Yesterday, our container arrived with all of our “stuff” from the U.S. We were very excited to see each item and box come off the truck and into our home. The boys waited and waited for the toy boxes…especially the Lego boxes. Jonah was relieved when they finally (towards the end) came off the truck. I’m pretty sure he thought they were stolen!

Three Hungarian men unloaded our stuff and brought it into our house, they did NOT want our help in any way, so we felt sort of strange just standing around. They carried in the piano, the china hutch and our bedroom furniture. (one man kept saying “Top floor?” to which I’d say “yes, please???” and he’d ROLL his eyes! Too funny!) The final thing in the door was our king sized mattress…one guy kept measuring and saying, “that fat mattress is too big, no fit!” But, one of the other guys looked at the staircase and really wanted to get it up there so he and Mark took down the stair banister and up it went! YEA! I made a lemon cake to share with our movers when they were finished unloading, just to say thanks! I think they liked it, and one guy just kept saying "thank you, lady, thank you!"...so I felt a little helpful after all!

I got busy right away unpacking the kitchen boxes, so I could cook! I guess I had unpacked 5 or 6 big boxes of kitchen stuff when I came across a new package of Easter sprinkles (you know, to decorate cookies with) that I had bought on clearance last Easter…and I said, to myself, “oh….Easter sprinkles, how nice” and then I just cried! Over Easter sprinkles…I cried, just thankful for familiar stuff and the thought of baking cookies for Easter and being tired and overwhelmed with boxes everywhere, I cried.

It’s the first time since we arrived, that I’ve felt a little nostalgic about things. I guess that makes sense, with our stuff arriving, but it caught me a little of guard. By the grace of God, our move has seemed very smooth so far, and even though things are different than “normal”, it hasn’t really seemed too hard. We are thankful for that! I know that there will be times that are hard, but for now, I’ll take getting emotional over Easter sprinkles.
Love you all…

Now that was a hill!

Today, for Parker's birthday we went on a little adventure! First, we drove to a place not too far from our house and caught a Cog train. We took the Cog train up, up, up to the Budapest Children's Railway. Here, we got on the Children's railway (called that because it's really run by kids...with a few adults around to help out!) and rode up, up, up to a stop on Janos hegy (John's Hill).

We were headed to Erzsebet Look out tower, which we can see from our house in Budakeszi, but didn't really know what it was. When we got off the train, there was a path, with stairs and it went up, up, up to the top of Janos hegy. I honestly did not think I was going to make it! Whew! We walked and we walked and we walked...UP HILL for a long time. (seriously people, they should post somewhere that this is NOT a leisurely little hike!) Then we came to a playground where we rested for a bit and then we walked and walked until finally we were at the top! What a view! It was worth all the huffing and puffing it took to get to the top!

Then, we had to walk back down, catch the train, the tram and the subway to get to Nagyi Palascinta...the yummy pancake house where we enjoyed our well deserved lunch of sweet and savory pancakes! YUM! All-in-all I think it was a great birthday adventure for Parker! (My legs are going to HURT tomorrow!)

Monday is the day!

Monday...we will have been here 4 weeks and our stuff from the U.S will be arriving at 8:00am! YEA! We are all very excited to have some more furniture and hang some photos on the walls and to sleep in our own beds! The boys are most excited to see their Legos, books and short sleeved shirts! It's been absolutely beautiful for the past week and I didn't do a very good job of packing warm weather clothes! Oh well...it arrives on Monday! Mark got to see everything unloaded and he thought everything looked great. We did have to pay a pretty hefty customs fee, but that should be refunded as soon as we have our address cards stamped (hopefully on Thursday).

Tomorrow we are celebrating Parker's birthday with a trip to Nagyi Palacsinka. One of my favorites! It's a "pancake house" but don't think IHOP. Hungarian pancakes are sort of like crepes, OR if you grew up in my family, think Grandma Ritz's big pancakes...but filled with all sorts of awesome stuff...fruit, pudding, cheese and eggs you name it! YUM! Can't believe that my baby is going to be 7 years old! Happy Birthday Parker!

God's Provision

Still in the midst of birthday week here in Hungary. We celebrated both boys yesterday by going to Aqua-World. It was really fun and relaxing! It's a HUGE indoor water park attached to a Ramada Resort hotel on the waaaaaaayyyyy north side of Budapest, so it was an adventure just to drive there. Every time we get somewhere new, we feel very good that we made it and even better when we make it back home! (I'll post pictures later!)

This morning, Mark got up early to head to the depot where our shipping container is sitting. They are going to open it this morning, and transfer all the items (those of you who helped us load the thing will understand how fun that will be) to their warehouse and then early next week on to trucks to our house! We decided (after advisement from MANY) it would be a good idea for Mark to be there to see the unloading, and make sure all of the stuff really makes it to OUR house and not someone elses! It will be very exciting to have our things and get truly settled in!

Tuesday, we visited the public school in Budakeszi to check out how it might work for our boys to attend school. We were thankful for the visit with the vice-principal, who our landlady knew, and we even got to sit in on the classes to see what they are like. This school has a bilingual program where the classes are taught in both English and Hungarian. The classes have two teachers, both speak English, but one is a native English speaker and one Hungarian. The students are learning in both languages. The boys seem excited about attending this school. Pray for us as we continue to decide the best choice for them, and about when they should start. They can enroll as soon as we have our residency papers finalized!

We have felt a strong sense that our boys should go to Hungarian school. For language learning, it's the best way! But also because we know that it's a huge way to build relationships in our community of Budakeszi. We feel that God placed us here,in this specific place, for His purposes. We are very thankful for the bilingual program, which will help our boys learn Hungarian and also help them to feel...not completely lost while they are still picking up the language and culture. We can only give God the credit for putting us here and providing for our family in this way!

love you all!
Jodi

Three Weeks and Counting

It's been over a week since I blogged last...where does the time go? Not much has happened, but we are still settling in to life in Hungary. Our shipping container arrives in Budapest tomorrow (Monday, March 22) and then spends a about a week getting "Customs-ized" and then they will unload our stuff on to trucks to bring to us. Evidently our roads in Budakeszi would not allow for the whole container at once?

This week is birthday week in the Revell house. Jonah is 9 on Monday and Parker is 7 on Saturday. They have both requested chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and we are going to Aqua-World (indoor water park)in the middle of the week for a combined celebration! Should be fun!

This week we will also go visit the local school in Budakeszi. You can pray for us as we continue to ask the Lord for wisdom concerning schooling for our boys. We are really hoping that the local school will be a good fit for them initially as we know that this will really help their language process! Our landlady knows the Vice-Principal, so she set up a meeting for us on Tuesday. We are excited to see the school and learn all we can. I'll keep you posted!

Well...thank you for your prayers as we continue in our residency paperwork process, we go a week from Thursday to officially begin the process and turn in our completed forms. We are praying for a 5 year permit otherwise we'll have to go through this process every year!

We are enjoying setting up our new home and hope to have our stuff arriving in a week or so...so it will really feel like home.

Love to you all!
Jodi

Door Locks and things like that...

So, did I mention the door locks? No, I don't think I did. But you should know that there are lots of door locks in Hungary! In my house alone, there are 16 doors (each with a lock) and we have 19 keys! Seriously! 19 keys! Oops...forgot the garage...make that 17 doors and 20 keys!

There are 2 entrances to our house. (Not counting the garage!) Each of those entrances has 2 doors...one opening in, one opening out. Each of those entrances takes 3 keys..to get in or out! Those of you who know me well, know that I am the person in the house concerned about the doors always being locked. So, I personally like all the locks, unless we needed to get out of the house quickly...like for a fire or something then that will be tricky. We'll just pray for no fires!

The internet guy came today, so after Mark gets back from the electronics store with a modem, we should be up and running with real internet! Yea!

Lastly, (and this is really just for my garage sale friends Jami and Sheri, but you all can read on) we are going to a garage sale tomorrow. Hungarians don't really have garage sales, just Americans living in Hungary. Two missionary families are having sales, so I understand that we need to be there early. So we'll be the crazy, sit in the car and wait for the door to go up people, ready to grab all the bargains! :-)

Love you all!

A formal introduction...

Yesterday I had a "formal" introduction to Tesco. I have been to Tesco several times, but there are many things that are a mystery to me. So, a friend of mine had offered to take me to Tesco with her and do a "walk through" of the store...getting familiar with things. Tesco, is like Walmart only less stuff in general. So we met at the SUPER Tesco in a town near here. We dropped our kids off at the playland (this is cool...2 free hours of childcare at the grocery store!!! you are jealous aren't you?) and began our tour. It was fun and I got many answers to my questions. I like Tesco, not just for the free childcare (up to age 12!). Did I mention that the carts have 4 wheels that swivel? (not like ours, which have 2 stationary wheels and two swivel wheels) It's a bit dangerous driving one of those!

We had a good weekend too...attending our new Hungarian Church, Kegy and getting to know some new people there. We also went to a Mexican restaurant, near the US Embassy...Mark got yelled at TWO times by a police officer...once for driving where he shouldn't have been (the signs are a bit different :-) and once for taking a picture of the US Embassy...evidently you cannot do that since a police officer came running toward Mark yelling NOOOOOOoooo! (maybe the signs with camera's and a red slash through them should have clued us in) Oh well...we survived!

It's been a good first week in Hungary. I think our jet lag is over, we are getting used to the dogs that bark every morning at 5am and we feel very comfortable driving everywhere we need to go. Hungary has given us a very warm welcome so far!

Continue to pray for our paperwork, it's a process and we know that. Mark was going back today to see how we were doing in the process. Also pray for our container...that it arrives by the end of March so we can really settle in!

Conquering our fears!

Today, Mark left very early (I was sound asleep) to catch the "public" into Budapest. My goal for the day was to drive, for the first time in HU,to take the boys to McDonald's for lunch and to buy groceries at Tesco (think smallish walmart). I woke up feeling not so brave. BUT, if you don't get out and do things, you are stuck, and I am not one to be stuck! So...I said to the boys, should we go to McDonald's for lunch? Parker's answer was a strong "YES", but Jonah did not want to go. So I asked him if he was nervous, and he was. I told him I was too! BUT...we decided that we have to be brave and try...or we'll never get any more comfortable in our new home.

Joshua 1:9 says "This is my command- be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." (even to McDonald's and Tesco!)

So, we loaded up and took off for McDonald's. Driving was no sweat, after all, I don't have to speak to anyone in Hungarian to drive (unless of course I get pulled over...). We made it just fine to McD's and I ordered for all of us (Happy Meals for the boys...actually called Happy Meals in Hungarian...also Chicken McNuggets are the same!) and the lady was very nice and helpful. We had a great meal and then went to Tesco for Groceries.

Grocery shopping...well, lets just say that we were there for about an hour and a half...trying to find everything we wanted. Some things have too many choices and then other things have no choice at all. Some things I have NO idea what they are! But, we got lots of fun things to try and we checked out without too much trouble. We all got in the car and were glad to be headed home.

It seems as though every little thing is just a little harder than normal, but...we just keep trying and we keep botching the language and every day seems a little more normal. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. OH...and, I got the oven lit today! Thank you to my landlady who emailed me instructions! Let the baking begin!

OH...also Mark's venture to the immigration place was not too successful, but we got more information on next steps, so keep praying that the residency process goes well for us!

And now to the oven...

So, yesterday it was the washer and dryer. I feel as though I have given enough time to that...so today I put clothes in, detergent, softener and just randomly picked a setting. I chose it because it had the shortest time, 1:05. Yep, one hour and five minutes of washing. I sat, really I did, in front of the washer, because I just wanted to see what 1 hour and 5 minutes got me. It was nice. It was also the delicate cycle, and I do not think I can wash everything I own on delicate. So the next load I set on the "eco" cycle...1 hour 28 minutes. I did not sit and watch this load spin. ;-). The dryer works great too...so I think we got that figured out...for now!

So...on to the oven! We have a small gas oven and I have mastered the art of lighting the stove top, but I can not for the life of me figure out how to light the oven. I keep turning on the gas and sticking my lighter in various spots, but so far...nothing. I haven't actually needed the oven yet, so I still have time to figure it out. For now, it's all stove top cooking! Those of you who know me well, know that I love to cook and bake, so this will get solved...I have determination!

God has blessed us with our house in Budakeszi. We really love it and are looking forward to getting to know our neighbors and our little town in the days, weeks and months ahead. Tomorrow, Mark is venturing into Budapest on the public transportation, so that leaves me and the boys here to venture out to the grocery store along. It will be my first time driving...but I'm ready...garmin and all!

If you think of it, pray for Mark tomorrow as he takes our papers into the immigration office. Our landlord tried to take them for us, but they wouldn't accept them in Budakeszi, so we'll try Budapest! This is the first of many steps to getting our residency papers and being "right" with the local government! We'd appreciate your prayers!
Love you all!

It's the simple things...

So, I've decided that even the simplest things can seem so hard when adjusting to a new country! Like, take today for example. We needed to buy a washer and dryer for our new house in Hungary. Our friends came with us to ElectroWorld to help us find what we needed. We found a nice set, brought them home and of the 13 languages printed in the instruction book, not one of them was English. You may think "how tough can it be to operate a washer/dryer?" but no joke, there must be 20 different settings, with symbols that I have never seen before! So I took out the Hungarian booklet and sat down with my friend, Google translator, and started typing in words to figure out how to run the washer. I'll let you know tomorrow, when I give it a try, how it worked out! ;-)