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! ;-)

In God's Hands

This past weekend, we traveled to Springfield, Missouri one last time before we leave for Hungary. We had a great time with friends and visiting our home church. It was good to see everyone again. We also needed to pack our shipping container. Basically everything we are not carrying with us in our suitcases, went on this 20ft. container. It will travel by truck to Kansas City; by train to New Orleans or New York (depending on who you listen to); by ship to Germany and then by train and or truck to Budapest. My mind has a hard time understanding how all that works, but as we shut the door to the container I decided...it's all in God's hands!

Our journey had been filled with so many new things along the way, and there are so many questions still to be answered, but I am so comforted that it's all in God's hands...every single detail is in His control and for that I am so thankful!

So, our "stuff" may get to us (in 23 days to 2 months...depending on who you listed to) or it may not, but it's in His hands and I'm good with that!

Packing...again.

Seems like a lot of our time recently has been spent packing. First we packed all of our "stuff" out of our house into a duplex. Then from the duplex into a storage unit. We then packed 2 very loaded vehicles (think Beverly hillbillies!) as we moved up to Nebraska. We've been packing up our van basically every week going back and forth between our parents homes...I think we can safely say, we are tired of packing!

Today, I once again, gathered up our stuff in preparation for heading to Omaha for a final packing session before we get to pack our shipping container in 2 weeks and then in about a month, we'll unpack in Hungary. I hope after that, we don't have to pack for a while.