First week

We've been in Romania exactly one week now. Time has flown by so rapidly, so many things have happened and yet there is still so much ahead of us. We keep hearing stories of the challenges facing the healthcare system in Romania, primarily the corruption that affects the daily lives of all citizens.

As we had dinner and a nice get together with some of our close friends here in town, we were reminded of their unfortunate loss of their baby during the 7th month of pregnancy due to spontaneous labor. They went to the hospital, were checked by their obstetrician, and were reassured that everything was fine. Afterwards, the OB doctor informed them he was going out of town for a few days. In his absence, the labor continued and no other OB doctor agreed to check them out in their doctor's absence. It appears that this is sort of a routine protocol here because the doctor of record is the one who was paid the bribe money and for anyone else to intervene implies that they will not receive part of the money - so they choose not to become involved.

Today we went to the International Church of Bucharest, an interesting group made up primarily of ... Romanians. We had a great time meeting a few other missionaries in the city, meeting a real estate agent who appears to specialize in finding apartments for mission groups (we're told she's very good at finding reasonably priced places), and even meeting Daniela's new teacher at this church. As it happened, today was a Christmas concert and all of the kids in the audience received gifts.

Some of the angst that we had coming to a new country and to an overcrowded city is beginning to slowly disappear (Shannon may say otherwise still :). Having a set of cell phones contributed greatly to this by helping us know that even when we're apart, we're still in contact (how did we ever survives before the cell phone era?). One could say our spirits are calming a bit and the jet lag is finally over, except for Naomi who started a unique sleeping schedule and developed new going-to-bed demands. Yesterday's ice skating experience really helped Daniela and Lexi as they begin to see that there are some positive points for being here. We're thinking about getting them ice skates for Christmas to help with the adaptation process.

Daniela and Lexi have made a couple of pigeon friends and have even given them names: Nutty Polish and Pepper. The first name comes from a common pastry here that is called just that: nutty polish. Being on the 12th floor of this 16-storey building we're in the flight pattern of pigeons, who frequently take small pit-stop breaks perched on outside window ledges. It appears they each have preferred spots, because the same pigeons return to our window - unless they have other twin siblings taking turns fooling us.

Overall, we've met very friendly people, opinionated but friendly and helpful. We feel pretty safe and have noticed people going out of their way to help us when we hold Naomi in our arms. At the bank, we were taken to the front of the line and were offered a seat because of the baby. If this continues, we might just take Naomi all over the place as a way of assuring we'll get some immediate attention :). In reality we'd prefer not to take her places as it is no fun at all going through the bundling process, hopping in a taxi, holding her in our arms in stores, then hopping back in a taxi to go home. As we're talking about this very thing today, we realized why one just does not see a lot of kids in stores or on the streets. Taking a stroller around is a real hassle due to bad side walks, crowded places, and reliance upon taxis. On the other hand, Naomi gets a lot of heads turning both in stores and on the street. Some people even stop us on the street to say what a beautiful child we have, and many comment about her as they walk by and turn their heads. There just aren't a lot of babies that we've seen so far.

Sticker shock - general merchandise tax in Bucharest is 20% - on everything. This is one of the latest news we didn't know before hand - humongous tax rates. With this tax structure things are always much more expensive than what they appear to be.

Needed prayers:
- finding a reasonably priced apartment
- finding a dependable car
- boldness in engaging people in spiritual discussions