but that was all, quite the jump down. At the same time we had people tell us the house was really hard to heat and wasn't worth more than we offered.
We have heard of much cheaper sales that took place before we started looking. It seems that because we are Americans, people aren't budging or the prices are hiked up. If we don't find something we feel is a good deal we will have Attila keep looking after we leave and simply wire the money over. The house could be put in Csilla's name.
It looks like Leventa will take over Fedi's prison ministry. He was pretty reluctant because of a bad experience he had with prisoners a long time ago. Fedi talked him into it. Leventa speaks Romanian as well as Hungarian which is necessary for the prison. It would also mean a little income for Leventa through Bereans.
The Bible study continued on without us last week. Csilla, Jozsef, another couple, and Leventa are all pitching in. There have been only about 5 attending from Carta. Since Lehel's Mom asked Theresa's neighbor not to come, Theresa is not coming either. Fedi did talk to Theresa's neighbor and told her we are trying to find a place.
I've come to understand why people don't sell off houses that have been empty for years. First there is an uncertainity if the money that they get from a sale will hold its value or be devalued by another surge of inflation. Second is the lack of opportunities here to invest money in. It's been way harder to buy a place than I ever thought.