Papers are Submitted

All the papers needed for our residence permits have been turned in!  Praise God!  Last Monday we went to the Cluj County Immigration Office and asked what we needed to complete a request to live in Romania.  The kind lady behind the desk gave us a list of six papers we needed along with notes of how many copies to turn in with each original. We were not expecting quite that long a list, but we got to work on it right away because our visitor status is ending soon and we need the long-stay permission papers.

The Cluj County Immigration Office is conveniently located in a shopping mall. 

We got a lot of help (again) from our friends here in Romania.  Gabi, our pastor's wife, arranged for us to get a required physical from her doctor that same day.  Pastor Simi went with us to the doctor and helped communicate for us.  We called Pastor Teo to ask for yet another paper we required from his office.  Mary went with us again to get an official copy of another paper we needed.
Tuesday we went back to the Cluj immigration office to ask where to buy the short-term health insurance they asked for.  Then we went to two banks and an insurance office there since the banks and insurance offices in Gherla were not equipped to handle what we needed.  Finally, Tuesday evening, we finished gathering all the papers and making all the copies.  Wednesday morning we went back to Cluj again and submitted our papers to the immigration office.  After each paper was scrutinized, they were accepted, we were photographed and fingerprinted and were told to come back in thirty days for our cards.
What a whirlwind of activity!  Now we wait and pray that everything goes through smoothly. God worked on our behalf last week and we expect him to continue to help us.