"Sinto a sua falta"

For those of you who are thinking "is Steph already writing in Romanian after one day of class?" The answer is no. The title of this entry is actually in Portuguese, and it is the equivalent of saying "I miss you" in English but the text translates more literally as "I feel, or sense, your absence."
I had the opportunity to travel to New York City this past weekend to visit some Brazilian relatives & a good friend of mine, and the bus ride up there gave me some much appreciated time to be still and contemplate life and what possibilities the future holds for us.
I have noticed in myself that when it comes to parting ways, I tend to always be the one leaving; I leave places, jobs, friends & family. I am not usually the one being left. Even though the feeling of "missing someone" in theory should be the same whether they left you or you left them, there is actually a very sharp difference between the two. I think the feeling of being left is more harsh and cruel, because that person's absence becomes acute and ordinary things remind us of what once was.  A mug can become a daily reminder of the person who most cherished drinking out of it; a simple step outside your bedroom door and no longer having to step over {and rub the tummy} of your sweet dog can bring back memories and heighten the reality that they are no longer there.
My cousin and I stumbled upon a very powerful and moving symbol of this "feeling of absence": the 9/11 Memorial at Ground Zero in Manhattan. It consists of two square waterfalls that were built down from the level of the street, and in the middle of each fountain is another square opening that goes deeper into the ground. Around the edges of the waterfalls are written the names of all the victims who perished on that day, whose absences are certainly felt by many. The Memorial powerfully evokes a sense of there being a large symbolic void by having two large precipices in the middle of a city bursting at the seams with sky scrapers. It is tinged with deep sorrow. Something was taken away from us as a country on that day, and for many, what was taken was irreplaceable and completely devastating.

Unfortunately, this sorrow is not something unique to the US: there are people all over the world being robbed of their innocence and dignity, people who feel an absence of light, love and truth. People who have large voids in their very souls and are searching to fill them with something, anything, it seems, for some of them.

As a believer in the redeeming love of Jesus Christ, if I can be an instrument that leads people to the source of eternal love and to the one who can quench their longing for wholeness, then I am willing to serve the Lord in any way he calls me to.

I found two short videos that show a glimpse of what life is like for some in Moldova. Brace yourselves, because the second video in particular is a bit heart-wrenching. I hope to be able to help organizations like Stella's Voice when we move to Chisinau.

Moldova from Mark Phippen on Vimeo.

Stella's Voice from The New Hope Trust on Vimeo.

The Balls are going to Chisinau, Moldova!

So, we found out on Friday where our first post will be: Chisinau, Moldova.

The plan is to move there in September and we will be there for two years.

This picture was taken before we found out.

This was during the process...the tension was killing me!

My sister and I celebrating afterwards @ Sweetgreen, drinking Cider Lemonade and "The Best Lemonade Ever" {when asked, the salad guy just laughed and said had no idea what was in it}

I will admit I barely even knew where Moldova was at the time, but after a little bit of research, we found out a few interesting facts:

1. Moldova is about the size of Maryland.
2. They have 3 MacDonald's in the entire country {and are proud of them}
3. They speak Romanian there, the Romance Language that is closest to Latin, so hopefully won't be too difficult to learn.
4. They are known for their excellent wines.
5. Their most famous song is "Numa Numa" by O-Zone, you just might recognize it (click here for the lyrics in Romanian & English)

Stay tuned for more...

Flag Day

Flag Day is officially three days away {!} and I'm tempted to say something like "the tension is killing me" but the truth is I have had no time to even think about being tense, much less write about it, really, so instead of actually writing anything I will just inform you about some interesting facts I discovered about flags {thank you Wikipedia}:

"A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device or decoration. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields...the study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner."

My sister is flying in for our big day, which should be fun. She has never been to DC before {that I can remember anyway} and among the things she would like to do while here is go to a bike polo game, which will be interesting to watch since I have never seen one and she plays all the time. She would also like to walk to this game from my house, "a mere 7 miles..."with my dog...probably opting for swimming across the Potomac instead of having to use any bridges. On Saturday we were planning on finding a restaurant from the country to where we'll be sent, so that could prove to be a challenging, but entertaining endeavor.

I coincidentally discovered this past week that Brooke Fraser {a singer I have become a fan of in the past year or two} put out an album called "Flags" so I immediately downloaded the track with the same name as the album title and have been enjoying it ever since. This is what she writes about her album:

"I was traversing these incredible landscapes and wondering at all the people who had worked this land and what their lives were like, how they had come to arrive in and then leave these places. One day this image of a flag popped into my mind and I thought, 'Our lives are like flags - flying for a short while, a stake in the ground, marking our territory...We fly our colors - our history, belief system, culture, identity - but eventually our flag will wear out and return to the ground and someone else's flag will replace our own.'"

That's all for now...stay tuned for exciting news about our whereabouts for the next few years...

Paperwork: 1, Me: 0

So, nothing great was really accomplished on my end in the last week. I have yet to sort through all my paperwork and need to answer all sorts of e-mails; I wasted all sorts of time on Pinterest and Facebook, for which there is really not much to show for. I guess I did officially turn 28 (that's some sort of an accomplishment, right?) and I finished two books: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel and The Thomas Sowell Reader.

The first book was lent to me by my boss and our other co-worker snagged it first and read it in about 48 hours. So I took that as a challenge, naturally, and borrowed the book next and it took me a little {ok, a lot} longer to read it, as I was mostly only able to read it on the metro during my commute to and from work, with varying levels of nausea determining my pace. At first the book didn't really pull me in, but after reading a few of the "chapters" which are really just the correspondence between an English Author to some folks in Guernsey {one of the Islands on the English Channel that was occupied by the Germans during WWII} shortly after the Occupation. It turned out to be very interesting...

Since blogs are always better with pictures, I Googled Guernsey for images and I discovered a few things:

1. Apparently there is some famous/pro tennis player from Guernsey by the name of Heather Watson.
2. Guernsey is beautiful.

The Thomas Sowell Reader was delightful all around. I love that guy. It is a collection of short excerpts from many of his works on a wide range of subjects. I read his autobiography last fall and found his life very fascinating. He also happens to be extremely insightful and very easy to read, he has a magical ability to explain very complicated things in simple language that is clear and straightforward. Since he is quite accomplished and has written on many subjects, I have quite a few options for my next Thomas Sowell book and I can't wait.

Since blogs are always better with pictures, this is what I discovered when I Googled Thomas Sowell for Images:

1. Apparently if I want a hipster-like T-Shirt with his face on it I can get it here.
2. This awesome watercolor painting:

In case any of you {Brittany, Val, Michael Ball or Jenny~because I'm pretty sure you are the only ones who might read this} are interested, and since I like making lists, these are the books on my reading list {in no particular order}:

• I'd like to finish {I got about halfway through} Reading Lolita in Tehran.
• A Conflict of Visions and Basic Economics (by my boy Thomas Sowell)
• Notes from a Small Island & Neither Here Nor There (by Bill Bryson ~ who is hilarious by the way, I've read two other books by him and literally have laughed out loud reading him: A Walk in the Woods & Down Under)
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dane gave me a nice copy of this book for my 19th Birthday (crazy to think it's been almost ten years). I read through half of it but never finished. I even lugged it across the tallest peak in Cuba under the ridiculous delusion that I might get some reading done on a camping trip...
• The Pilgrim's Progress. Daniel Ball has taught this in his 4th/5th Grade Class and at the end of the semester he takes the kids on a long hike where they literally carry rocks in their backpacks and his friends dress up as characters from the book and pop out of the trails as they climb to the top. Once they are at the top they get to take off their heavy loads. I have never read the book but it sounds cool and I wish I could go back to grade school just to be in Mr. Ball's classroom because it sounds awesome. 
• Arthur Brooks' new book The Road to Freedom. Mostly because I have a {mild} crush on him. 

That might be a bit ambitious but I hope to get around to them at some point in the relatively near future ~maybe less than 10 years?