Retreat

As I mentioned in my last post, we went on a retreat Monday - Wednesday this week. We went to a little fisherman's town about an hour from here called Barra de Sucatinga. Life is so simple out there. We stayed in the home of a family that we know out there... very simple home, but very big with lots of space for hammocks to sleep in. Since we have 3 small children, we were given an actual room to stay in with a double bed and our own bathroom. So we took the playpen along for Elysia and then the 4 of us slept on the bed the short way... Chad and I on either end and the 2 girls in the middle. Larissa was funny the 2nd night, waking up twice and talking in her sleep. The one time she told me that she lost her cough medicine and wondered where it was. I told her that it was all gone and that I needed to get more, and that was a good enough answer for her so she laid back down and went back to sleep. Bruce and Lyndell were also in a bedroom and then the rest (8 adults) slept in hammocks throughout the house... I wish I had pictures of that. Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from our time.
I love the view of the beachfront here with all the fishing boats up on the shore.

Checking out the lobsters.
Giselle wasn't afraid to touch them (they were already dead).
"OK, I'll touch it, but I won't hold it up in the air!"

Here I am holding a live one - they're so colorful before they're cooked.

Here is Dona Graça, the lady of the house where we stayed. She is such a sweet and funny lady.

Not so sure about the lobsters!
Playing cards.
Fresh caught fish and eels... YUM!
This is the kitchen... see what I mean about simple? You can click on the picture to make it larger so you can see things a little better.
Larissa and Vanessa enjoying the beach!

Elysia wasn't afraid of the water.
had to cough just as I took the picture.
Daddy and one of his little girls.
Giselle is a little more courageous - she's out there on the left. We actually had to keep a close eye on her, because she was so confident out in the water. She does know how to swim, but still!
Some of the gang just relaxing.

Pregnancy and pictures

We are doing well here. Sorry it's been a little while since I wrote. As you can imagine, with our move coming up and getting everything taken care of here, we've been a bit busy. We also went on a church retreat for 3 days and just got back this morning. That was a lot of fun and I'll post some pictures from that at a later date. We are starting to say our good-byes here already. Lyndell left for the states this morning and she gets back the day after we move, so we said good-bye to her already. Since we are moving about 7 hours away and will be visiting a few times yet before our big move at the end of the year, it doesn't feel so "real" yet. Chad will be visiting here at least every 3-4 weeks through the end of the year, but I won't be coming along every time.

I'm down to 6 weeks now until my duedate, although the baby will probably be born earlier since it will be a planned c-section. I'm sooo ready for this baby to be born... not that I want a pre-mature birth or anything, don't get me wrong... it's just that it is so uncomfortable in this heat, let alone taking care of 3 ages 3 and under (Giselle turns 4 next month). I'm looking forward to the fact that our house in Juazeiro will not have steps! That will be nice now at the end of the pregnancy and also for recovery after the birth. Lyndell made an interesting observation: they moved down here in September of 2005, meaning they are coming up on 3-years of being here. Larissa was just 2 mo. old when they got here. I have gone through 2 full pregnancies since they came (do the math... that's 18mo. of being pregnant), which means that for exactly half of the time they have been here, I have been pregnant (and probably nursing most of the rest of the time)! I think I'm ready for a break after this one!!! I really don't know how people do it, having one right after the other for 10 years straight or something. I don't see how they can properly care for and give all the attention needed to the others. I know my case is a little unique, given all that we are going through right now, but still!! Let me just say here too, what an amazing husband I have who helps out so much with the girls and is so gracious to me when I am uncomfortable, frustrated, and my patience is running thin. I'm ready to be able to play with my four little ones and hold them in my lap without having a big belly get in the way. Giselle needs some extra attention in her speech, and I hope to be able to have more time to spend with her in Juazeiro working on that.

Here are some random pictures of our princesses:

All 3 of them coloring.

The girls with Christine the night before she left - can you believe I got this amazing shot on the first try?!? It is nearly impossible to get them all smiling and looking at the camera at once for a picture!
She LOVES getting her picture taken!
The girls playing in the hammock - this is their favorite game these days - crawling into a hammock that is hanging from a hook and just drooped on the floor. It makes a great hiding spot and fun little space to crawl into. And of course Elysia is holding onto her baby - she loves baby dolls!

Commissioning Service

On July 6th, we had a really special service, handing the church over to Victor & Vânia. The team from The Fireplace was here that Sunday, which made it extra special - to have a "representation" from the States here as well. Chad started out the service giving a word to the church, that they are READY and PREPARED for this transition and for the new and exciting things that the Lord has for this congregation. We then had a time of prayer for Victor & Vânia, blessing them and handing the mantle over to them. After that, as a prophetic act, we asked everyone to come front and give Victor & Vânia a hug, expressing their acceptance and welcoming them in as the new pastors of the church. Then Victor finished the service giving a short word and then led us all in communion. As we were finishing communion, a young man approached Victor saying that he wanted to give his life to the Lord. This young man's name was Victor too! So Pastor Victor was able to lead young Victor in a prayer, giving his life to the Lord and then they took communion together. It was such a special time. Here are some pictures from the service.

Larissa's 3rd Birthday!

Today was Larissa's 3rd birthday. We had a fun day. For breakfast she chose French Toast (which Giselle downed 2 1/2 pieces just like that!) For lunch we went to Burger King at the mall and then the girls rode on the carousel. Victor & Vânia & Vanessa came over then in the evening for pizza with us and Bruce & Lyndell. Vanessa and the girls have become really good friends and are really going to miss eachother. Here are some pictures from our fun this evening.

....or not!

Well, the official results are in from Elysia's 3rd and final blood test on Monday - the one that actually tests positive or negative for Dengue. It actually came back negative, which means she simply had some other sort of nasty virus, which we will never know what exactly it was. There apparently are other viruses out there that give similar symptoms, and the only way to know for sure is by doing the blood test. So the good news is that she didn't have Dengue Fever. If you get it once and then get the exact same strand a 2nd time, it is much more dangerous. It's not one of those things where you get it once and then you're immune for the rest of your life. Elysia is doing quite well, as are the other two.

Dengue Fever

This past week was quite a scary week for us. Elysia, who is 14 mos. old, got Dengue Fever. If you've never heard of it, you can google it and find out all you want. It is a sickness carried by one specific type of mosquito, and there is no vaccine for it. The only way to try to keep from getting it is to not get bitten by the mosquito and to keep your property free of stagnant water (the breeding grounds for the mosquito). Sunday morning she woke up with a fairly high fever, so I gave her Tylenol and thought it might be teething-related (I think her 1-yr. molars are coming in). Throughout the day, I had to keep giving her Tylenol to keep the fever under control. Monday morning she woke up with high fever once again, and I switched to a stronger fever medication. She didn't seem too bad otherwise, it was just this annoying fever. She only had a slightly runny nose - but that she had from before. So I still wasn't too worried. In the afternoon I noticed a few red spots on her belly, and thought that maybe it was from the other medication I was using, so that night I went back to Tylenol again when I put her to bed. Tuesday, the Tylenol was no longer controlling the fever and by the afternoon her whole torso and back were getting covered in these red spots. By 4pm her fever spiked to 104F (40C). I talked to the pediatrician and she told me to give her the stronger medicine again, that the spots were probably from whatever virus she had, since they weren't raised and itchy (as an allergic reaction would be). So I did and the fever went down, but within about 3 hours it went back up again to 104.4F (40.2C). I talked to my pediatrician again, and she told me to go ahead and take her to the hospital. There, they gave her a shot to bring the fever down, had me give her a bath, and did a blood test. I had to wait an hour and a half for the blood test results, so it was about 10:30 until I got to see the doctor again to show her the test results, and she said that it was most likely that Elysia had Dengue, but we could only be sure after doing another blood test 24 hours later. The only thing to do for it is to keep the fever under control and pump fluids into her system, as dehydration is a huge concern. She did say that according to her blood test, it appeared that she had a simple case of it (I couldn't imagine a bad case!). So by the time I left the hospital, her temp. was down to 100.4F (38C). We got home at 11pm and put her to bed. At midnight, her temp. shot up again to 103.5F (39.7C). I gave her medicine and then 10 min. later she threw up. So I gave her a shower, just letting her play in the water for a while (amazing how much fun she had in the water at midnight with a high fever!) and that really helped to bring her fever down. She slept through the night and then Wednesday morning she had a little bit of a fever again, I gave her medicine, but that was the last of the fever (thank the Lord!). That whole time she never stopped eating, or was overly fussy. But Wednesday, even though she didn't have fever, she wanted to be held all day long and didn't eat or sleep well. They say that Dengue gives terrible body aches and pains and bad headache. A couple of times I noticed that she squealed and hit at her head, so I think she was probably suffering those effects. I gave her Tylenol a couple of times and that seemed to help. By Thursday she was pretty much back to normal and by Friday she was herself again and the spots on her skin were almost completely gone. We did do the 2nd blood test and went to the pediatrician on Thursday afternoon. She said it definitely looks like Dengue, but we're going to do one more test on Monday, which will actually show the Dengue and what strand it was. That test can only be done after 6 days of the start of the sickness, so that's why we couldn't do it before. We are so thankful that it was not a serious case of it and that there are not any long-term effects from it. We just need to be careful with her for the next couple of weeks since her immune system is down, making it easier for her to catch anything else out there. So we would appreciate your continued prayers for health for our family. Here are a couple of pictures of the girls playing in the waiting room of the pediatrician's office.

Children's party at church

Last Saturday, July 5th, we did a big party at the church inviting the whole neighborhood, especially the kids that participated in the VBS during the week. We rented 3 trampolines, two of those big inflatable jumping things - one full of plastic balls and the other one just to jump around in. We also had cotton candy, crepes, popcorn and hotdogs to sell. Kids that participated in the VBS were awarded some free rides for each day they were here. It was a great hit and it brought in a lot of families from the neighborhood. Giselle and Larissa had a lot of fun - Larissa didn't want to go in the jumping things at first, but after she saw Giselle going in she decided to go and ended up really liking it.