Thursday, September 18, 2014

Oradea Update


Hello Friends and Family,

   I left you several weeks ago without an update on the hospital in Oradea, but I have found it extremely challenging to keep up with almost any correspondence lately due to house renovations, babies heading off to school and a myriad of other duties! Please forgive me and I hope you enjoy hearing how the second week of my work trip went!

   Stepping into the Oradea Medical Clinic,as it is now called, is always a mixture of good and sad memories, a sense of belonging and an eagerness to love on the sweet babies there! We had several babies coming in and out while I was there and each were so unique and special! This trip I was able to assist Alina more and I loved it! Feeding, bathing, changing may seem most mundane; however, when combined with a song sung, tickles and eye to eye contact, I know these babies' little lives were touched. I so wish I could show you pictures of their little faces online of these babies, but confidentiality of the State forbids it.


   I was able to connect with one of my favorite doctors and see her new cardiology clinic, as well as see some of the nurses I have worked with for the past eleven years. Most of the hospital has been renovated, though the back staircases have been left untouched, cigarette smoke is still in the halls and the bottle nipples are still clipped to an unnaturally, large holes that the babies choke on, but the use of supplies has so changed the atmosphere and babies!

   Supply buying was interesting to say the least! We worked with two different stores to order bulk because we could not get all our supplies from one place. Now that individuals and non profits have restrictions from purchasing wholesalers, it takes a lot longer to find all the supplies. We managed to get most of what we needed and one store could even deliver to Sibiu for us. The rest I dragged my friend Paula with me from store to store trying to scrounge enough infant cereal, towels, hand soap, etc. She was a trouper and so was her little car!  



   Prices, of course, have increased so we were moderate in our purchasing and I hope that will get us through the year. With the increase in prices and the expansion of Project Hope for the Children we are looking for some more monthly supporters. People who are passionate about this ministry and what it offers- hope! I would love to see some first-time givers as well! We have so many of you who have given over and over and I love it and am so humbled by it, but I know also that there are many of you who have spoken of wanting to help in the past and have not been able to for various reasons. I promise you that your donation will be thoughtfully spent to help the lives we touch in Romania! 


  Donations could be anywhere from $5 to $50 a month, a lump sum or given every month, check or paypal. All would be a blessing as PHFTC reaches out it's hand to the poor and needy! Thank you for considering this. You can visit Paypal through our website and also read my latest Post at http://projecthopeforthechildren.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-mothers-heart.html Thank-you!

Ramona Petrella Cummings
Executive Director of PHFTC
6983 Chase Rd.
Fabius, NY 13063
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Hope-for-the-Children-Inc/146117805560061

A Mother's Heart

Recently, I sent my two babies off to Kindergarten. The emotions I felt the preceding weeks were different from anything I had ever felt before- pride, sorrow, accomplishment, worry, all blended into a feeling of heaviness of heart. My children love school and I enjoy seeing life through their eyes,, but I have pondered how many times in the future I will be burdened about a change or transition or decision in my little one's lives... Many I am sure.

While in Romania, I heard a tragic story. Not too many days have passed since that I have not thought about it and tears have not come to my eyes. There is a Roma gypsy woman in one of the villages that we shall call Maria. She works hard to care for her family. Her husband is a drunk and regularly beats and rapes her. They have 11 children and Maria has not abandoned one of them! She has no education and no means to support herself or resources to help like we have in the States. She cares for her children to the best of her ability, shelters them from their father's rages and takes the brunt of it many times. She has had to watch a daughter become a child mother and then to take on the responsibility of caring for those grandchildren, even though one is handicapped.

This woman's heart has been broken so many times and yet... she is courageous! This woman is a role model for me to trust in the Lord and persevere when my "trials" come. If you think of it, please take a moment to pray for Maria today in all she faces. I am so glad to have met Maria before and that Project Hope for the Children can be a small part of her life. After eleven years of ministry, I am still amazed at how God puts people and situations in our path to help and how I can learn from them. Thank you for your part in enabling PHFTC to help!

~Mona