One of the biggest blessings of being in Romania was that I got to visit my family for a few days. Jenny, my teammate, came with me. (Thanks Jenny for putting up with everyone speaking Romanian for most of the time. You’re the best!)
I can’t tell you guys what a joy and blessing that was to my heart. Honestly, I have a really amazing family and I’m not being biased. Ok, maybe I am a little. But they really are incredible people and it was such a pleasure to get to know them in the short time we had. I wish it would have been longer, but as I told them, “I’ll just have to come back more often.”
I visited my mother’s side of the family. She has 5 siblings in Romania and I got to see each one of them! That made my heart so happy. I also got to visit with their children, my cousins. And I also visited my mom’s cousin‘s family.
I went to Timisoara, first, where my super cool cousin and her husband (Lucica & Laurentiu) picked us up. We spent a little time at the mall and had dinner. I kept saying I wanted to eat Romanian food so we walked around the food court and somehow ended up eating burgers. 🙂
Then they drove us to Arad, which is the city I was born in. I was able to stay at my mom’s cousin’s place that night and visit with them the next morning at breakfast. They have 4 beautiful and precious children who I’ve never met before and two are twins. They are so cute!
Then we went to downtown Arad for the day and walked around the city and I had some great talks with my beautiful and sweet cousin, Lucica. She has such a beautiful heart and I love her so much and miss her a lot! We had lunch with one of my uncle’s (Unchiu Florin), his son and his granddaughter. Then we drove up a hill with my cousin’s husband, Laurentiu. (He’s a super cool guy and we get along so well. He’s also very funny. I miss him too!) We went to see a little monastery and get water from a spring. That was very nice.
That night, we went to stay with one of my mom‘s other brother’s (Unchiu Vasile) and his wife, Lucica’s parents. We had so much fun talking and laughing and of course, eating. 🙂 The next day, they drove us to my aunt’s (Tusi Ani) house in Salonta. It was Sunday so we had Sunday lunch at their house. They made a lot of delicious food, of course. After lunch we went upstairs and my cousins played the piano for us and we sang. It was beautiful and such a special time. We ended with prayer and then went back downstairs to take pictures and head out to visit the next family. I miss them very much! It was so hard having to leave each family, but we had to go see the next family.
My uncle Vasile drove us to the next city, Homorog. That is the city my mom was born in. I was able to see the house she lived in and the land that she grew up running around on. It was so special. I can’t even tell you guys without almost crying. Family and history is so important and I’m just now realizing that…
Anyway, we went to my next uncle’s (Unchiu Nelu) house, this is the 4th sibling of my mom’s that I visited so far. He lives on the land where they were all raised and has animals, a garden and fruit trees. There were so many beautiful fruit trees. Lucica was teaching me how to tell the trees apart by their flower. It was fascinating. He also smokes meat and has grapes. I drank some delicious grape juice made from their grapes! They were very generous and gave me a bunch of things to take with me. I’m so thankful and miss them too!
Then uncle Nelu, who lives in Homorog, drove us to Oradea. This was the last place we visited and it was so fun! We went to stay with my cousin and his family. After sitting a little and talking with them so that we could get to know eachother a bit, since I had never met them, they served us some delicious coffee made by my very talented cousin. She made us cappuccinos and they were so good! We ate some yummy dessert too. They decided to take us out to visit a fortress and to downtown Oradea. It was beautiful. After that we drove to a place and we got langos. Langos is fried dough and it’s usually filled with something. We got it with cheese and garlic sauce and it was super duper delicious! We walked over to see this little pond and it was full of turtles. They were so cute, but I saw the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life happen. Check out the video. 🙂
We had a good time talking and laughing that night before we went to bed. I miss them!! The next morning, I got to see my mom’s last sibling in Romania, Unchiu Dorel. He is the 5th I saw but he’s actually the oldest. I am so thankful that I was able to see all 5 of my mom’s living siblings in Romania during my visit there! What a blessing!
On our last day in Oradea, my cousin’s wife, Adina, took us around to see all kinds of places. I’m so thankful for her taking the time to do that. She was so sweet and I’m so happy for the time we had together. We went walking by the river, visited the church where my cousin attends and the school next door where his brother works. He’s the only one I didn’t get a picture with and I’m sad about that. He was at school teaching and I only got to talk with him for a few minutes in between classes. However, I will just have to go back soon. 😉
After that, we went to visit some big churches and cathedrals in the downtown area of Oradea. We walked all around downtown. Then she drove us up to a hill where you can see pretty much all of Oradea and it was incredible! I loved it up there!
Then we went to get a coffee, because, well, I like coffee and I don’t actually need a reason to drink coffee. 😀 Later, she took us to this park that was filled with tulips everywhere. It was so beautiful!
Honestly, I can‘t really express how much I loved my time with my family and how special and memorable it was. I hope you kind of got the idea that I loved every moment that I got to spend with my family and I can’t wait to see them again. Hopefully sooner than later. 😉
I love you all and miss you so much! <3
