Dear Friends and Family -
As most of you know, we have been in the United States since December 13th, 2013, and that is due to the love, friendship, and unflinching generosity of so many of you.While we do miss Romnania very much, we have been greatly enjoying our time here in America reconnecting with each of you. There have been so many opportunities to be with people we know and love while we have been here, it has been truly a great blessing for us.
We have also gotten to do some pretty fantastic things since we have been here, such as visit Mount St. Helens, the zoo, and the Oregon Caves, as well as go camping, enjoy the Fourth of July, and even go on a missions trip to Mexico (Andrew and Joseph). These have been months and memories we will never forget.
God has also chosen to bless us further with the addition of twins to our family, and that has been not only a surprise, but also somewhat of a journey of unknowns. The babies were diagnosed with TTTS, or Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, a complication that happens only in cases of identical twins, and that only rarely. In the placenta, the twins were connected by some blood vessels, to the point where one twin was giving all his blood and nutrients (the donor) the other (the recipient). If not discovered and dealt with as it was, it would have been fatal - the donor would die from lack of blood and nutrients, the donor would die from too much.
But God is amazing and merciful, the problem was discovered in time, and in mid August Geta had the laser surgery necessary to cut the blood vessels connecting the twins together. The survival rate in these cases is generally: 1 twin, 85%; both twins, 50%. But again, God has been so gracious to us and smiled upon these two new lives, and as of our last visit, the doctors are ecstatic about the progress they are making, amazed at how well they are doing. Our doctor just told us they don't usually see twins do this well after the kind of procedure they had to go through. The coordinator at the doctor's
office's words were: "you guys must have a lot of people praying for you."
Yes we do, and it is because of each of you that we have been so blessed. God has heard all of our prayers together that have been lifted up before him on behalf of our family and on behalf of these two new little babies. It has been so exciting to see God work every step of the way through this whole time. Truly with our God, nothing is too hard, nothing is impossible. Our God is able... "For nothing will be impossible with God." (Luke 1:37)
Please continue to pray with us as we get closer to the time when the babies will be delivered; pray that the babies will continue to grow and develop well, and that Geta will continue to have strength and be healthy too. Also please continue to pray for us as we prepare to return to Romania in March of 2015 - that God will provide us with a house and property to live on and minister from, and most of all that He would show us where we can be most effective serving for His Kingdom!
Serving Christ Together with You,
Andrew, Geta and family
p.s. Thank you to Carmen Darland for taking this great picture of our family, spring 2014.
