The Adventure Begins at the Airport

   When Randy Jessen trained and led teams to Romania he always stressed the importance of flexibility.  My good friend DJ Atkinson also taught this to the many teams that he led to Romania as well.  It is probably the single most important thing to remember during any international travel, regardless of the purpose of ones trip.
   Our team going to Romania would be comprised of five of us from the Denver metro area and one person from Toledo, Ohio.  Sherry Wells, Bill Katzenmeyer, John Waters, Jamie Howard and myself were flying out of Denver and Jay Leeming would be departing from Detroit on Wednesday, September 1.
   The Denver group was flying through Memphis connecting to Amsterdam and then a short flight to Budapest, Hungary.  We would meet Jay in Amsterdam.  However, the flight out of Denver was delayed so two wondeful women from Delta airlines got us on different flights out of DIA.  Jamie would go to Detroit and consequently meet Jay for the trip to Amsterdam.  John and I would go through Atlanta and Bill and Sherry flew through Minneapolis.  The team showed great flexibility right off the bat with the travel changes.  Of course, the fact that all of us flew business class on the domestic portion and John, Jamie and me flew business internationally made it all the better!


Bill thinking about coffee in Amsterdam.

   We all reconnected in Amsterdam for our final leg to Budapest.  The flight to Budapest was uneventful but we were all getting pretty tired.  We arrived at 7:00pm just about 24 hours after leaving for the airport in Denver a day earlier.
   Of course, none of the bags from Denver arrived with us but we were assured we would have them in Arad, Romania the next day or day after.  (They arrived the day after on Sunday)  I was excited to see my two right hand men, Walter Williams and Roni Stepan, who would be helping us out with logistics and travel in Romania.  Walter is a long term missionary that lives in Cuvin and Roni is the house dad at Ana's House.  He was my best friend when I lived in Romania and would do anything for you.  He has a servant's heart and is a wonderful father to the twelve children that live with him and his wife Rodi.
  We made our way to the van for the 3 1/2 hour drive to Arad.  We stopped for some goulash in Hungary while on the road, then made our way on to Arad arriving at ~2:00 am.  Four of the kids, Robi, Oana, Radu and Teo snuck out of Ana's House and came down to where would be staying at the House of Hope to welcome us.  I was floored to see them and literally had to take a step back after the initial hugs to see how much they had all grown.  Whenver I return this is one of my favorite moments; the first moments of seeing the kids after time away.  The love is overpowering and I was shocked that I didn't break down in tears like I have in the past. 
   We had made it safely to Romania.  We settled in for a quick nights sleep and to get ready for a big party that would take place on Friday.  It would be day one in Romania and the whirlwind would begin in earnest.