DTS is finally over, my structured life is no longer so structured. What should a person do now? Go to Moldova of course!! Ruslan invited Allison and I to come to Moldova to visit his home and family.

It was a long bus ride there, but so worth it. Funny note about our trip there. We took an all night bus and at one of the pit stops in the middle of the night we came to a little food stand for a snack. On the menu was “Hot dog” or I could get “Hot dog with meat.” Hmmm don’t know about you, but it seems safer to go with the hot dog with meat if I have a choice!

Let me just say that Ruslan has such an amazing family!! They are so welcoming, so sweet, and warm-hearted; it really is difficult to describe this one-of-a-kind family.

Seeing a little bit of Ruslan's village

Lunch with the Fam

They quickly took us in and let us just lounge around. We played with Ruslan’s younger sisters, if I haven’t mentioned it before, he has four younger sisters!

Little mischievous Emanuela

Ruslan took us to see the capital of Moldova which is only a 15 min drive from his home. We saw some of the beautiful buildings and parks (that would be even more beautiful if we were there in the spring!)

Hanging out with Stefan the Great

It just so happened that Vice President Joe Biden was in Moldova giving some speech. There were lots of American flags up through out the city to welcome him. One other place we went was the mall. Can you guess what it would be called? I’ll tell you at the end.

One afternoon, Allison and I took three of Ruslan’s sisters out and we went exploring for spring flowers! We had a great time just getting out, walking, and seeing the Moldovan countryside! I can’t wait to see Moldova in the spring time!

Mariana, Ludmila, Georgeta

Georgeta gave up looking for flowers and started collecting pine cones!

We were privileged to be a part of Ruslan’s home group that meets on Thursdays. We went to two other prayer meetings and then finished our time in Moldova by going to Ruslan’s church, which was very alive! There was always lots of fellowshipping after the home group! 

Ruslan's church

The mall was called Malldova!