For those of you who don’t know me well, my name is Sam, and I was born and mostly raised in the United States. Then about 15 years ago, I visited Romania, and quickly fell in love with the people, the land, the music, the food, and the culture.

I then moved to Romania, and learned to speak the language, and eventually even published a book in the Romanian language. I created a life for myself, one private, and one public. The public one was all about sharing my love of Romania with the world, and that’s why I wrote my amazing guidebook (The Complete Insider’s Guide to Romania) and appeared on Romanian television a dozen or more times. I’ve also published more than a million words on my blog, covering every facet of Romanian life.

Many of you know that I love Romania so much that I consider myself “more Romanian” than even lifelong Romanians, and I am quite proud to consider myself Romanian in my heart and soul.

In 2014, while in Romania, I met my future wife, Cristina. She’s what some would call an “ethnic” Romanian, as that is her native language and culture, but she grew up in the Republic of Moldova. On September 22, 2015, we became married (both of us for the first – and only – time) and are now beginning our family life together in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

In the old days in the Romanian lands, everyone lived in a village. They lived together side by side, and worked together in the fields and mountains, sharing their sorrows, triumphs, and challenges together. When a man and woman came together to be married, the villagers would all gather together and give the new couple the resources in order to start off their marriage right.

Nowadays, few of us live in villages anymore. My family, friends, and fellow “villagers” are spread all over the world from Hong Kong to London to Francistown (Botswana). To gather all of us together in the flesh would be almost impossible, and require a hundred airplanes and a staggering financial cost. But that’s all right! Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, my village is a global one, a digital gathering place online where we can all meet in fellowship at any time, from anywhere.

And now is the time when I am calling on all of you to join our global village, to help Cristina and I start our family life with the support and generosity of you, our virtual neighbors. In the past, our fellow villagers would’ve brought pots and pans, food, timber and nails, cloth, and many other material objects to make sure that our meager house was a true home. But this is 2015, and now things work differently, with touch screens and clicks.

Do you want to be a member of our global village, and help Cristina and I have a great start to our marriage? If so, please click on one of the following links:

Go Fund Me – this is a kind of Kickstarter campaign, but for individuals.

For those of you who prefer PayPal, click on the relevant link for American dollars, Euros, British Pounds Sterling, Canadian dollars, or Hungarian forints.

Once you contribute, you will forever be a member of our global village, and your name will permanently be listed on the side of my blog in recognition of your support.

Some people have already shown their support for our marriage, and to those people we are extremely grateful.

Members of our Global Village

Robin M.
Jeanne R.
Julie D.
Michael D.
Calvin R. Sr.
Anca P.
Calvin R. Jr.
Georgiana B.
Bruce & Sam D.
William N.
Dana P.
Daniela M.
Sebastian & Monika B.
Vera K.
Laurentiu C.

Thank you!