We're Legal!

After three days of standing in various lines all members of our family have visas in process! Praise God! That said, these are 1-year visas, so I'm already praying that next year when we renew we will qualify for 5-year visas. The visa application process is expensive both in time and money, and I don't want to spend any more of either on visas than we have to. In addition, I love living in Romania and want to think of it as home, not as the place we're living for the next year.

Tomorrow's Agenda: Standing in Lines

Today we went to the doctors office to get our certificates of health to submit with our visa papers. We walked and rode the tram across town on a HOT afternoon to get there and when we walked in the door the receptionist told me she knew we were coming but the doctor was not in due to a death in the family. In the split second it took me to wonder how she could know the doctor was not in and not call me and tell me before I schlepped my kids across town she told me that she would be happy to help me out. So today we received our certificates of health from the receptionist. We must have looked healthy:) So, God provided the papers we needed and spared us from wrangling our kids through doctors appointments. All Noemi and Isobel had to do was play with toys in the waiting room.

Tomorrow we (hopefully) submit our visa papers. Please pray that all goes well, all our papers are in order, and the applications are processed quickly. Every time we have an appointment or do any paperwork for our visa process Noemi asks me about it. By now she's used to it so she explains it to me ... "we have to [go to such and such an office] because we have to stay in Romania ... we have to." God has brought us here and I trust Him to keep us here as long as He can use us.

Buchurest Spring (Bucuresti Primavara)

Joshua has been sick this week, so I haven't had a chance to write. Isobel's on my lap, assisting me right now:) So without further ado (or tiny hands on my keyboard) here's a glimpse of our beatiful spring. Summer's coming quickly.

Settling In

Every day I feel more at home in Buchurest. The biggest reason I am enjoying our new home is because Romanian culture is so relational. People are open to conversation and to friendship. We are developing exciting new relationships with friends at church. This is incredibly helpful for us in our language study and someday we hope to be a blessing to them as we minister alongside them. Noemi is struggling with the language barrier in her interactions with other children. I so appreciate the Romanian children for their persistant friendliness. God has placed several children in her life who are patient and consistently reach out to her even when she is withdrawn.

I am a detail person, so it's also the little things that make me love living here. I found 'my' fruit and vegetable market. If anyone has seen me raiding the Grubers' garden or shopping at the Stillwater Farmer's Market, they will realize how important this is to me. I love my fresh produce! The vendor at my market is patient with me and after the first time I asked him the correct way to say something, he started teaching me the words for the items I couldn't name. I'm now a loyal customer.

After singing the praises of Romania, I want to make it clear that we do, indeed, miss our friends and family from home. So you should all feel free to come visit:)

Not too busy to blog!

I'm so sorry I have not been faithful about posting lately. There have been so many moments, events and days that I was eager to write about but never found the time to sit down and put them into words. I'll try to touch on the major highlights of our last few weeks.


Hristos a inviat! Christ is Risen!
We enjoyed celebrating our first Easter in Romania. I appreciate how Christ centered the Easter traditions are here. It is also interesting that Easter is a more important holiday than Christmas here. We watched the city shut down for two days to celebrate.





Rousse
In order to lengthen our legal stay in the country until our visa papers were processed we needed to travel outside Romanian this month. We chose a quick and easy trip across the border to the town of Rousse,Bulgaria. We enjoyed the family time and the girls enjoyed exploring ancient
castle ruins and riding the train.

A Church Home!

Almost three weeks ago we decided to settle down at a Baptist church in our neighborhood. Since then we have seen the start of many new friendships and we are looking forward to watching them grow. As a PK whose church has always been the center of her social life, I'm pretty excited. There is even a children's program for Noemi to attend! I spend Sunday mornings up in the mothers' room with other mothers of wiggly babies. It is probably my best language learning opportunity of the whole week.

The church is strong and growing. It is easy to see and hear from people how God is at work there.

Prayer Update

Here's a sneak peek at our next prayer letter...

Last month we enjoyed our first trip to the beautiful mountains of Romania for our team retreat. We enjoyed getting to know our teammates, learning more about their ministries, and studying the Bible together.

Life is now settling down to its new ‘normal’. We are studying Romanian language and culture in and out of the classroom. Kara’s current favorite language learning method is watching Sesame Street in Romanian. Noemi and Isobel have no objections to this practice. We have been blessed with an experienced language teacher with a heart for serving missionaries. Our babysitter is also a blessing, kind and gentle with our children and very helpful with our language learning.

Outside of language study, Joshua has been attending a Kairos course at the OC office. Kairos is a missions education course that our team is sharing with churches around Romania. Attending the course gives us perspective on what OC is currently involved in as we look forward to our future ministry after language study. On Sundays we are attending a variety of churches around Bucharest before we choose a church and settle down.

Prayer Requests:

- Successful language study
- Wisdom in choosing a church
- Healthy adjustment for our children

Update

God faithfully brought our boxes safely here last Friday and we've been settling into our new home even more as we unpack. The girls have been enjoying their books all the more for having lived without them for two months. It's fun to be surrounded by some familiar things again. I have to extend a big THANK YOU to the guys at Gruber Pallets for packing and wrapping our boxes. They made the trip on two boats and who-knows-how-many trucks unscathed.

This week we will take our first trip out of Bucharest and into the beautiful mountains of Romania. We have an OC team retreat in Sibiu. There will be snow. I would be more excited about this if I hadn't just moved from Minnesota. Snow aside, we are looking forward to seeing more of Romania and to getting to know our teammates.