In our last update, we wrote to you from Berlin Germany. Praise God, on October 27 He brought us safely back to Romania. We drove straight to the Immigration Office and David was able to get his Romanian ID card that same day! For the rest of us it would take several more visits and a lot of running around to different banks, government offices, and a doctor’s office.
Timothy got a bad cold while we were in Germany and we took him to a pediatrician. After examining him, the doctor gave us a prescription for some nose drops and an herbal cough syrup. He seemed like he was doing just fine, but on November 2 late at night he suddenly took a turn for the worse. He had a dry barking cough and was having difficulty breathing. We have a nebulizer at home and tried giving him medicine in it along with cough syrup and everything that we had at home. When he didn’t improve by November 4, we took him to the doctor in Lipova. She took a look at him and sent us to the children’s hospital in Arad. After 6 hours and moving to 3 different buildings, Timothy finally received some treatment. We had heard that hospitals in Romania are terrible and you never want to go there unless you have to. We were nervous about taking our baby to the hospital, but he did get better with the treatment that they gave him. We had a small shared room with 1 other mother and her 2 sick children. She is also a Christian and she spoke a little English and Gwen can speak a little Romanian so by God’s grace they could communicate. Gwen was thankful to be rooming with a sister in Christ whom she could pray with in the difficult situation. In Romania, the doctors are very cautious about letting a child go home once they have been admitted to the hospital. Timothy ended up staying in the hospital for 6 days even though in the USA he probably would only have stayed 1 night. These 6 days were more difficult than the 88 days we spent in the hospital last year because we were separated from each other. We praise the Lord for bringing us through another trial, and we pray that we will all be healthy!
The night that Timothy got home from the hospital, we received a message from our immigration attorney that we all needed to go “present” ourselves at the immigration office the next morning. We also had an appointment to register our van. The appointment for the van had been made soon after we returned to Romania from Germany and before Timothy became sick. We spent 3 days driving around Arad visiting various government offices, a public notary, a doctor’s office, and a bank all to complete the necessary paperwork to obtain our Romanian identification cards. After jumping through all the hoops, we finally had everything that they wanted for us to submit the applications for Gwen and the children to receive their Romanian visas. Now we wait for word that the papers have all been processed. We praise God that the visa applications have finally been sent!
As Thanksgiving draws near, we remember to give thanks for all things! Not everything is pleasant, but when you give it to the Lord, all things do work together for good! Thank you for praying for us! We praise God for your support!