This month has been pretty routine, actually. On the day we wrote our last letter, we got our new visas, for another 6 months in the country. Then we had to reregister the car, but we have done that so many times now that we have it down pat! It takes about 2 full days of time, spread out over 4-5 days, to accomplish this, every 6 months. But now it's done, until December!
A lot of our missionary friends have left the country for the summer. But even with that, we're still seeing a lot of patients.
We also have had multiple meetings with the people who will be constructing our clinic building, some with the architect, one with his engineering people to discuss heating and wiring and plumbing, etc. We would really like to include air-conditioning in the building, especially because some summers, like this one, have long spells of hot weather. It's been in the 80's most days, up to 97 degrees F. on occasion, for around 4 weeks, and it's only early July! So we'll hopefully have forced-air heat so that we'll be able to easily add air-conditioning in the future when funds are available.
We have found out some additional things about the building this month. We get to have a basement--we hadn't planned on this, but with the rules about the plumbing, it turns out that a basement isn't any more expensive than the foundation plus the concrete channels that are required for the plumbing. Because of the soil in our area, the foundation has to go down at least 6 feet into the ground to where a different type of soil is located, and to reach the 10 meter required height for the building, the ground floor was going to be at a height of 2.3 feet above the main ground level anyway, so there is room for a basement. We will split the basement evenly with Campus Crusade, and this will give us more storage room and perhaps eventually an X-ray room. Our architect recommended we not try to get the approvals for that right away, because he said it would take another 2 years to get the approvals for an X-ray room, and he didn't want it to delay the building. And we don't want that delay, either!
However, building the basement will take 8-10 weeks as opposed to the 4 weeks planned when we thought a simpler foundation and concrete slab for the floor was all that would be required. We can't start the building until we have the Autorizatie de Constructie ("AC" or Authorization for Construction), or the city could levy fines and could delay giving us the "AC". If God wills it, the earliest possible date we could get the "AC" would be mid-August, but that would mean getting approvals in only one week for each of 2 things, the "environmental approval" and the actual "AC", which the rules say can take up to 45 days each. So we could obtain the "AC" as late as early November. Also, in August, almost everyone in the government and city offices goes on a month vacation, and they may not even count August in the 45 days. If we received the "AC" by Sept. 1, we could have the building done before winter, and be working by the beginning of the next residency year in February. If we don't receive the "AC" until early November, then it will be too late to even do the foundation this fall, since the type of concrete here apparently can't be poured when the weather is cold! So then the whole building will wait until March or April. We're hoping at least to get the foundation done this fall, maybe even the basement floor and the ground floor, so that the light steel part of the building can be started as soon as the weather warms a little in the spring. We need your prayer on this issue--that God will decide the timing and not leave it to the Romanian bureaucracy.
Tomorrow, we're going to the ICC orphanage again to do medical evaluations of the kids. They are so cute, and it's fun to see them growing and developing! Little Ionut is still on Cortisone for his asthma--they have been unable to taper him off. He continues to need prayer!
We also took Flori Traistaru to the pediatric hospital that we like here in Bucharest. But he was coughing and the surgeon, Dr. Pesamosca, said that he couldn't have the anesthesia necessary for the tests until his cough has cleared. He thought the recurrent coughing was probably due to the fact that Flori has been drinking liquids and eating soft things like yogurt, and possibly aspirating, and so he said that Flori shouldn't be given anything by mouth. Milt went out to visit them last week to see how Flori was doing, and the cough was better but not gone, and Flori's mom said that he sneaks water when she's not looking! So we hope that this evaluation will be able to be done soon!
In the midst of everything going on, we took a week's vacation to Norway at the end of June! It was wonderful!! It was cool, temperatures in the 40's to 60's, with rain almost every day! So we were forced to relax and read. We also did some hiking and saw the fjords. Pictures can't do them justice! We even hiked to a glacier. We also saw the church where Milt's grandfather was baptized in 1866, which had been built in the mid-1100s. There are no stray dogs in Norway (unlike Bucharest), but there were lots of "stray" sheep wandering around, with cowbells around their necks.
Next month, on August 11 at about 2 p.m. there will be a total eclipse of the sun passing right over Romania and Bucharest! The next one in America is in 2017! Also, at the end of this month we can apply for citizenship here in Romania. The U.S. doesn't require a person to give up their American citizenship unless the foreign country requires a person to renounce their previous citizenship, and Romania doesn't require this. If the government grants this, then we will be able to apply for licenses to practice medicine independently!
We want to thank you again for your faithfulness in prayer and support! We appreciate all of you who are encouraging us in this way, and pray the Lord will bless you!