Friday, March 21, 2014

Urgent Prayer Request

Dear Praying Friends,

Several weeks ago, we began the process to get Kristy a residence permit for Romania. Normally when one comes into Romania, one has a 90 day tourist visa. This was typically renewed every time that person came back into the country. So on March 5th, we spent the day in Hungary and came back into Romania, expecting this to give Kristy another 90 days in Romania. However, we found out that the law has changed and states that one only has 90 days in Romania in a 180 day period. The first time that we entered Romania in the last 180 days was December 28th, which means those 90 days expire on Thursday, March 27th. So we quickly got everything together and sent off for Kristy's new passport (with her new name), which we thankfully received back on Wednesday.

So, yesterday, we got together the documents necessary for applying for a residence permit for Kristy and took them to the Immigration office. They told us that Kristy needs Romanian health insurance first, and then we can apply for residency. We are planning to go to the Health Insurance office Monday to see what we need to do to get Romanian health insurance for Kristy, but this usually takes a few days. Please pray that we will be able to get everything necessary to apply for residency before Thursday, and that we will be able to apply for a permanent residence permit next week. The one woman in the office has been particularly problematic, and seems to tell us (and other Americans that have had to deal with her) something different than the other people that work there. She said that Kristy cannot get a permanent residence permit, but that she has to get a temporary residence permit. The other people that I have asked there at other times said she will receive a permanent residence permit since that is what I have. This woman also said that the 90 day visa is calculated from the last entry into Romania (which was March 5th), but I'm not sure we can trust that. So, we are praying that they will give Kristy a permanent residence visa, and that we will be able to apply for it next week.

Often official government workers are arrogant and rude, so please be praying for everything to go smoothly, and that we will have helpful, friendly people dealing with us. The Lord has this all worked out already, and we are looking forward to what He will do through the prayers of His children!

Serving Him,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

welcome! (part 1)

Welcome!  Finally I am getting around to posting pictures of my home.  We're going to start with a tour of the inside since the outside isn't completed yet, but first I have to post a couple pictures of what's been done so far on the exterior!

before
as of this week!
I'll post more outside and exterior pictures at a later time, but right now let's go inside.  To begin with, we'll start with the basic layout.

Our house is one-and-a-half stories.  The downstairs is illustrated in the following diagram:


The front door is actually located on the side of the house as you're facing it from the street.  This has proven quite confusing on many occasions, as we sometimes refer to that as the front of the house, making the opposite side the back, and sometimes we refer to the street side as the front.  Oh well...

A central hall runs down the middle of our house with rooms on either side of it.  The living room, kitchen, and bathroom are on the right side, the unfinished room (which will probably be the guest room) and bedroom are on the left side, and the pantry and stairs leading up to the attic are at the end.

the hall as the previous owner had it
going upstairs
looking down the steps
They are very narrow and shallow -
"mortal" as one man put it.  :)
Upstairs are two long rooms that pretty much run the length of the house.  One composes about 2/3 of the attic, and the other about 1/3.  We're hoping to someday put a couple of rooms and a bathroom up there.

the attic as the previous owner had it
the main room of the attic - I often hang our laundry up here

this is on the other side of the dividers
we'd like to put a bathroom in here someday
a view out back from the balcony
This completes the first part of your welcome tour.  Thank you for joining us!  Stay tuned for more pictures of the (finished!) downstairs rooms!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

a trip to Budapest

I mentioned in my last post that we have been quite busy recently.  One of the reasons for the busyness was due to our trip to Budapest (Hungary) last week.  Our coworker had to make the trip there to pick up new passports for his children.  We were planning to go out of the country at some point in the near future to get my 90-day tourist visa renewed upon re-entry, so he invited us to go along.

Our trip there was uneventful.  We didn't have any lines crossing the border into Hungary, and despite the heavy fog that morning, we made pretty good time.  While our coworker took care of his things at the embassy, Jonathan and I walked around Budapest for a little bit.

St. Stephen's Basilica was just one block down the road from the embassy.  We didn't go inside, as it would have cost us to get in and we didn't have a whole lot of time.  But the outside was beautiful!


"I am the way, the truth, and the life."


Don't you love the black van obscuring the view??



After walking around the basilica, we walked up and down a couple of the nearby streets, peering in shop windows and enjoying the gorgeous day.








Soon we met back up with our coworker, made a couple other quick stops, and got back on the road.  After a couple hours we reached the border, getting out of the car to stretch our legs while we waited for immigration to process everything for our re-entry.  When the officer returned our passports, he declared that I most definitely could not stay any longer than 30 days in Romania.  "Thirty days maximum, and then she must return to America."  We were quite surprised at his declaration, but thanked him and drove off down the road, figuring he was probably just trying to intimidate us and throw his weight around.  Everyone coming into the country gets 90 days... it should be the same for me, too, right?

After we got home, we started looking around online to see if there was some reason the officer would have told us this.  And sure enough, a few months ago immigration laws changed so that one can no longer stay more than 90 days in the country within any 6 month period.  Once you've been in 90 days, you have to be out 90 days.  

This was quite disturbing news, as you can imagine.  We hadn't been in any rush to apply for my residency because in the past you have always been able to go out and re-enter the country to get a new 90-day visa.  Our plan was to get a fresh 90-day stamp, send my passport in to the embassy to get my name changed, and then begin working on residency stuff.  But the Lord had other plans.  Instead of 90 days to work on everything, we now had less than 30.  

So we quickly got all of my passport documentation together and called the courier to come pick up our package.  They said they would come Friday.  Friday came and went with no courier.  We called again that evening, and they said they had it marked to be picked up on Saturday, and that it would still arrive at the embassy first thing Monday morning.  No problem.  Saturday we waited for the courier to come, but again, he never showed.  We called the office again, only to discover that they closed early in the afternoon.  It would have to wait until Monday.

Monday we went into town and dropped our package off at the office.  The lady was very nice and apologetic for the mishap.  She told us the passport would arrive at the embassy by 10 the next day.  Upon leaving the office we walked the couple of blocks to the center of town where many shops, offices, and services are located.  One of the requirements for me to get residency is to turn in a translated copy of my marriage license (since my reason for getting residency is because I am married to a permanent resident).  So we stopped in to inquire about the service at one translation place.  They informed us that they were unable to do it because our license didn't have the necessary colored stamp on it.  It is a certified, sealed legal copy, but here the official documents have colored stamps, so they said they couldn't do it.  So we walked down the street to another translation office.  This one didn't seem to have a problem with our certificate, so Lord-willing when we pick it up tomorrow there will be no issues with it.  The rest of our paperwork will have to wait until my new passport arrives so that all the documentation has the correct identification on it.

There will be lots of paperwork and running to and from offices in the next few weeks, but we are so glad we found out about this new law when we did!  We had been considering getting my name changed first and then going out of the country when my 90 days were almost up.  Praise the Lord we didn't do that, or else we'd be finding out about the law with only a couple days left on my visa to get everything done!

Sunday, March 9, 2014

a beautiful promise

I know I said I was going to start posting pictures of my home, but things have been a little crazy since then.  More on that another time, but I wanted to share these pictures of the blessing we saw on Friday!

Mid-afternoon Jonathan called for me to come look out our front door.  This is what greeted my eyes as I looked out across the fields!


It started pretty light, but got brighter and brighter as we watched.


Pretty soon the second rainbow was full, too, though it never got as bright as the first one.


It was so big, I couldn't get the whole thing in my camera.  :)



And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:12-15)

a visit to Parcul Dendrologic

Last Saturday Jonathan took me to the Dendrological Park not too far from us.  We don't have a car yet, but my bike arrived with our shipment a couple weeks ago, so we were able to bike the 5 miles or so there.  It was a beautiful, sunny day in the high 50s, and we had a lovely time!

on our way

We rode on this road to Bucovat ("bu-co-vuhts").
Bucovat is the next town down the road from us.
The combination of the wind and the dirt road
made biking a little difficult at times.
approaching Bucovat
going through town







We passed many flocks of sheep along the way.


Eventually we turned onto this paved road
leading to Bazos ("bah-zohsh").

Yes!  There are mountains nearby!  :)
Shortly after reaching Bazos, we came to
the entrance of the park.
We left our bikes at this hotel/restaurant near the entrance.
It was a beautiful walk, through fields and forests.
This fallen log provided a place for our picnic lunch.



I don't know what this is...
but it was kind of cute!
The sky was so blue!






leaving the park

We had a lovely time!  We'll have to go back once the trees start blooming.

For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. (Psalm 135:5)