The third country on this trip was originally supposed to be Russia. We found out plans had changed the day before we left the US, when it was announced that we were heading to the small country of Moldova, not Russia. While a lot of the squad was looking at each other in confusion, not knowing where Moldova was or that it even existed, I was overcome with joy! Moldova had been on my radar since around February, when my dear friend Stephanie Ball's husband got assigned there. She would be moving there in September, the same month would be there! Now, Moldova is the size of Maryland, so I knew there would be a good chance I would get to at least see her while I was there.
And see her I did! As it turned out, her home was only 3 miles from the church where we were staying! She arrived in Moldova about a week before we had to leave and I got to spend quite a bit of time with her. We went to dinner, she came to breakfast with my team at our pastor's house, she played volleyball with us and our Moldovan friends…Stephanie basically became our eighth team member for a few days.
Not only that, but with Stephanie came Christmas! She had selflessly given up one of her checked bags and devoted it to bringing gifts from The States to us. My sweet mom gave her a box filled with a ridiculously amazing amount of gummies, cheez-its, peanut butter, individual fans for each of us and other small things. A few of us had ordered pillow pets for her to bring to us, mine of course being a Chicago Bears one. It truly felt like Christmas morning. We played Christmas music for 2 days in anticipation. We decorated with snowflakes, hung stockings, made a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, did a Secret Santa, giving each other small gifts and of course, watched the movie Elf! It may not have been December 25th, but September 20th in Moldova is going to be hard to beat.
