What Else is There to Do in Bucharest, Romania?

Our time in Bucharest, Romania is coming to a close. We are scheduled to leave here in a week. We will have been here for three months, if God is willing.

What else is there in Bucharest, Romania? It's a very large city, with a population of around 1.83 million people. It is 93 square miles. If you look up Bucharest, you will almost surely see a picture of the Palace of Parliament. It is the world's second largest government building. Believe me that you really can't imagine what it's like unless you are there in person. It is massive. It's the biggest building like this that I have ever seen. Apparently it goes as deep into the ground as it is high. In order to get the whole building into a photo, you have to be pretty far from it. 

In the center of the city is a large rotary, about half a mile from the Palace of Parliament, with pools and fountains in the middle of it. From there, the road leads straight to the palace. Down the center of the road is a strip with pools and fountains shooting water into the air. At night, there are colorful lights to change the color of the water. It is a well organized and planned area of the city. It is neat to look online and see aerial photos of it.

Behind the giant palace is The People's Cathedral. It is another huge building still being built by the Orthodox community since 2010. We are on the 10th floor, so we can see a good ways out. As I am writing this, anytime I look up and out the window, I can easily see it protruding from among the buildings surrounding it on the horizon a few miles from here. 

Not far from the Palace and Cathedral is a section of the city called Old Town. If you look up things to do in Bucharest, chances are, you will read about and see pictures of Old Town. It is an area with stone streets. There are many restaurants there and it gets very lively at night.

There are certainly many other things to see and do in Bucharest. My husband is very sweet and likes to get me sweet treats! We both enjoy good chocolate quite a bit. He came home a couple of hours ago and brought me this box of chocolates. On the box it says "Premium Chocolate."

I opened it, and out dumped these!!!!

 I was completely shocked! He had already opened it himself and been surprised. Putting the candies back in the box, he brought them to me so I could receive the same surprise. It was really quite hilarious! 

You can check out our other works! If you like them, you can help us out by sharing our links on your social media accounts and asking your contacts to do the same! Thank you!

http://iamonebook.com

https://www.patreon.com/WarePublishing

https://www.waredesignworks.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/waredesignworks

To follow us on Twitter and Instagram:

https://x.com/AmyJoyCarlton?t=Ohwl7Pf5LhWSzYG40USr2w&s=09

https://x.com/WarePublishing?s=09

https://www.instagram.com/waredesignworks/

To listen to different thoughts from Edward:

https://rumble.com/c/c-5501477/videos

https://youtube.com/@edwardcarlton?si=HUHHNoh5NX0hW-La

God bless you!

Exploring the Largest Park in Bucharest

There is a huge park which is about a half hour's walk from where we live. It is 462 acres, a third of that being a lake in the midst of it. The city of Bucharest has done a great job trying to make it a pleasant place for the people here. There are many large playgrounds. Most of those, if not all, have exercise equipment for adults. There are ping-pong tables, concession stands, bike paths, an obstacle course, bike and paddle boat rentals, and much more. 

Thousands of people flock to the park on the weekends. It is a wonderful place to escape the busy city streets and be able to move around beyond the walls of their apartments or offices.

There is a Japanese cherry tree garden. Crowds are drawn to it in the springtime. People have birthday parties there. On the day when we went to see the flowered trees, there were many groups of people there posing for professional photos.

This house is part of a group of actual old homes that were brought in to form a museum village.

These trees were home to ducklings whose mamas had made nests to hatch them in.

A couple of my children were at the park and witnessed the ducklings dropping out of the tree one by one and heading into the water for the first time.

You can take a ride to another part of the park on a ferry, or you can spend hours walking around the water.

There are many flowers planted throughout the park, and different pools with fountains.

We choose to go on a weekday to avoid the weekend crowds. We nearly have the park to ourselves. It's a wonderful place where the kids can run around and play and not have to worry about disturbing people.

You can check out our other works! If you like them, you can help us out by sharing our links on your social media accounts and asking your contacts to do the same! Thank you!

http://iamonebook.com

https://www.patreon.com/WarePublishing

https://www.waredesignworks.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/waredesignworks

To follow us on Twitter and Instagram:

https://x.com/AmyJoyCarlton?t=Ohwl7Pf5LhWSzYG40USr2w&s=09

https://x.com/WarePublishing?s=09

https://www.instagram.com/waredesignworks/

To listen to different thoughts from Edward:

https://rumble.com/c/c-5501477/videos

https://youtube.com/@edwardcarlton?si=HUHHNoh5NX0hW-La

God bless you!

Thoughts about Mothers

Each person in the world was made in the image of God and is extremely precious and valuable. We all play a part in the function of the world. It is stated beautifully In 1 Corinthians 11 (As a side note: earlier in this chapter is where I get the basis for wearing a head covering, for those of you who have wondered why I do that), verses 11-12, "Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God." 

We live in a society where people are spending a lot of time and energy fighting for equality. We could just accept who we are, appreciate the way God has made us and the role that He has given to us, and live at peace!

What does this have to do with mothers? I guess that before I write about the wonderful nature of mothers, I feel the need to have a disclaimer. No mother is without fault or weakness- not we as mothers, nor our own mothers, right? However, I was thinking about the general nature of a mother, at her finest. 

When I was in the hospital, after just having our first child, I was very concerned that my son might not like me. My mother had often told us the story of the time when she was in the hospital after having my older brother, her first child. He was screaming and screaming, as newborns generally do. Much to her surprise, he stopped crying immediately after the nurses handed him to her. She couldn't believe that he apparently knew her and that being with her had such a powerfully calming effect. Perhaps I was so insecure because I didn't have the same effect on my son there in the hospital. I told my insecurity to my father, as he was visiting there at the hospital, and he reassured me by saying, "Why wouldn't he love you? You're the source of everything good!" 

God gave us a strength, as women, to be soft and gentle in nature. Because we tend to be very emotional, we are also able to be tender and compassionate with others. We want to comfort when there is pain. We want to give care and affection, in good times and bad. We are devoted and loyal. We have a great love for our children, even with their faults. It takes a lot of work, but we want our homes to look and be pleasant. We want our families and our homes to be neat, orderly, and beautiful. We want our families to be healthy, happy, and whole. 

In reality, we are busy, and at times get tired, grumpy, lazy, selfish, hurt, frustrated, anxious, and angry. Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." Do we want our children and God to be merciful with us and our weaknesses and failings? Do you have a merciful attitude towards your mother, whether she is alive or not?

God said in Proverbs 23:22, 'Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old." It is a rather interesting statement. It seems to be common for people to have bitter feelings towards their mothers. As a mother, we are responsible for doing our best to make sure that our children turn out well. Because of that, we are often having to correct them. Perhaps children, and even we, misunderstand our mother's chastisement, and see her as being against us, when it's really the opposite.

“Honor your father and mother”- which is the first commandment with a promise- “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Ephesians 6:2-3. Let's not underestimate the importance of honoring our parents!

You can check out our other works! If you like them, you can help us out by sharing our links on your social media accounts and asking your contacts to do the same! Thank you!

http://iamonebook.com

https://www.patreon.com/WarePublishing

https://www.waredesignworks.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/waredesignworks

To follow us on Twitter and Instagram:

https://x.com/AmyJoyCarlton?t=Ohwl7Pf5LhWSzYG40USr2w&s=09

https://x.com/WarePublishing?s=09

https://www.instagram.com/waredesignworks/

To listen to different thoughts from Edward:

https://rumble.com/c/c-5501477/videos

https://youtube.com/@edwardcarlton?si=HUHHNoh5NX0hW-La

God bless you!

Obtaining Dual Citizenship

To those of you who don't know, we are hoping to apply for and get dual citizenship in Italy, through descent. My maternal grandfather (pictured on the front of my last post, "The Lonely Graves") was 100% Italian. His parents, both born in the same town in Italy, both moved to the United States as children around 1905. I grew up knowing my great grandmother. She passed away at the age of 92, back in 1994.

While we were taking care of my maternal grandmother in South Carolina, my husband was looking at different places with affordable land. One of the cheapest places that he found was in Sicily. I said, "That's where my relatives are from!” A couple of days later, he came to me and announced, "You could become an Italian citizen, and then the children and I could become citizens through you!"

The more that I have researched this, I have found out that there are actually quite a lot of Americans with Italian descent that are also trying to do the same thing. There are many reasons why doing this is advantageous. Typically, you are only allowed to stay in the EU for 90 days in a six month period. It allows people to freely live, travel, work anywhere in the EU, and more. This was appealing to us. 

Last year I began gathering the necessary documents, such as the birth certificates and marriage licenses which prove my Italian ancestry. Over the past week I have spent most of my free time learning as much as I can about the requirements and the process. There are many different things that can disqualify a person with Italian lineage. We don't want to move our family to Italy with high hopes and then be turned away, especially after giving up our rental home in Albania.

I realized last night while I was in bed, that there are a lot of similarities between this earthly scenario and the heavenly one. Heaven is a place that most people want to go to after death. Most people assume that they will be welcomed in by their maker. 

Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." Matthew 7:13-14

Jesus said a few verses later in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’  Would a want to be before Him after our death, or His return, expecting to enter into heaven with Him, only to have this happen to us?

The apostille Paul exhorted the Christians, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling," in Philippians 2:12b. How carefully should we be checking the Scriptures to make sure that we understand what the King and Judge of heaven"s requirements are? 

Shouldn't we be looking into the Bible thoroughly to learn more about this wonderful King and His Kingdom? Shouldn't we be talking to others who are also citizens of this great land and find enjoyment that we share the same hope and homeland? Shouldn't we be trying to urge those who aren't interested or assume that they will automatically enter in?

"Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men." 2 Corinthians 5:11a. Christians are sometimes considered odd or hateful. When you're reading God's Word, you want to save others from the destruction that you know sin will bring, and help them to know how wonderful God is as well as the life and hope that He gives.

You can check out our other works! If you like them, you can help us out by sharing our links on your social media accounts and asking your contacts to do the same! Thank you!

http://iamonebook.com

https://www.patreon.com/WarePublishing

https://www.waredesignworks.com

https://www.etsy.com/shop/waredesignworks

To follow us on Twitter and Instagram:

https://x.com/AmyJoyCarlton?t=Ohwl7Pf5LhWSzYG40USr2w&s=09

https://x.com/WarePublishing?s=09

https://www.instagram.com/waredesignworks/

To listen to different thoughts from Edward:

https://rumble.com/c/c-5501477/videos

https://youtube.com/@edwardcarlton?si=HUHHNoh5NX0hW-La

God bless you!