welcome! (part 3)

The next room I'm going to show you is the kitchen.  I love my house and each room in it, but the kitchen is probably my favorite.

before...

...during...

...after!

One thing my kitchen has is LOTS of drawers!
Sometimes we have a hard time finding things.  :)

The cupboards, oven, and stove-top are secondhand,
but they fit perfectly in our kitchen.

I love the wood stove in the kitchen.  It toasts bread beautifully and is very helpful for melting butter, not to mention that it keeps us warm in the cool weather!

melting butter and coconut oil

Doesn't that look cozy?

The kitchen pictures were taken before we put the plants in there.  Jonathan had the jade plant and the ginseng tree before we were married, and we recently got the orchid.  Often houses here will have an orchid along with several other plants in a front window.  I love orchids, and since they happened to be on sale the other day, I figured we should get one - you know, just to fit in with the culture around us.  :)

This pot belonged to one of my ancestors.
I really like how it looks in our kitchen!

And just as a side note, this little critter was on our front walk the other day.  :)

Thanks for visiting us today!  Stay tuned for more tours...

welcome! (part 2)

Now that you've seen the layout of our house and toured the upstairs, it's time to let you tour the rest of the house!  In case you need a refresher, here is the layout:

The first room you come to is the living room.  It is the first room on the right when you walk in.

before...

...during...

This wood stove is fed in the kitchen and goes
through the wall, keeping both rooms warm.

...almost there...

...after!

Yes, all those shades of green really are the same.  The light really plays with the color!  It turned out a little brighter than we were anticipating, but we we really love it!  We got the furniture second hand, and it was just what we were looking for: light, easy to clean, simple, and comfortable.  It softens the brighter walls and makes the room very welcoming.  The couch has storage inside and also folds down into a bed.  Come visit sometime!  :)

In other house news, Tuesday we had a bird in our attic.  :-(  I was going upstairs to get the laundry off the line, and when I opened the door I saw him trying to fly out the closed windows.  I quickly shut the door and did what any good girl would do: called for my husband to come up and take care of it!  :)  While the bird was over by the balcony door, he was able to open up the windows and it just flew out.  We're not sure how he got in, but hopefully that won't be a frequent occurrence!

Next up: the kitchen!

Immigration office - update to Urgent Prayer Request

Dear praying friends,

This morning, we left around 8:00 to pick up our translated marriage certificate, and to take all of the necessary documents into the immigration office. We picked up the certificate, and took everything to the immigration office. The lady there was nice, but mentioned something about our land deed being a few months old (the deed is only officially good for 30 days). She also told us that our bank statement from the States (as proof of income) could not just be a printed out bank statement, but needed to have an official bank stamp and signature. I asked if I could give them a bank statement from my bank here in Romania with a stamp and signature. She said that was fine. So, off to the bank we went! They gave us a bank statement, but said we needed to go to their branch in another part of town for the official stamp and signature. We were able to do that, and also took in the old deed to a notary so they could get us an up-to-date deed. Unfortunately, this process takes at least several hours, and we only had another hour or so to turn in our documents. Also, Thursday is the only day the immigration office accepts documents for residence permits, so if a recent land deed was needed, we would have to wait until next Thursday to take in all of our documents again.

We decided to go and take the documents we had, including the bank statement with stamp and signature, back into the immigration office. Praise the Lord, nothing more was said about the deed, and there was no problem with the bank statement, even though I don't really use my account here, and there certainly isn't much proof of income in it! :o) They accepted all the documents, and we went into the back room to get Kristy's picture taken, and that was that! Well, so we thought. About half an hour after we left, they called and said that I needed to pay an additional consular tax at the bank they use and bring them the receipt. So, we went to the bank, paid the tax, and brought the receipt to the immigration office. Everything seems to be fine and in order, and they said we can pick up Kristy's residence permit in one month! We are praising the Lord for this answer to prayer, and pray that we will be able to pick up Kristy's residence permit next month with no problems! Thank you so much for your prayers!

Rejoicing,
Jonathan and Kristy

Jonathan and Kristy's March Prayer Letter

This has been a rather eventful month with lots of things happening! First of all, here is an update on Kristy’s residence permit. We got Romanian health insurance for Kristy, and thankfully, that went well.Thursday, we took everything in to the immigration office. Fortunately, the problematic woman wasn't there, and they were only concerned about Kristy's last date of entry into Romania (which was March 5th). The man that was there looked at our things and when he got to our marriage certificate, he said that it needs a special apostille, since Romania and the United States are part of the Hague Convention. I wanted to make sure of this, so I asked to have an interview with the head boss. About half an hour later, he was available, and sure enough, he got his book with legal information in it and told us we need to get this apostille on our marriage certificate from the Secretary of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He also said that Kristy cannot get a permanent residence permit, but must get a temporary one. Thankfully, he was very nice, and apologized that we had to get something more. That day, Kristy's dad was able to go to Harrisburg and get the apostille on our marriage certificate. He sent it to us via DHL that day. We got it Monday (March 31st) and took it into the city to have it legally translated. Lord-willing, Thursday (April 3rd) we will again take everything in to the immigration office, and everything will be good, and we can get the process started. Please be praying for this.

Although there still have been a few times this month when no teens came to church for the teen class, one week, there were quite a few teens outside. Several of them came over to the church building, and it was good to have an actual, nice conversation with them rather than having them be obnoxious. Unfortunately, Rebeca has not been coming. She said she is now registered at another church, so she’s no longer coming to ours. I am not sure what is going on with her, but she has been rather cold lately. Gugu, the boy that had the brain tumor, is back home and seems to be doing fine. Please continue to pray for his salvation, as well as for the other unsaved young people. Please also pray for the ones who have made professions of faith that they will live for the Lord and come faithfully to church.

Ion (Yone) continues to attend the reading classes faithfully. He has been improving, and although the going is slow, during one class, he was recognizing words easily. Even his wife, Mariana, was pleasantly surprised. Please continue to pray for Ion’s salvation.

The children’s classes have been going well. They have been pretty well-behaved, which is a blessing. It’s always so encouraging when they know answers to the review questions, and they have been doing very well with them. Some of the little ones that seemed to just be in their own little world during class are actually saying Bible verses! Praise the Lord!

During one of our services, several children outside were banging on windows and causing disruptions. It took several people going out and dealing with them, and one person stationed outside until the end of church, to keep things quiet enough for the service to continue.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. We appreciate you and are blessed to have you as part of our ministry with the Gypsies in Romania!

Serving Him,
Jonathan and Kristy Heisey