Busy, busy, busy

Yup, that was me the past 2 weeks. It really has been crazy, and I am often amazed at the abundance of grace God has given us right now in our lives. I feel like I have a lot to write about, so I'm going to pick out some topics and share a little on each.

One area of busyness for me was paperwork, and more paperwork! First was getting all of our documents in order to go to Fortaleza to the American consulate to apply for Callie's passport, birth abroad certificate, and social security number. Just a few days before we went to Fortaleza, I found out that they now require a document proving that you resided in the states for at least a year before you turned 18 (for your child to have the right to American citizenship), so I had to call our schools and get transcripts. Thankfully in this wonderful age of technology, they were able to e-mail them to me. We went to Fortaleza this week and got it all taken care of...one thing checked off the list! Secondly, Chad is taking our dog, Molly, along to the states with him next week. As you can imagine, this also requires paperwork, shots, etc. After making many phone calls and finding out exactly what we need to do, the paperwork & Molly are ready to go.

Drastic change of topic... let me tell you about the heat here! Right around the time Callie was born, it got suddenly extremely hot here. That is normal for this time of year. We will be leaving here at the hottest time of year and arriving in the states at the coldest time of year. That will be quite the temperature shock for all of us - especially the girls! Anyway... it averages 95F during the day, with absolutely no wind. It is just a very intense dry heat. At 10pm, for example, the temperature is still in the low 80's. Just to give you an idea - the other day I did a load of laundry and hung it out in the afternoon in the shade with no breeze what-so-ever. An hour and a half later I checked it and it was dry!! We are also going through about 2 1/2 gallons of drinking water a day - just our family. We have a water cooler which holds 5-gallon bottles, and we're changing them about every other day.

The girls are doing good - keeping me busy. Callie is 4 weeks old today, and we're in a pretty good routine with her (especially during the day). She still usually wakes up twice at night to eat, although there have been a few nights where she just woke up once. She is a very good baby and I think she's really close to smiling 'on purpose'. Giselle and Larissa are into imagining and play so good together. Elysia likes to follow along and join in too. If you are having trouble with our girls' names, maybe their Brazilian nicknames would be easier for you to remember :) Here they are: Gigí (Gee-GEE), Lalá (La-LA), Lilí (Lee-LEE) & Kaká (Kah-KAH).

As I mentioned, Chad is headed to the states next week. He flies to Fortaleza on Monday, takes care of a few things there on Tuesday, and leaves for PA on Wednesday (arriving Thurs. morn.). He'll be there for a week and gets back here on Saturday, the 18th. He will be gone from here a total of 12 days. Please remember the girls and I in your prayers over that time. It's no fun for us when he travels, but the Lord always gives me the grace for it. I will have one of the young girls at church sleep here while he's gone - it will also be nice to have someone to help with the girls in the evening. After that trip, Chad will be here for a month and then he goes to Peru for a week. He gets back from that trip just a week and a half before we move back to the states! So needless to say, these next 2 months are going to fly by!!! What I need to concentrate on now is going through our house and deciding what we will take back to the states and what we will sell/give away. This is a HUGE task and feels overwhelming at times. We actually don't plan to take too much back with us - the hard part is figuring out how we are going to rid ourselves of all of our stuff. This is my project to work on while Chad is in the states.

Besides all that has been going on, I have been battling a bad skin allergy. It started right after we moved here to Juazeiro. For the first month though, I just had little spots here and there - nothing overly uncomfortable or in need of medication. Well, right after Callie was born it started to get worse - larger spots of it, and incredibly itchy. I've tried two medications my doctor said I could take while nursing, but I can't take them for long periods of time. They help, but as soon as I stop taking them, it gets worse again. My legs are more than half covered in it and I have a few spots on my arms. The heat doesn't help the itching either! We just haven't been able to pinpoint what is causing it. We've gotten this before, and the one thing we do know that causes it is mangos - especially if we peel them and handle them with our hands. I can drink the juice and eat the fruit - as long as I don't touch it with my hands. Chad breaks out though just from drinking the juice. But I haven't had mango for ages. Here at this house there is a Cashew tree out back. For those of you who only know of the cashew nut, the nut actually grows on the bottom of the cashew fruit (I'll have to take a picture and post it here for you to see). Anyway, there is a lot of pollen that falls from this tree and that is where my washlines are. I am skeptical that maybe I am allergic to the cashew pollen and it gets on our clothes while they dry. So Chad hung up some washline for me out front and I'm starting to dry our wash there. I do have one other theory too... just yesterday I remembered that when we lived in Juazeiro before, we thought we were allergic to the boxed milk. In Fortaleza we found pasteurized milk that we liked and rarely bought the boxed (long-life) milk. Here in Juazeiro it is hard to find the refrigerated milk, so we had been buying the boxed milk. But just today Chad found a store nearby that sells the refrigerated milk, so we're switching back to that. So I'm hoping that this allergy starts getting better and that we're right on one of the two speculations as to what the cause is! I sure don't want to be itchy for the next 2 months!

Ok, that pretty much gets you up to speed on what's been occupying my time these days. I'm hoping for things to get a little more relaxing in the next weeks.

Check out the previous blog for pictures from the last 2 weeks.