A visit from Petrica

Today started in a sweet sweet way - and I'm not talking about a big bowl of "chocolate pillows" cereal. (and man I wish nestle would bring that to America!) Right before breakfast, the doorbell rang at the team house. Connie came to the door of our dining room and said - Stuart, someone is at the door for you. He got up and at the door was Petrica - the boy he has loved, supported and sponsored through a sponsorship organization since 2006. 

Petrica is a great kid, but he's had a hard life. You can see a picture of stuart and Petrica in 2006 on Stuart's bio on sweetsleep.org. He fell into the wrong crowd at the orphanage here in Chisinau and ended up living with his mother over an hour away from Chisinau. The home situation is not good, but Petrica still smiles. He loves Stuart and loves that Stuart loves him - and got on a bus at 6 am to ride into Chisinau to surprise Stuart at breakfast before his meeting with a social worker that is trying to help him in his current situations. Stuart tries to find Petrica each time he comes to Moldova but it isn't always possible. This time, Petrica found him.

He looked at pictures of our trip, ate loads of "pizza pancakes" that Lilia made, and ate a banana. He smiled when Stuart would smile at him and when the americans would ask over and over if he wanted more pancakes. It made our hearts happy to see Stuart happy and to see this sweet somewhat "prodigal" son return "home." I pray for Petrica tonight - that he is protected from the situations he is surrounded by. I pray he knows he is loved by Stuart and by God. I pray that God reminds him that he is special, unique, and there are plans for his life that are for his good, not for evil - a future of hope! And I hope he knows that Stuart would fly half-way around the world to do anything in the world for this special boy... quickly growing into a young man.