When we were preparing to leave Romania for the sake of medical care in pregnancy, just after we made the difficult decision that we had to go, the opportunity came up to build a house for a family in desperate need of a home. Our flights were booked, and we had to go in a certain time frame so I would be medically stable enough to fly after being treated in hospital. Simon needed help to build the house in time, and I was sad for what would become of the work I had started and the plans for expanding it that seemed so close to being able to go forward. Then along came Lauren and Mihai.
Mihai is a builder by trade, a Romanian, and one wanting to see justice for Roma and those stricken by poverty in his own country. Lauren is a teacher, babywearing consultant, and has been involved in La Leche League for a number of years. They were the answer to our prayers and also very good friends to us.
While Mihai helped Simon build the house, Lauren came to our house and helped me pack. I had been mostly bedridden for 3 months, and was under doctors' orders to rest lying down as much as possible and certainly not lift anything, but Simon was working from morning until night every day until the evening before the morning that we had to leave - imagine trying to care for two small children and pack for an international move single-handedly when you are sick, fuzzy-minded on medication, and supposed to be staying in bed! Thank God for Lauren! She would turn up with snacks and games for the children and with her own baby boy, completely unfazed by the chaos, and cheer me up while helping to pack up our house. Then Mihai offered to loan us his van and drive all the way from Romania to England and back again to get us home, while Lauren flew with me so I wouldn't have to worry about flying alone whilst ill. It's pretty hard to find better friends than that.
After we left, Mihai was set to take over the FFR building project, but sadly that didn't go forward and eventually he had to go back to the USA to find work to support Lauren and their two little boys. Lauren took over running the meetings for LLL Brasov, as well as working in the hospital and running babywearing classes. Eventually she took on the Moms project in the hospital, expanded it to the maternity hospital (a huge and very much needed step), and also to the village of Budila, as I had planned to do. She has been working selflessly for many months, fighting child abandonment by supporting mothers, all the while Mihai has been back in the USA looking for work and saving up to find them a new home.
After what must seem like a long, very long, time, Lauren, Tibi, and Ovi are going home to Mihai. They are a family and they need to be together, but leaving Romania is very hard for them. They have done so much for others, please consider helping them pay off their tickets so they can be together and not starting out with a debt. They have already given up so much for others who have no way to ever repay them, including us.
https://www.facebook.com/MihaiandLauren?fref=ts
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