Borsch

My chopping mess.

If you live in the northeast region of the United States then you've probably heard of borsch, if you haven't let me introduce you to this yummy east European soup.

I believe borsch originated from Ukraine but it is a staple soup throughout east Europe. It is known for its distinct deep purple color and the perfect way to warm you up, all the while
providing a nutritious meal. The base for the soup are beets and it can be prepared many different ways.

The delicious recipe I'm passing along comes from my friend Uliana, who has many times warmed me up with her version of borsch.

Moldovans use pepper kernels

                            Borsch

chicken breast

chopped potatoes

chopped onions

grated carrots

cannellini beans

lot of salt

pepper 

fresh chopped dill

fresh chopped parsley

chopped green onions

thinly sliced cabbage

peeled and grated beets

lemon (squeeze lemon onto beets to preserve the full color of beets)

sour cream

Step 1: Boil one chicken breast, reserving the broth. Shred chicken and set aside.

Step 2: Chop potatoes and onions. Fry partially for quicker cooking.

Step 3: Bring reserved broth, potatoes, onions, and carrots to a boil. Add water.

Step 4: Add beans, chicken, salt, pepper, dill, parsley and green onions.

Step 5: For the last 10 minutes, add cabbage and beets.

Step 6: Serve soup with a dollop of sour cream.

Eastern European yumminess! 

Where Is The Hot Water?

Living in Palestine taught us the value of having water. During the warmer months we had to ration our water, a lesson quickly learned our first year. Once we ran out of water for four days, which was really tough on our home life, let alone at school. Try telling second graders to hold their potties as long as possible. All this to say, those experiences in Palestine helped us with our water issue we are dealing with in Moldova.

Pots put to use. Hot water please!

In the beginning of September we noticed that no hot water was coming out of our faucets. No problem. We'd give it a day before questioning as little things like this can be common. We were patient and gave it two days. However, we soon found out from our neighbors that no one had hot water and it would be off for two weeks as there were issues with the contractor who built our apartment complex. Well, weeks passed into months and we still don't have hot water.

This isn't my complain post. It is just my reality post and how things can operate in Moldova. Evidently everything came out and we learned that the contractor owes the only gas company in Moldova 2 million lei ($155,000). Naturally, the gas company stopped supplying the gas. However, it is the tenants who suffer the consequence.

How have we adapted? Mike showers at the gyms, Josiah gets bath water heated on the stove and I travel to someone's house to take a shower every 5 days…gross...I know. Dishes and laundry are cleaned in cold water. We attempted to sterilize Josiah's cloth diapers in the bath tub with heated stove
water but they began to leak. So we are using disposables.

Juju helping sterilize his diapers.

The biggest problem is heating our apartment. Our radiators heat with hot water. No hot water equals no heat. As the city turned on the block housing heat, we found ourselves bundling to keep warmer. So when are we getting hot water? The new date is at the end of November. Will we get hot water by then? I hope so! Until then we will be grateful that we DO have water and hope the weather doesn't turn extremely cold.

Gathering Chestnuts

Yesterday we wandered through the park, trying to keep warm and trying to wind down the energy of our little toddler. We crossed paths with a couple of women who nanny some of the kids in our apartment complex. Josiah likes to join up with them because one of the boys is always bound to have a toy car with them. I enjoy the company of the nannies. They are sweet, but usually quick to question why I don't have Josiah dressed warm enough. Must keep those ears covered!

In spring, I saw Ana, one of the nannies picking buds off a blooming tree to take home for some tea. Today, she was leisurely talking to another nanny and started picking up some of the chestnuts that had fallen from the trees. That was all the invite we needed!

Soon we were wandering through the trees gathering chestnuts galore until our pockets were stuffed full. After the toy cars drove on with their little owners, Josiah too joined in the gathering. But most of his time was chasing after that one chestnut that kept sneaking out of his stuffed pocket. We had fun, all three of us, out in the wooded park gathering nuts off the ground. In fact, we came back the next day better prepared with a bag and basket, which gathered many other things, thanks to Josiah.

The only thing we didn't know, was that we were gathering horse chestnuts, the other chestnut you are not supposed to eat! I guess we should have questioned why no one else was picking up the abundance  of chestnuts. Maybe the nannies were using them for decoration purposes, who knows. I guess God made some things to taste bitter for a reason.....horse chestnuts are one of those foods.

Oh well....making family memories can be fun, even if they are 'bitter.'

Moldovan Stuffed Peppers

One of the 'yummies' on my list of tasty Moldovan food are the stuffed peppers. I was surprised how easy they were to make, so I thought I would share the recipe with you incase you would like to have a cultural taste of Moldova.

Some of the things you would miss, should you not be in Moldova, is the shopping at the market to buy the much cheaper grown local peppers, now that they are in season. Shopping at the farmer's market is an adventure in itself. Also, carrying your plastic bag filled with peppers home for the night's meal, sure makes you feel like one of the crowd as someone else is bound to be making the same dish that night.

Moldovan Stuffed Peppers:

8 bell peppers (local peppers are small/medium sized and tend to be a little bitter)

1 onion

1 carrot

2 cups of cooked rice

2 cups of mince raw beef

2 tablespoons of tomato paste

fresh dill

parsley

salt

Step 1: Cut a small opening on top the pepper and hollow out. Set aside.
Step 2: Finely dice the onion. Sauté in a fair amount of oil. Grate the carrot and add to the sautéing onion till both are soft. Add in 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and mix together. Let cook together for a minute. Remove onion mixture to a bowl.
Step 3: Add the cooked rice, chopped dill and a good amount of salt to the onion mixture. Don't skimp on the salt. It really enhances the flavor.
Step 4: Add the mince beef to the mixture. If you don't have a meat grinder you can always break up the mince meat into tiny sizes. Mix all together.
Step 5: Stuff peppers full and place upright in a pot. The pot should be tightly packed with peppers to keep them standing up.
Step 6: Cover with water, salt and 1 tablespoon of tomato paste. Sprinkle parsley over top.
Step 7: Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the peppers are soft.
Step 8: Serve peppers with a dollop of sour cream.

Pretty easy, huh! Now you just need to be adventurous and make some, or you could come visit us and I'll make a hearty plateful just for you!

Home

It has been four months since my last post, but I don't plan on filling you in on the details of those months. I'll keep it simple and pick up where I left off in my last post....on the hunt for an apartment.

I'll admit, I was a little nervous with what we were finding. I was trying to be humble but some of the apartments would have been a struggle for me to call home, especially with a toddler. And the apartments that were nice and clean were way out of our budget. Then we came across a new, unfurnished apartment that would be on the higher end of our budget but we knew we could call it home.

I was excited! I actually prayed for the apartment! If you know our family's past, then you know we have traveled and lived in different places, some a little rough. So to find a place to call home, in a foreign country that we now call home, was a big moment in my life as a woman, wife and mother.

Sure does make JuJu look tiny!

We were able to furnish our home with items donated to us by a wonderful mission organization called Missions Without Boarders (http://www.mwbi.org). We would not have been able to furnish our home without their giving, and they gave abundantly too!

So there you have it! We have a wonderful home in Moldova!

But I can't write this post without saying how grateful I am to so many who have helped us have a home. My heart and family are truly grateful for your support in helping us. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for your support.

Welcome to the Morari House

The Morari House

Today marks three weeks since arriving in Moldova. We are still in the hunt for the right apartment to help us call Moldova home. In the meantime we have been staying at Nick and Uliana's house. They have offered to have us stay two months until a possible apartment we know of becomes available. That's who Nick and Uliana are. That is the Morari house.

It has been six years since the foundation of the home was laid. Just this past summer they were able to put a roof on it. As the money comes in and availability to work, it slowly becomes closer to being complete.

Nick, Uliana and their kids temporarily live on the bottom floor. We enjoy a nice sized room on the third floor. So, it is already a home, but it is so much more than that. It is a place of refuge, a constant meal being provided, shelter to youth, a place where discipleship and fellowship occur. It is a home that serves God and his kingdom. God's love is always being poured from their home.

Helping make a special meal of fajitas

After basketball camps and practices, the boys take buses to the house as they know Uliana has cooked them a meal. Imagine feeding a group of teenage boys! Uliana loves it! They greet you with a smile, shake the men's hands and enjoy what she has to offer them. It is evident the love, time and mentorship Nick and Uliana have poured into their lives.

Yesterday they were able to do some work on their home. Little Nick's room was painted and work was done on the second story floor. Five boys showed up and were willing to help out.

Little Nick's room gets color

Working on the second floor

It would be a blessing to see the Morari's home completed. They don't live the typical life of a 8-5 job and a monthly income. They have chosen to disciple and pour the gospel into to the youth of Moldova, and their home is one means of doing so.

Everything is Alright Except......

I was relieved when our passenger plane landed in the capital of Moldova. The whole trip was a little exhausting with a one year old who was rather active and fussy due to not sleeping on the overnight flight. The poor child screamed the last half hour of our flight from Munich to Chisinau. I'm assuming he had issues with his ears. Thus our final landing brought relief that our travels were over.

We had purchased our tickets for January first because no other flight was landing in Chisinau from Munich a few days prior. So I was surprised to find only eleven other passengers on our flight into the capital. I was also surprised to see another American on our flight. She was kind and tried to help me with Josiah's screaming. When we landed her comment struck me, "Everything is alright except we are in Chisinau." What was that supposed to mean? I had heard that Moldova is a poor country, struggles with corruption and has issues with human trafficking. But I was a little taken back by this lady's perspective.

I will admit, Moldova is a little poorer than I thought it to be, but my experiences have shown me that is where you can find the most giving of people.

Someone was sharing with me about life during the Soviet Union. She shared that they thought they had the best life. They were told by their government that they had the best products, quality of life and health compared to the rest of the world, especially those in the United States. When the Soviet Union fell, she said that people became 'broken', realizing the type of life that they really were living in compared to the rest of Europe and the United States.

From driving around the city, you can see the new advancements the country has made. You can also see that there isn't a middle class, just lower and upper. I've already met kids who live in a single parent family because either father or mother is working abroad to support their family. Just this morning one of the basketball players took a bus to his home town where his sister is raising him as his mother works in Turkey.

Greetings From Chisinau, Moldova

It has been over a week since our simple family has moved to this tiny country in east Europe, and already we have dived right into Moldovan life. I really didn't want to commit to an extra activity such as blogging, but I already have the urge to share what it is like in this little country. For those of us who are Americans, it can be difficult to imagine life outside our boarders, this is why I feel compelled to share about Moldova and the lives of the people here. Sure I'll share about our adjustments, experiences and of course updates on our little JuJu (Josiah), but I hope to provide glimpses into another side of God's beauty, through the Moldovan people.