Five to One

Nova Etapa

2009-09-10T15:47:00.004-03:00

Estamos entrando uma nova etapa de nossas vidas. Giselle fez 5 anos e commeçou escola ontém e Callie fez 1 aninho dia 5 de setembro. Não temos mais bebê e nem estamos esperando bebê!! Que milagre!!! Esse ano que passou foi um ano de loucura, mas com ajuda de Deus, conseguimos. Estamos felizes e ansiosos para a nova fase com as meninas. Elas estão aprendendo muitas coisas e é bom demais ver elas crescendo. Elysia está falando demais e Callie está bem esperta. Ela não anda ainda, mas daqui um pouco vai commeçar. Fomos no zoólogico de Philadelphia com meu irmão e a esposa dele, e tenho umas fotos aqui. Também tem fotos do aniversário de Callie e Gigí. Estamos com saudades de TODOS VOCÊS!!!!!!!!!

Dave e Bobbi (meu irmão e cunhada)

Chad e as meninas

Bobbi com Elysia e Callie no carrinho

Gigí e Lalá

Giselle

Callie

Ela tá assustada com a vela

as meninas com as primas

primeiro dia da escola!

Que vergonha...

2009-05-14T11:14:00.007-03:00

Que vergonha... que horror... faz mais que dois meses que atualizei este blog!! Minhas desculpas!! Mas estamos bem, e estou bem ocupada... cuidando da minha casa e de minhas princesinhas. Chad está trabalhando muito com os jovens aqui. Tem sido um desafio, mas com muitas bençãos também. Ele já fez uma viajem pra Fortaleza em abril, e fiquei com inveja... queria ir também. Uma noite quando estava colocando as meninas pra dormir enquanto ele estava viajando, a Larissa disse "Mamãe, depois que acordamos, podemos viajar?" "O que?" foi minha resposta. "Num avião" ela disse. Eu disse, "Você quer ir pra onde?" "Pra casa de Bruce e Lyndell" ela disse. "Também quero ir lá, querida, mas é MUITO longe, e não temos dinheiro pra fazer uma viagem dessa" eu disse. Ela pensou bem e disse, "E amanhã?" Eu ri, e falei pra ela que ela orasse pra Deus e peça o dinheiro pra a gente ir!! Com certeza Deus vai providenciar o dinheiro pra nossa família ir... não vejo a hora de ir pro Brazil. Sinto tantas saudades de todos vocês!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Giselle está bem - ela está falando bem muito agora. Tem uma professora que vem aqui em casa toda semana pra trabalhar com ela. Ela tem melhorado tanto desde que chegamos aqui. É um programa do governo que é de graça. É uma benção!! Em setembro ela vai entrar na escolinha de uma igreja aqui perto. Ela está bem empolgada.

A Larissa também está falando muito e parece uma moçinha já. Ainda prefere a cor rosa e gosta de se arrumar. Se ela pudesse, ela se vestia de vestido ou saia todo dia. É uma graça.

Elysia fez dois aninhos dia 7 agora de maio. Ela está falando e commeçou a formar umas frases de 2 ou 3 palavras. Ela está usando calçinha já, mas ainda faz xixi de vez em quando na calçinha.

Callie está com 8 meses já! Ela fica sentada no chão sozinha e fica de quatro... já já vai commeçar a engatinhar. Ela gosta de ver as irmãs correr e brincar. Dar pra ver que ela está querendo correr atráz delas já.

Pois é... veja as fotos...

Callie puxando o rabo da Molly... e Molly está nem aí.
A flor que Chad comprou pra mim no Dia das Mães

Festa de aniversário da Lilí - 2 anos!

Elysia e Larissa com o tio Derek (irmão do Chad)

Larissa comendo espetinho de coração de galinha... ela e Giselle comeram 4 espetinhos cada uma!

Giselle

Chad fazendo churrasco.

Bolinho da Lilí

Callie no carrinho que Elysia ganhou de presente.

Giselle com o avô (meu pai)

Larissa com a prima dela, Kate.

Eu e minhas princesas.

CANCÚN

Chad e eu fizemos 10 anos de casados. Fomos na segunda 'lua de mel' para Cancún, México. Passamos 4 noites lá, e deixamos as meninas com meus pais e minha irmã. Foi maravilhoso!

Nosso apartamento ficou no sexto andar - a vista do mar.

O hotel foi lindíssimo.

meu corte de cabelo

as meninas brincando com massinha

Elysia & Callie

Elysia com a prima na praça de Lititz.

Christine da Alemanha nos visitou.

mais fotos...

2009-03-10T15:45:00.005-03:00

Callie em cima do piano.
Eu tocando e cantando com Lilí no colo e Cacá no 'Bumbo' la em cima.

Na praça "Lititz Springs Park" com os patos.

Dando pão pros patos.

Eu e Callie.

Gigí e Lalá

As minhas com primas.

Lalá e Lilí

Lilí amou o escorregador!!

Cacá e Lilí

Chad lendo pra Lilí

Lalá segurando Cacá

O porão... terminado!!!

e a vida continua....

2009-03-10T15:14:00.003-03:00

Olá amigos. Quanto tempo! A vida passa rápida demais!!! Estou devendo muitas fotos... vou commeçar aqui com algumas e depois coloco mais, tá?

Minha prima, Pam, ajudando a pintar.
As irmãs ajudando dar banho na Callie.

Não sei porque essa cara, mas achei engraçada :)

Chad todo sujo... trabalhando no porão

Meu pai fazendo o 'dry-wall' do porão. O porão agora tem a televisão e os brinquedos das meninas. Aí, a sala lá em cima fica mais como sala de estar. Estou adorando minha casa. Deus é muito bom!!!

Corte de cabelo!!! A irmã do Chad (Kate) cortou o cabelo das meninas.... todas 3.

Chad e meu pai trabalhando no porão.

A Nova Vida...

2009-02-10T16:48:00.005-03:00

Já faz 2 meses que estamos aqui no FRIO!!! Deus tem sido MUITO fiel conosco - até nas coisinhas. Compramos uma casa há um mes já e a casa está quase arrumada. O porão ainda não estava terminado, e vamos colocar carpet e pintar para puder usar aquele espaço como um andar a mais. Vamos colocar a TV lá e vai ter espaço pras meninas brincarem. Estou adorando a casa. É um 'townhouse'. Vou colocar uma foto pra você ver como é. As meninas estão gostando também. A casa tem 3 quartos (1 sendo suite). Giselle e Larissa estão crescendo tanto e falando muito! Elysia está commeçando a falar e o cabelo dela finalmente está crescendo (depois que ela arrancou o cabelo em cima!). Callie já fez 5 meses e ela é muito divertida. Ela gosta de ficar assistindo as irmãs correndo de lá pra cá. Fico muito ocupada, só em cuidar delas e da casa! Mas estou adorando dessa fase da minha vida. Chad está trabalhando muito e tem sido um desafio pra mim, mas Deus é fiel e está me ajudando muito. É bom também, ter família aqui perto. Pronto... segue as fotos!!!

Callie tomando banho na banheira... feita pra usar na pia da cozinha (onde sai água quente da torneira)!

As 3 irmãs... depois do banho, de pijama e pronto pra dormir.

Elysia, Giselle e Larissa na neve - na varanda no quintal de nossa casa.

Callie olhando as irmãs lá fora na neve.

Callie com sua bis-avó (minha avó).Lalá

Lilí
Gigí com o tio Derek
Chad e Larissa

Os jovens da igreja em nossa casa pra assistir o Super Bowl (campeonato do futebol americano) em nossa casa. Chad está no chão no meio.

NOSSA CASA!!! YAY!!!

Olha a neve!!

The Switchover - Mudanças

2009-02-10T16:31:00.002-03:00

I have decided that now that I am living in the states, it is time to switch my blog over to Portuguese for our friends down in Brazil to be able to accompany our lives and children growing.

Como estamos morando nos EUA agora, vou commeçar a fazer os blogs em Português, para todos os nossos amigos poderem nos acompanhar!!! Sentimos muita falta de TODOS VOCÊS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Last Post

2008-11-30T23:45:00.004-03:00

Tomorrow is the big day of packing. We haven't really started actually packing yet. I have it pretty well organized in my head where things will go, but tomorrow morning we will start boxing stuff. Our wonderful neighbors are going to help out with the kids so we can work efficiently. We have started saying our good-byes... not the most fun part of the process. This could very well be my last post from Brazil. What a journey we've been on, and we are just beginning another leg of it. God has been so faithful so far, and we know He will only continue that. We look forward to see what He has for us next.

Finally, an updated family picture (if only we could get everyone to look at the camera at once)!
This was today at a hotel that we went to with our good friends Paulo & Priscila. You can't see the view too good on this picture, but there is such an amazing view out across the valley.

Callie!

Patrícia holding Callie - she just started coming to the church around the time we got here, and she has grown sooooo much since we are here.

Oh, how I will miss Suely! She has got to be the sweetest person ever!

Chad sharing at the last cell group meeting before we go. He lead this youth cell group while we were here. It is now passed over to his assistant leaders, Damião & Suely.

The girls with their fun hats that Chad got for them in Peru. They keep wanting to put them on here, but I don't let them because they get so hot sweated! But they will soon need them!

The Last Churrascos

2008-11-30T23:08:00.005-03:00

Brazilians like their grilled meat, and this past week we got to participate in two 'churrascos' - one at our house and one at a friend's house. We will miss the chicken hearts.... maybe Chad can make them in the states. Our good friend Damião, grilled the meat at both churrascos. Here are some pictures.

Sitting next to me is my good friend Amanda. Her and her husband were our Portuguese professors 7 years ago!
Our girls also love the chicken hearts, as you can see.

Damião grilling the meat on a very typical Brazilian grill... quite simple.

mmmmmmmm....

Chad standing next to a tray of meat at our house.

Damião making the meat at our house - but here he used a big gas griddle.

"Oh, the Lord's been good to me...."

2008-11-25T15:06:00.004-03:00

I nearly broke out in the Johnny Appleseed song this morning. Our car has been sold, just one more thing that sold quickly and fairly effortlessly. Through word of mouth, a friend of a friend of ours is buying it. Chad gets home tomorrow afternoon and will probably be going to transfer the money and title of it right away. We might be without a car these last few days, but that is the least of our worries... that's why God invented taxi's, right?!? So up until now, that just leaves us with a highchair, toddler bed and filing cabinet to sell yet. Not too bad! We have just one more week here in Juazeiro - next Tuesday night we take the bus to Fortaleza, meet Chad's mom there on Wednesday, and we all leave on Friday! Here are a few more pictures...

11 days...

2008-11-22T14:11:00.002-03:00

Chad is in Peru and will be getting back on Wednesday afternoon. Once again, the girls decided to get colds while he's gone. Thank the Lord, I haven't felt anything. Yesterday our parents had snow and they sent us pictures of it. It is soooo beautiful and we are so excited to see snow and feel the cold again after 3 years of straight heat. When I showed the pictures to the girls and told them that the snow is at Grandma's house, they started squealing with excitement. They are so excited to go. They constantly ask about Molly (our dog) too, who went up with Chad in October. It will be fun watching their reunion with her. We are down to just 11 days here in Juazeiro, and we have pretty much everything sold. All we have to sell yet is our highchair, toddler bed and a filing cabinet. You can be praying for a buyer for our car though. We were planning on taking it to a dealership, just so we would have less headaches and would be able to use it up until the end. But Chad went to a big dealership here and they told him they aren't buying cars right now because they just went 20 days without selling a single car. He said that because of this financial crisis, people aren't buying cars. So there is a guy at our church that is helping us to try and sell it. Pray that God sends the right person with the cash to pay for it.

As the girls' language is developing, they are saying some really cute things. Yesterday Giselle was singing a song that at one part goes "My Jesus is alive". When I listened closely to her singing, I realized that she was singing, "My Jesus is my life" and she kept singing that line over and over. I thought that was such a good line, so I let it go and didn't even correct her :) The other day when Larissa was putting her sticker on the countdown calendar, she was trying to take off the backing of the sticker with no success. She looked up at me and said, "Mom, can you take this skin off for me?"

Elysia loves playing with baby dolls and likes to wrap them up in a burp towel, sway back and forth holding them up to her shoulder and singing to them. The girls also like to pretend that they're breastfeeding their baby dolls - haha.

The Countdown Calendar!!

Elysia taking care of her baby.

I found Elysia sitting like this watching TV.

Here we go again...

2008-11-16T15:09:00.003-03:00

I am once again on my own, without my 'better half', for 10 days. This time he is headed to Peru... sure wish I could go along. I'm sure one day when our children are a little more grown up, I will be able to travel more with Chad. He left this afternoon for Fortaleza and will be there until midnight Tuesday night. That's when he flies out for Peru. He'll be there for almost a week. He gets back home on Wednesday afternoon, the 26th. And the following Tuesday we move!!! It is so crazy. There are days when it feels like time is going really fast, but at the same time there are days when I think to myself 'can't we just go already?!'. The grace that God has granted us is starting to lift and we are ready to move on. We are super excited for what lies ahead for us in PA. We are really excited to watch the girls' reactions to all of the new stuff - especially the cold weather! They have absolutely no idea what 'cold' is. The coldest it gets here is probably in the mid to upper 70's. Patience is something that runs thin when living in extreme heat like this. In fact, friends of ours were telling us that there are more murders in the city during this time of the year because people just flip out over every little thing. I even notice it with my patience with the girls, and have to watch myself. There are days where I am just miserable because of the heat and there's NOTHING you can do about it! Something Chad started doing recently to be able to fall asleep at night, is that he takes a hand towel, makes it wet and lays it on his chest as he lays in bed with a fan right by his side blowing over him. It is going to be quite the temperature shock for us, leaving the hottest time of year here and arriving there at the coldest time of year. Here are some more pictures...

Callie, Giselle, Larissa & Elysia
The two buddies

9 weeks old already!

Chad's 31st birthday!

Chad with his Spanish teacher, Marta, from Peru.

the girls figured out a new way to 'ride' their tricycles

these next few pictures were taken at the neighbor's house where they were playing with a skateboard. These neighbors have been such a blessing to us - the girls love it there and they help us out with the girls so much.

Monkeys, etc.

2008-11-07T15:50:00.004-03:00

Time sure is winding down. 26 days from today until we begin our journey north. We leave Juazeiro on the 2nd. Chad's mom meets us in Fortaleza on the 3rd, and on the 5th we fly out! This first picture is of the countdown calendar I made for the girls and have it hanging on the refrigerator. Each morning we put a sticker over the previous day. Chad informed me that the calendar looks very 'girly', but I guess that's what happens when you have 4 little girls!

Here are the girls ready for night-time devotions.

Callie and I getting a little shut-eye

Can anyone guess what these two pictures are??? The answer is under the next picture...

No, not gum...... they were crayons that were left lay on the concrete outside in the hot sun. Just to give you an idea of the intensity of the heat here!

Elysia with the kitten across the street.

Elysia

Priscila's little Giovanna & Callie sleeping next to eachother.

This was at our friends' house on Sunday afternoon. They have mango trees, and there is a big family of little monkeys that live in them. We got bananas for them, and they came down really close to us to get them. There were even 2 that were carrying little babies on their backs.

Priscila feeding the monkeys

Here's one with a baby on its back.

Giselle trying to feed the monkeys.

Priscila & Giovanna

Callie

"Romaria"

2008-11-07T15:13:00.002-03:00

I mentioned in the last post about the pilgrimage (called Romaria in Portuguese) we were having here in Juazeiro because of the statue of Padre Cícero we have here. Chad was actually out with a group from YWAM distributing evangelistic material at the time I was writing the post. He had the camera and took a few pictures...

Here are busses that brought the people - lining a normally fairly empty street.

32 Days

2008-11-01T15:25:00.003-03:00

Today marks 32 days until we leave Juazeiro! Things are winding down quickly. Two weeks from tomorrow, Nov. 16th, Chad leaves for Peru. He will be gone for 10 days, getting back on the 26th. That is a Wednesday, and the following Tuesday we leave Juazeiro, go to Fortaleza for 2 days, and then on to good old Pennsylvania! Chad's mom will be flying down and meeting us in Fortaleza to help with the kids on the trip back. What a blessing that will be! Last night we sold our first household item... the playpen. That at least freed up some space in our little bedroom, which is serving as an office too. We have some buyers for some of our other things already too, but we're asking people to wait until the end to get the stuff. The girls were a bit confused as this strange person came in and we packed up the playpen and sent it with them. Please pray with us for buyers for all of our things. We have everything priced pretty low - we're not trying to make a mint off of our stuff, and we want to be able to sell it easily and not have to chase after buyers.

Update on our kids' health: The last 2 posts have been about the stomach flu which came around twice. I'm guessing it was the stomach flu, but medically speaking it would have had to have been two different strands, right? At any rate, Giselle, Larissa and Elysia had it twice, although the 2nd time Giselle and Elysia didn't have vomiting, but just diarrhea. Larissa had it the worst both times. By Tuesday night they were all doing pretty good. However, Larissa continues to complain constantly about her belly hurting. It's gotten progressively worse and this morning she complained all morning. Worms are a problem down here, but I gave her medicine for that about 4 months ago, so it shouldn't be that already again. If she doesn't get better tomorrow I'll probably take her to the doctor on Monday. Please pray for her and for wisdom for me in what to do for her.

This weekend is a HUGE pilgrimage to our city to visit the 'Padre Cícero' statue. Father Cícero was from Juazeiro and the people wanted him to be named a saint in the Catholic church, but then was not recognized as one (I'm not sure why). But even still, the people idolize him very much and they come from all over the country to 'pay their promise' to him. The statue is up on the top of a big hill overlooking the city, and people will climb up the mountain on their knees in hopes that he will answer their prayer in return for their suffering. The climb literally mangles their legs! It is truly sad, the faith people put in this dead person and think that they have to DO something so horrible and mutilating to their body in order to receive an answer to prayer. How opposite that theology is from the free gift of direct communion we have with God through Jesus! I wish I knew the number of people that come to the city for this pilgrimage... they used to say that the city doubles its population, which is 300,000. Chad went with the church to help with an evangelistic outreach this afternoon and evening to the 'romeiros', or the people who have come on this pilgrimage.

Callie in Giovanna's crib with her.
Just being her cute little self...

Gotta like the bikini top... thanks aunt Rose :)

The girls enjoying their swimming pool. I even got in with Callie for a little, but the girls splashed a little much for her liking.

Round 2, ugh!!!

2008-10-28T14:20:00.004-03:00

In my last post, I talked about how our girls had the stomach flu. When I posted that, they had just gotten better... and they were healthy for a week! Yesterday it started again, and now all three of them have it again - Chad is even feeling it this time. I continue to feel fine though - let's pray it continues that way!! There are so many people sick just now, and everyone is blaming it on this heat! It is at least 105F this afternoon, and there's no relief in sight. Even at night it is hard to sleep with fans blowing right on us. So between the flu, Elysia's eye teeth coming in and this heat, it is the perfect recipe for a miserable household. So Chad ran to the mall today and came back with this little 'kiddy-pool'. Even though we're just here for another month, we thought it would be well worth the investment and the girls will get a lot of use out of it. As I write this, they haven't even seen it yet - they are napping and we set it up after they went to sleep. I'll post some pictures at a later date of them playing in it.

My little climber! She's standing on the arms of the booster seat.

You might remember some pictures I posted a while back of my friend Priscila who was pregnant and due a month after me. This is her little Giovanna, born Oct.1 and Callie in the back.

I love this picture!!

Ready for your nap??

Little photo-shoot after church...

Flu, yuck!

2008-10-21T17:17:00.004-03:00

Chad got home safe and sound on Saturday, and it is so wonderful to have him back!! As a welcome home gift, Larissa got the stomach flu and had us up a good part of the night Saturday night changing bed sheets and running to the bathroom. Not pleasant!!! Sunday throughout the day was more of the same. Then on Monday afternoon, Giselle and Elysia both came down with it although theirs was not as severe as Larissa's was. As of now (Tuesday night) they are all in bed and seem to be over the flu.

Callie is sleeping quite well. For the last 3 nights now, she has her last feeding at 10:30pm and sleeps until 4am, eats and sleeps until 7:30am. And she's a really fast eater, so I'm usually just up for 15 min. to nurse her and get her back to bed. So compared to the first 5 weeks, it feels like I'm sleeping through the night :) I know that actually sleeping through the night is just but a few weeks away! YAY!! But I can't complain, God has blessed us so much with good babies. I think He knew that it HAD to be that way or I would completely go insane! I always recuperate really fast from my c-sections (all 3 of them) too, and I completely give the credit to Him also. I feel like it's a gift He gave me... since we don't have family around to help us out, He just heals me quickly so I can get back to taking care of my family again. Living away from family and familiarity these past 7 years has really made us rely on God in a way we never had to before. We have truly been amazed time and time again in how He has provided for us and taken care of us. I even had to think of Larissa getting sick - thank the Lord it happened once Chad was here to help me out! I can just see His hand at work daily. Giving Callie her medication for her stuffy nose - it is much better!

I took the girls over to the neighbor's house Sat. morning before Chad got home, and they played in her little pool. They had so much fun. The above picture is Giselle under the water.

Larissa playing with the neighbor-girl's makeup. She LOVES putting lipstick on. She is our little 'Miss Priss' - loves dressing up, pink is her favorite color, etc. Giselle, on the other hand, could care less about dressing up, blue is her favorite color, etc. It's so much fun watching their personalities form.

Callie - the little 'chubster'
Elysia 'reading' to Callie
I've talked about the heat before... this is our 'windtunnel'. Every night we have 4 fans running in the girls' room - one on each bed. It has been so hot that we have to give the girls showers before their afternoon nap, or they can't sleep. It's been hard on Chad adapting to the heat again after being in the states. Last night he didn't sleep until 1am, and he had even gotten up at midnight and showered to see if that would help him cool off and fall asleep. By the way - doesn't the girls' room look like an orphanage with all the cribs and beds in one room?!?!
Little miss smiley. We're getting more and more of those smiles every day, and often accompanied by a coo.
I think it's a gift for Chad to be able to read with a little girl standing on him like this! He's reading a book called "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young, and says it is absolutely amazing. I hope to find time to read it next.

Just 3 more days!

2008-10-14T23:40:00.006-03:00

Things continue to go well here, as I'm down to just 3 days until Chad's return... YAY!!!!! God has just blessed me with some wonderful people who are helping me out. Saturday night the three girls who have been taking turns sleeping here, went with the girls and I to the mall. My poor girls were cooped up at home all week long, so they really needed to get out! Below are a few pictures of us at the restaurant we ate at. With 4 of us adults, there was one for each child - that worked out really nice. The girls did good and Elysia slept the entire time - never even knew she left home.

Callie has been having some nose-related breathing problems. Right before Chad left, the girls all got colds. Callie also started having a stuffy nose. At first, I thought it was just the same cold the girls had. But her nose never ran (in fact, I rarely saw any mucus at all) and she wasn't coughing. I talked to the pediatrician over the phone, and she told me to use a nasal spray and see if it helped. So I did that, but it just kept getting worse, while the rest of the girls' colds got better. So on Monday I took her to the pediatrician, and she thinks it is allergy-related. She gave me anti-allergy nasal drops and I also had to buy a machine called a nebulizer to give her medication that is inhaled. It has a mask that I put up to her face and the medication comes out in a vapor and she inhales it. She takes it twice a day. It does seem to be getting better. There is just sooooo much dust here, and it is sooooo hot, so MANY people deal with allergies. Chad even deals with them here, and he never did in the states. So I'm confident that when we move to the states she won't have any more problems. Here are a few more pictures - I tried laying her on her belly to see if it would help her breathe better. And the last picture is of her taking her medication (it was cute the way she had her hand on the mask)... and I was by myself, so I had to take the picture myself - that's why the angle isn't the best.

This 'n That

2008-10-11T11:23:00.005-03:00

Chad has been gone 5 days already... just 7 more to go. It has been going really well and actually fast for me. A few girls from the church have been helping me out and one of them always sleeps here. The girls have all been battling colds this week, so that hasn't been fun. Larissa is almost completely better, Giselle is getting there, but Elysia's is really taking its good old time. Callie has had a stuffy nose all week, but that's it. It's worse at night, so our nights haven't been so good. She wakes up crying, and I'm sure it's because she's having trouble breathing. The doctor told me to use a sodium chloride nasal spray, but it doesn't seem to be making a huge difference.

Chad's flights all went well and Molly got there fine - a little worked up from the trip, but she adjusted quickly and is loving it at the Miller house. The one major bummer is that the airlines lost his suitcase! He got there Thursday morning and when I talked to him Friday morning I forgot to ask him if they had delivered it yet. I guess it's better that they lost the luggage and not Molly!

Giselle and Larissa are really starting to talk a lot of Portuguese. In one sense, it's sad that we're leaving, just when they are really picking up the language. When Brazilians are here, they talk mostly Portuguese to them, but with us they speak almost all English. It's funny though - they will say a sentence but it will be mixed English/Portuguese. The other day Larissa said to one of the girls here, "Vamos play bola" (Let's play ball). Every now and then they will say a Portuguese word that I would have never known that they know. We hope to speak Portuguese in our house when we get to the states so that they don't lose it. I know that's easier said than done, but we want to try.

I am so glad to say that I am finally over my 2-month-long skin allergy!!! It appears to have either been the boxed milk or drying our clothing out under the cashew tree. I cut both of those things, and it got better. I won't be trying one or the other though to figure it out - it's just not worth it!!

These are the cashew fruit that I talked about in the last post. We have a tree of them behind our house, and they are dropping like crazy right now. They're really tiny though - a good cashew fruit is much bigger - like maybe the size of a pear. They hang from the tree 'upside down' - the nut hangs off the bottom.

Callie just starting giving us smiles. Her very first deliberate smile was to Chad on the day before he left. That was really special for him. This morning I got a big open-mouth smile and coo from her. It is so much fun when they start to respond to us! Yesterday she was 5 weeks old.

Chad got the suitcase out to pack, and Elysia promptly curled up in it with her blankey as if she was going to sleep in it. Then they all thought it would be fun to crawl in...

The above picture is of Elysia 'eating' a yogurt by herself. I obviously wasn't paying attention to her and when I did look at her, this is what I saw. Then the doorbell rang... when I got back to the table, the picture below is what I returned to... she thought it wasn't enough to have it all over her face - she needed it in the hair too!

Busy, busy, busy

2008-10-03T16:09:00.005-03:00

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.

Pics...

2008-10-03T13:55:00.006-03:00

I've been absent for the past 2 weeks... here are some pictures for your enjoyment... Don't think Giselle could smile any bigger!! How about that double chin on Callie... not bad for 4 weeks old, huh?!?!

Elysia giving Callie a kiss.

Cute little feet... I think she's going to have little toes like me.
Happy dream...
Peaceful
Already playing guitar!

Precious Moments!

"What are YOU lookin'at??"
Callie's sisters are constantly loving on her.

I just love the way babies sleep all stretched out... or is she praising Jesus??

This is what happens when a 16-mo. old plays with markers unsupervised!

Big Smiles

2008-09-17T13:38:00.003-03:00

Here are some more pictures of Callie. She smiles a lot - you know, those lightning-fast smiles that come and go so quickly. Somehow this morning I managed to catch 2 with the camera! She was all dressed up to go to the doctor for her first check-up. She's 12 days old, and has already gained 12 ounces since birth and grew a little over an inch! She is doing so good - just waking up twice at night to feed... I'm quite ready for that to drop to 1 feeding at night. But I can't complain - she is a very content baby and only fusses when she's hungry. And even at night, she just wakes up to nurse and goes right back to sleep. She never had her nights and days mixed up where she wanted to be awake at night. We are so blessed.

Elysia's 'Mullet' & Larissa's dilema...

2008-09-15T20:41:00.005-03:00

First I'll start with Larissa's story, which happened the other day. I had just finished feeding Callie, and Larissa crawled up on the bed and asked to hold her. I put Callie in her lap and she cradled her head in her arm like a good big sister. All of a sudden, Callie turned her head towards Larissa’s chest with her mouth open. Larissa wasn’t wearing a shirt, and she got an alarmed look on her face, looked from Callie’s mouth to her own chest, and quickly took her free hand and put it over her nipple to protect it from Callie’s searching mouth. That was the point that she was done holding her little sister….

Now for an explaination of Elysia's mullet. About a week or so ago, I noticed that her hair was really thin right on the top. At first I was alarmed and thought, "oh no, is her hair falling out??" But then it hit me... I had seen her pulling fist-fulls of hair out once or twice before, so I figured that must be what's happening. Well, it's gotten worse since then. She must do it in bed or something, because I rarely see her doing it, except for yesterday I did see her yank a fist-full of hair out of the top of her head. Well, the result is that all of the hair on the top and sides is really short, and the hair in the back is long. Today I pulled the back hair into a ponytail, and that really made it noticable. Hopefully she soon stops it so her hair can grow back in!!!

Here are 2 pictures of Callie from today's bath. She sure is filling out already.

Pictures

2008-09-14T21:17:00.001-03:00

A few quick pictures...

Introducing... Callie Tristan Miller

2008-09-08T19:27:00.004-03:00

Here are some pictures of our newest addition... Callie Tristan Miller. She was born Friday, Sept. 5th at 6:40pm. She weighed 7lb. 5oz. (3.320kg) and was 19 1/4 inches (49cm) long. The c-section went very well. We got to the hospital at 5pm, the doctor got there a little after 6, and by 6:40 she was born. Since this is my 3rd c-section in such a short amount of time, my recuperation is going a little slower this time around. But let me just brag about my husband a second... he has taken on all of the responsibility of the housework and the 3 girls while I'm resting up. This morning he took care of breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, did 2 loads of laundry (including hanging it up to dry), swept and mopped the floors, and went grocery shopping... all before lunch! We have also been blessed with amazing neighbors who have been helping out with keeping the 3 girls. They kept them while we were in the hospital and tonight the girls are there while Daddy went to play some basketball... he still needs to get out of the house and clear his head a little after all that housework!! But we just see how God has been so faithful to provide for us in all areas. This family next door is a Christian family and they have 3 teenage daughters (ages 16, 18 & 19) who love kids, and practically beg us to let our girls go over and play. They have just been such a blessing. Anyway... on to some pictures... My good friend Priscila (who is due in a month). The nurses at the hospital kept asking which one of us was having the baby.
Last pregnant picture!

She's definitely a sucker!

Teaching Elysia how to give "aye-ayes"

Doesn't Elysia look so big now?!?
She loves being swaddled up... not for long though in this heat. She'll soon have some good baby fat on her and will want to just be in a diaper all the time!

Waterpark

2008-09-05T06:45:00.003-03:00

The first big news is that our little girl is going to be born tonight by c-section! We are so excited to finally meet her and see what she looks like!! Giselle and Larissa are super excited to meet their little sister, and Giselle keeps saying that she's going to take care of her "all by herself". Elysia's pretty clueless, but I'm sure she'll be all curious and excited once she sees her... especially the way she already likes to play with dollies.

Last Saturday we went to a little water park with the girls. Giselle absolutely loved it - she is our little fish. There is a wide slide leading from one kiddy-pool down to another, which you can see in the middle of the 3rd picture (isn't that a gorgeous backdrop?!? Click on the picture to get a better idea of how beautiful it was!). Chad and Giselle must have gone down that slide like 50 times. She just loved it! Larissa had fun too, but she is much more reserved and only went down the slide a few times. I even went down 2 times... Chad said the life-guard who was monitoring the slide kinda looked at me like I was crazy with this huge belly, but it was fun.

Yesterday the girls were having fun drawing out on the porch, and I thought it was so cute the way they lined up in a row, each with their own paper and pen. Elysia seems so old, doing everything her big sisters do!

Trips and Falls

2008-08-29T15:04:00.004-03:00

I had a doctor visit on Wednesday with an ultrasound to check how big she is measuring to see if we could schedule the c-section yet. She measured 37wks.5days, and the doctor likes to wait until a good 39 weeks is completed to do the c-section. So I go again on Wednesday and then we'll probably schedule it for the following Tuesday or Wednesday (the 9th or 10th). The good news is that she flipped in the last week, which the doctor said is very rare this late in the pregnancy. She continues to be active, as are her other 3 sisters!!

Things continue to go well here in Juazeiro. Chad is studying Spanish every afternoon, Mon-Fri, from 2-4 with a personal tutor who comes to our house. She is a native from Peru, and it's going very well. His only problem is that sometimes he wants to say some Spanish things when he's talking Portuguese, since there are many similarities. His purpose in learning Spanish is that when we move back to the states, he plans to continue to work in missions and with the latin/south american council of DCFI. There are a couple of churches in spanish-speaking Central/South America countries, so it would really be an asset for him to be able to communicate with them.

Below are a few pictures from Chad & Giselle's trip to Rio de Janeiro for her visa. They had a beautiful view from their hotel room! Then we have Elysia getting all messy eating spaghetti. Last of all are a few shots of Elysia's brush-burned face from a nasty fall she took yesterday. It's looking better today and she hasn't seemed bothered by it at all today. But brushburns always look bad! And the last picture is of the girls this morning playing that they were watching a circus. They all sat with their stuffed animals, and at times they would just pretend they were watching a clown, and other times one of them would actually be performing some sort of act. Gotta love the imagination of little kids!!

She has a nice scrape with a bruise above her eyebrow, a brushburn on her eyelid, and her entire cheek is pretty much one big brushburn.

Giselle's Visa Approved!!

2008-08-25T10:07:00.002-03:00

Thanks so much to all of you who prayed with us for Giselle's immigrant visa interview to go quickly and smoothly today. Chad just called me and said that it all went smoothly and she was approved. This clears the way for us to move back to the states at the end of the year, at which point Giselle will automatically receive American citizenship! We just praise the Lord for the way this process has gone so smoothly for us.

It's been funny to see how Larissa misses Giselle. She's asked many times about Daddy & Giselle since they left early yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon she came up to me and said, "Where's Daddy?" I said, "He went on a trip with Giselle, remember?" She giggled and said, "Oh yeah". Then she got a real serious look on her face and said, "I love Giselle". I said, "You miss her, don't you?" She said, "Yeah, I do miss her." They will be getting home late tonight. They actually have a 5-hour layover in Fortaleza, so Chad is going to have a meeting with the leaders there and will get to see some of the people from the church.

Trip to Rio de Janeiro

2008-08-23T17:30:00.002-03:00

Chad and Giselle are leaving early tomorrow (Sunday) morning to fly to Rio de Janeiro (southern Brazil) for Giselle's immigrant visa interview at the American Consulate. The interview is Monday morning and they will be getting back late Monday night. Please pray for 1. Safety as they travel to and from Rio. 2. Favor at the consulate, that her visa would be issued without any problems. THANKS!

Gigí's Birthday and Misc. Pics....

2008-08-22T15:24:00.010-03:00

These first five pictures are from Giselle's 4th birthday on Wednesday. She is just growing up so fast. We had a fun day with her. We went out for pizza to a fun place that has a little playground where the girls had so much fun while we waited for the food to arrive. Giselle's newest pose for pictures is to give a thumb's up. I'm not sure where exactly she picked that up. The girls are adjusting well. Larissa isn't asking quite as often for our old church and friends and today she was asking when she is going to be able to go to Sunday School again at our new church. So that was a good sign. The pregnancy is going well. I can't believe how big my belly has gotten this time around. I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I've had 3 pregnancies in 3 years and my abdominal muscules have just given up! But it is pretty obnoxiously huge! She is breach (seated) and hasn't flipped yet, but since I will be having a planned c-section it doesn't really matter. We haven't scheduled the delivery yet, but it will most likely be the first week of September. I have a doctor appointment on Wednesday and we'll set the date then. Here are a ton of pictures from the past two weeks here in Juazeiro... Playground at the restaurant where we went for Giselle's birthday.
They all liked the merry-go-round!

This is our new gadget - a "mosquito racket". You charge it up in an electric outlet, and then there is a button on the side that when you push it down, it causes an electric current to run through the metal netting. When you hit a mosquito, fly, etc. with it, it makes a zapping sound and kills them instantly. It's basically like those insect zappers we have in the states that hang with a blue light to attract the bugs and then when they get too close they get zapped by the metal mesh around it. The mosquitoes are really bad here. At around 5pm we have to close all the doors and keep the house shut for about 2 hours and then we can open back up and they're pretty well gone. Five to seven is apparently feeding time :)
The girls with their best friend, Molly.
This is my really good friend, Priscila, here in Juazeiro who is also pregnant and due in October.
I found the girls playing one afternoon... Giselle was combing Larissa's hair and 'getting her ready for bed'. A minute later Giselle was coming out of the room, shutting the door and telling Larissa to sleep good. And Larissa was quietly laying in her bed pretending to go to sleep.
One of our first days here Chad went out to the store with the girls in the morning and came home with these beautiful flowers for me!!

This is the new routine after lunch - as I clean the table off, Daddy and the girls do the dishes.
Elysia even pulled up a stool and tried to get in on the action.
This girl loves to climb up and into anything she possibly can.
They sure are 3 buds!!

OK, here is the obnoxiously huge belly I was talking about!! If you need a better look, click on the picture to see a bigger image.

The Incredible Hulk?? No, just a green lollipop :)

The Move

2008-08-15T15:19:00.005-03:00

Here are pictures from the move from Fortaleza to Juazeiro do Norte. We moved August 6th - can't believe it's been over a week already!! The girls are adjusting pretty well. Larissa keeps asking to go to Bruce and Lyndell's house and our "old church". I think it's hardest on her. She seems to be the one that likes change the least so far and likes to be in her comfort zone. She's always really shy when meeting new people and being in new places. Please pray for wisdom for us as we deal with her - that we don't push her too hard in new circumstances, but at the same time that we don't "pity" her so much that we end up encouraging her shyness and insecurity. It seems to be a fine line, and knowing how to respond to each situation can be tricky. Giselle, on the other hand, is always ready to meet new people and go to new places. And Elysia is a typical 15-month old so far... we'll see what happens in the next year or so. The girls going up into the attic with Daddy to get boxes for packing.

Vânia was a huge help in packing up clothing and little stuff in our room.
Elysia trying to be a big helper.
The last night sleeping at Bruce & Lyndell's.
All of our stuff packed and stacked in the living-room, waiting for the moving truck the next morning.

Packing the truck.
Now that's packed pretty full!
Giselle during our 6-hour trip to Juazeiro... "are we there yet??"
In our new house, yay!
Elysia is going to miss her "perch" after the baby is born.

Farewell service / party

2008-08-14T14:59:00.007-03:00

Here are pictures from our farewell service at church on August 3rd. It was such a neat and honoring service that they put together for us. We had a time of worship, and then they had a couch up front where they asked us to sit as the "guests of honor" for the remainder of the service. They presented us with a photo album that they made for us, they put on a skit about our lives here in Brazil (the funny part was that they accidently made me pregnant 4 times in the skit instead of 3... hopefully that's not prophetic!), several of the young people who have been around since the early days spoke to us and thanked us for all we did in their lives, and Lyndell made an awesome video of pictures from over the years. Then after the service there were lots of hugs and tears and of course, food. Oh, how we will miss those "salgadinhos" in the states!!

Here we are up front being prayed for by the congregation.

Here we are watching the video that Lyndell made for us.

Bruno playing the drums... how he has grown up over the years!!

Marcio & Diego
Lélia & Lisandra
Bruno
Monikelly, Mikaelly & Aline
Victor, Vânia, Chris & Chad

Chris & Lídia
Letícia
This thumb will prove to be interesting to wean Elysia off of!!
The girls and their friends (whom they miss already).

Bruce, Victor & Chad...

Hmmm, did Chad and Bruce plan to wear nearly matching shirts??
These are my two big girls!
Victor, Bruno, Diego & Marcio

Pics

2008-08-10T14:09:00.005-03:00

Here are some random pictures from before the move.My belly makes a nice pillow, I guess.
The girls love to wrestle with Daddy in bed.
One last photo-shoot in Bruce & Lyndell's beautiful flower garden.

Settling in

2008-08-09T15:34:00.004-03:00

Our move went well, and we are still settling in to our new temporary home. We like it very much here and have great neighbors. Elysia is teething and has been fighting a cold and cough and Giselle & Larissa have also been fighting coughs. But other than that we are doing well. We were able to make the drive here to Juazeiro in 6 hours and the girls did pretty good. Molly (the dog) was actually the best behaved of all. She just slept on the floor in the back the entire time. The drive went well overall for me. There was one stretch where the road had a lot of bumps and that was very uncomfortable for me. I kept imagining my water breaking, and then what would we do?!? We still have a bunch of boxes of stuff to organize and put away, but we're taking our time with it and getting it done as we can. Last night we had a fun time with a visit from some old friends from when we lived here before. Monday morning I have my first visit with my new OB doctor here. I'll post pictures once things are looking a little better here and I have a little more free-time.

Move

2008-08-05T17:19:00.002-03:00

We are about all packed and ready to load the truck in the morning as we head to Juazeiro (about 7 hours away) for the next 4 months. We had an awesome church service Sunday night - we were the "guests of honor", and we truly were honored by the church. After we are settled in Juazeiro, I will post some pictures from that service. We covet your prayers during this time!!

Retreat

2008-07-31T18:31:00.006-03:00

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

2008-07-30T13:31:00.005-03:00

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

2008-07-20T10:05:00.005-03:00

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!

2008-07-18T20:53:00.004-03:00

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!

2008-07-17T13:46:00.002-03:00

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

2008-07-12T15:13:00.002-03:00

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

2008-07-12T15:00:00.004-03:00

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.

Vacation Bible School

2008-07-04T14:48:00.006-03:00

Late Sunday night a team from one of the DOVE churches in PA, The Fireplace, arrived. They will be here for a total of 10 days, and Tuesday-Friday of this week we did a VBS for kids in the neighborhood here. It was a huge success. We had an average of about 50 kids each day, from the ages of 5-12. They each received a "passport" and each day they travelled to a different country. Victor made an awesome airplane that the kids got to travel in to get to their destination each day. The 4 countries were: Kenya, Peru, Bulgaria & USA. There were 4 different stations set up that the kids rotated through, and I was in the craft area. Today was the last day, and a total of 30 kids gave their hearts to the Lord today!! It was a lot of work, but also very rewarding. Here are a bunch of pictures from the VBS. If you want to see any of them a little bigger and better, all you have to do is click on them.
The table where the kids received the "visa stamp" in their passport before entering each day.

The line of kids outside the wall of the church, waiting to go in.

The group of workers (Americans and Brazilians) going over some last-minute details before starting.

The kids waiting to get on the plane.

Kids in the plane getting ready for take-off.

Better shot of the plane.

This is in the craft area. On Tuesday the country was Kenya, and we made rain-sticks. Here they are filling the paper-towel rolls with rice and beans.

Kids decorating their rain-sticks.

On Wednesday the country was Peru and we made a "God's Eye".

Thursday was Bulgaria, and we made plastic spoon puppets.

Today was the USA, and we made hemp gospel bracelets.

This is back in the airplane at the end, flying back to Brazil. Chad is leading a few children's songs.

View back the airplane.

Kids getting off the plane and being greeted by the Americans as they leave to go home.

It's been a long morning.

Lídia, the clown.

My cousin, Pam Rittle, who is one of the leaders on the team, having fun with Larissa.

Giselle & Larissa showing off their hemp ankle bracelets that I made for them.

Pictures

2008-06-29T15:27:00.009-03:00

I have so many pictures from this past week, so I decided just to do one big post with pictures, rather than different posts with the different pictures. It's faster that way. Late tonight we will be receiving a youth team from The Fireplace in PA, and they will be here for 10 days. It will be lots of fun and I will be quite busy. So you may not hear from me for a little while. We'll see how it goes. Anyway... enjoy the pictures...

Here I am... 29 weeks.
Here's our little thumb-sucker. As soon as she gets her blankey in her hand, her thumb goes right to her mouth.
So proud of herself that she climbed on top of the wash basket.
We got a box out of storage the other day that happened to have a bunch of baby stuff in, including pacifiers. The girls found them and thought they were so much fun to play with. None of them actually suck pacifiers (Larissa did until she was 2), so it was funny.
What is it about boxes that just amazes kids?

Our pastor from our home church in PA, Duane Britton, came to visit and meet Victor & Vânia.
This is Vânia showing all the desserts she made in one day. That's a lot of brownies and cupcakes!! She is doing such a wonderful job and really picked it up fast.

Each dessert gets individually wrapped.

I had taken the pillows of our bed to make it, and the girls promptly decided to play on them and pretend they were sleeping. Elysia managed to get on the bottom of the pile, and her head was actually under Giselle in the first picture.

This is us with Beth in the booth downtown where we sell our American desserts.

This was a hosing-down session after the girls were playing in sand all morning at the church while we were baking. Giselle loves being sprayed right in the face and she flails her arms and runs in place. It kinda reminds me of Tommy Boy at the gas station getting sprayed (for those of you from my generation who know the movie-haha).

Here is a tarantula that was on the back wall here. The leg span (top to bottom) was about 6 inches. We wanted to put something next to it so that in the picture you could really get a feel for the size. So Chad (who was taking the picture) put his hand next to it, but before he could take the picture, it spooked the spider and it dropped off the wall. So the 2nd picture is of it down in the flowerbed, but you still can't really tell how huge it was!

"June festival"

2008-06-23T14:28:00.004-03:00

Here in Brazil, at least in the northeast (I'm not sure about the rest of the country), in the month of June there are parties where everyone dresses up as "hillbillies" and we eat a lot of traditional interior foods and there is also square-dancing. These parties are usually for Saint John, but we always do one at the church and we call it the "Saint Jesus party". It's always a lot of fun seeing everyone all dressed up and just having a good time. Here are a bunch of pictures from our party Saturday night at the church.

Chad and I - my maternity wardrobe didn't allow for many options in looking very 'hillbilly'.Here's the whole fam... you can see my belly a little bit here. I'm 28 weeks along now - almost 3/4 of the way!

Here is a picture of the table of the tradional foods we sold.
Elysia hanging out with the older kids. They are (l-r): Lisandra, Lídia, Christine (from Germany) & Bruno.

Larissa & Christine - she leaves to go back to Germany on July 14th... my girls are going to miss her!!!
Chad and the boys: Adriano & Bruno (standing) and Marcio sitting in front.
This is the food stand.

Larissa was NOT in the mood to have her picture taken!
Vanessa (the daughter of the new pastors), Larissa & Elysia
Chad leading a time of worship.

Time is flying by!

2008-06-19T15:20:00.005-03:00

I have some pictures to post today. I can't believe how fast June is flying by all of a sudden. May went slow for me, but now that business is picking up and I hardly have time for anything other than taking care of the girls and baking cupcakes, time is flying by. In just a little over a month we will be headed to Juazeiro (our last 'leg' here in Brazil before heading to PA in December). This weekend the pastor from our home church in PA, Duane Britton, will be visiting us - getting here on Saturday and leaving on Tuesday. Then next Monday, June 30th, we will be having a youth team from a DOVE church in Myerstown, PA called The Fireplace come for 10 days. They will be doing a vacation bible school here with us, which should be really cool. I'm sure those 2 weeks will fly by and then we'll be half way through July already. Here are pictures from this week:
Giselle talking on the 'skype-phone' with Grandma Wenger. She had just woken up!

One of Elysia's favorite places to crawl into these days.

Happy playing with her toys.

Larissa getting in the pool at swimming class. She always takes a bit longer than Giselle. Giselle jumps right in, but Larissa needs time to adjust to the cool water.

Vânia making desserts with us. Here she's making whoopie pie cookies. On the counter are chocolate cupcakes, brownies and chocolate chip cookie bars. Back against the wall you can see our industrial oven. We can fit both of those whoopie pie flat sheets in at a time, or 4 cupcake pans.

Larissa playing in the sand while we work.

Baking and Bugs

2008-06-14T13:06:00.003-03:00

This week has been a rollercoaster, as our lives seem to be right now (emotionally, and in any way possible it seems). Right now we've been praying for guidance with this dessert business and even trying to decide if it is something that we should keep investing into or not. The vision from the very beginning was for this business to prosper in order to bless the church financially, bless people with jobs, and then hopefully be able to help finance Chad's future trips down here. At the store location where we opened up at a month and a half ago, sales have been extremely low. It is a very new mall, and the administration has been very corrupt and hasn't been advertising to get people in. So the main problem is a lack of customers. What Beth has been doing, is going out with the desserts to a market nearby to sell. This has been working ok, but we still aren't selling enough to be able to offset our expenses. So we've been brainstorming about what we can do differently (without incurring more costs) to sell more. One main idea we have come up with is to find people to go out to various open-markets around the city selling, and they would just earn comission. So that is where we're at right now - we're praying for God to show us who those people are. Our big selling item has been cupcakes. We started making them the "filled" cupcakes, where you cut a circle out of the top and fill it with icing and then put the top back on. People just think they are so pretty. So right now we make chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, banana cupcakes with vanilla frosting, pumpkin cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting and lime cupcakes with a lime custard filling. We also sell cookies, brownies, yum-yum cupcakes and apple danish squares. Sometime soon I will try to post some pictures of the goodies and of us making them. We are training Vânia (the new pastor's wife) to make the desserts, and she is catching on really well. On Thursday, Chad was downtown all day helping Beth sell desserts, and Vânia and I made 255 cupcakes!! That was a really long day on our feet. We started at 8am, took 1 hour off for lunch (in which time I fed the girls, showered them and put them down for a nap) and it was nearly 7pm until we finished wrapping everything in plastic wrap. I learned that I need to wear sneakers when I'm on my feet all day instead of just my flip-flops! We have renewed excitement for the business, as Chad just learned today that the shopping mall where our store is located is getting new administration and that things are really going to get better there. So our hope is that in the future Beth will be busy there and will be sending others out from there to sell at the markets. We just continue to pray and do our best to leave it in the Lord's hands and believe that He will make it prosper.

In other parts of our "world", things are going well. We had an incident with Elysia on Wednesday night. We were over at the church making desserts and the 3 girls were outside playing in the sand. All of a sudden Elysia started crying. I realized she had a dirty diaper, so I took her home (just across the street) to change her. As I was carrying her over, she started to really cry hard and kick her feet and pull at her hair. It was odd, and as I was changing her diaper, I noticed that her left arm from her elbow down was bright red and her hand was swollen. I decided to run to the pharmacy with her (down here there are little first-aid/nurse's offices in the pharmacies to attend to minor injuries). She pretty much screamed the whole time I was there with her, but the nurse there said it looked like she was bitten by a bug and she sold me an allergy/insect bite cream to put on it. It was almost bed-time, so soon after I got back home with her I put her to bed. It took her a while to settle down, but she finally did and by morning she was back to her normal happy self. There are a lot of poisonous insects/animals down here, so it always scares me a little more when something like this happens. Then on Thursday morning while Vânia and I were making desserts, Giselle & Larissa called for me saying, "Mommy, look, a big caterpillar!" I went to see it, and here it was one with really long hairs on it. I showed it to Vânia, and her eyes got big and she said "that is what they call a Fire Caterpillar, because its hairs burn your skin really bad". Thank goodness the girls didn't touch it! I've learned that insects are "Super-sized" down here!!

Medical Clinic

2008-06-09T08:57:00.003-03:00

Last week was a hectic but exciting week. We were able to help translate for a medical team of about 25 Americans who came down to do a week-long free clinic. It was held at a church in a very poor neighborhood about 20 minutes from us. The team consisted of Medical Doctors, Nurses, Pediatricians, Gynecologists, Eyedoctors, a Dentist and Pharmacists. They had a huge stock of medications shipped down ahead of time to go through customs and be ready to go when they got here.

Here is how the system worked. People lined up outside the church (the line would start the evening of the previous day and they would spend the night in line so they could get in the next day). As they came in, they would fill out an information sheet and check off their symptoms. Then they would go to "Triage" where a nurse would ask them some further questions, take their temperature, blood pressure and in some cases do an insulin test. Then they would be sent to the proper doctor. After their consultation with the doctor, if they were prescribed medications they would go to the in-house pharmacy to pick up their medications... all of this for FREE!! Then if they were not yet Christians, they had the opportunity to be presented with the gospel in one-on-one evangelism. At least 350 people gave their hearts to the Lord last week through this evangelism!! I never heard the figures, so I don't know how many people were seen by the doctors. I believe last year they saw 2,300 people and they were hoping to get more through this year. The system was very organized, and I was very impressed with it!

Chad and I took turns going - he went Tuesday and Thursday and I went Wednesday and Friday. On Wednesday I was in Triage translating for a 22-year old girl by the name of Hanna who is a nursing student in Texas. On Wednesday I was in pediatrics translating for a nurse from Nashville, TN, who works in a burn center. I learned so much from her - I loved it!! We saw so many sick little children and babies. Leah listened to the heart of a little 3-year old girl, and was a bit perplexed when she was hearing the heart more on the right side than the left. She had the other pediatrician listen and he confirmed that the little girl probably has a condition where she was born with her organs all on the opposite side of her body than normal. Several other doctors came in to take a listen, and the poor little girl got a little scared with all those people around her with their stethascopes listening to her heart. Her mom got a bit scared too, but the doctor just encouraged her to take the little girl to the hospital to get an x-ray to confirm it, and also just to make sure it isn't a symptom of something more serious going on. It seemed to me that something like this should have been picked up in a routine medical exam sometime in this little girl's life before now. But this is just one more instance of the quality of the public health system down here... another case and point...

A little 3-year old boy came in and his mom said he was having really labored breathing and that this happens often with him. They usually take him to the hospital, they give him a shot and he gets better and they send him home without any further explaination. Leah asked him to take his shirt off so she could listen to his lungs. We saw right away that his little belly was going in and out so fast, and as soon as she started listening she said, "this little guy has asthma". When I translated that to the mom, she was completely shocked. We counted his respirations and that little belly was going in and out 74x/min. The doctor hooked him up with an inhaler immediately, although that was a bit scary for the little guy. Hopefully by now he is used to his inhaler and is having a much better time breathing because of it.

One thing that frustrated me was how many moms came in complaining that their child doesn't want to eat right - "he/she just wants to eat cookies and candy" - as if the doctor could give a magic pill to make the child eat right!! The problem is that the moms allow the children to eat like that, and it starts at a very young age. Then when the child starts getting older, mom expects him/her to start eating well-balanced meals. And then when the child doesn't want to eat good food, mom starts yelling at the child and can't figure out why he/she doesn't want to eat. We need to start training them early on so we don't have to re-train later. In our house, cookies, candy and snacks are REWARDS for having eaten a good meal, and they aren't even given every day. We see this in the area of discipline down here too. So often, babies and young children are not disciplined at all because "they are innocent and don't understand". Then when they get older and start blaintently disobeying, the parents get verbally (and sometimes physically) abusive. But it is just a logical sequence - if the child was never held responsible for his/her actions before and could disobey without any consequences, why is he/she going to all of a sudden start obeying? Elysia is 1yr. and 1mo. and we are already starting to see her little "human nature" come out. We are already needing to teach her that she doesn't always get her way (and that it is NOT cute when she throws herself on the floor in a fit), and just because she "can" crawl up the steps doesn't mean it is safe and permissible for her to do so. Anyway... just a little ranting from me :) Being a mom, and parenting in general is something I am a bit passionate about. I enjoy reading books on it, and am currently reading "On Becoming Child Wise", which is on parenting your child from 3-7 years.

Back to the clinic. I felt very privileged to be able to be a part of such an amazing project of compassion. The people that came in were certainly the poorest of the poor. There were at least 2 families that I saw on Friday that I would guess by their appearance that they were probably homeless. But yet they were so happy! Something that I want to definitely take back with me from our time here in Brazil is to remember how many people are out there in the world in need. I want to do my best to give of my time and resources whenever possible to help those in need around us. There in the states the poor & needy are so well hidden, but they are there! One of my biggest prayers right now is that God helps me to not just get into the daily grind of life and forget about reaching out to the lost and hurting in this world. I also have such a desire to see the church rise up and do more to reach out to the needy.

On another note, please pray with us about the dessert business. We had a few good days 2 weeks ago, but things are pretty slow again. We just need a lot of wisdom in how to push forward and what contacts to make to boost sales. We need to see it take off a bit by the end of June here to continue. We have been investing so much personally (financially & physically) into it, and just need confirmation from the Lord as to whether we are to continue or not.

This post ended up being much longer than I expected, and I don't even have any new pictures for you all. Sorry about that. But trust me, the girls are as cute as ever and haven't changed much since last week :) Elysia's new thing is that she nods and shakes her head to answer questions... and does so correctly. It's really cute. She also follows simple instructions well, i.e. "shut the door" "put it back/away" "give it to me".

Hope you all have a great week. Not sure if I will post again before next Monday. We'll see how the week goes.

Cute Pictures

2008-06-02T09:49:00.003-03:00

Here are a few fun pictures from last night. Sunday nights are my best picture times with the girls because that's when I get to dress them all up for church. During the week we don't go out much, and here at home they are often in just their underwear/diaper (especially Elysia) due to the wonderful tropical heat. So I love dressing up my little girls - I think they look so cute. Just the other day when I was doing their hair, I had to think about how much time I am going to need in the future to do 4 little girls' hair for church!! They are all 3 sporting their new shoes that we got them this week. Elysia is wearing her first pair of flip-flops (complete with the elastic strap around the back, which does not always prevent her from taking them off).

Elysia in her cute outfit sent for her birthday from G-pa & G-ma Miller.

The two buds - they are soooo into playing pretend and wrestling these days. It often ends in crying, and we often find ourselves saying... "it's all fun and games until...."

The three happy sisters.

Eatin' some pizza in front of the tube... see what I mean about the panties and diaper attire??

Bakery...

2008-06-01T15:22:00.002-03:00

So this is what it feels like to have a bakery or bread-store, etc... Chad has woken up at 5am the past 2 days to start making desserts!! This is a good thing! Yesterday (Saturday) Beth sold our new record high of 65. Monday was 50 and the other days in the week were a little weaker. But yesterday she also got an order from a restaurant for 44 chocolate cupcakes for this morning. Chad also made contact with 2 restaurants nearby here who are trying out our stuff. If they would really start selling, our wholesale sales could really skyrocket. We feel like this business is just on the verge of really taking off. It's exciting!! As our responsibilities here in the ministry are gradually being taken over by others, it's nice to have something else to throw ourselves into. Please pray for wisdom for us in all of the decisions that need made along the way! Our desire is to see this business up and running smoothly by the end of July when we go to Juazeiro.

Record sales

2008-05-26T22:19:00.002-03:00

We had an exciting day today. Since the opening of our American Dessert stand downtown on May 3rd, we had our best day of sales today. We sold 50 pieces! This is really good, because in the past, we were having a good day if we sold 15. Beth, our employee who mans the stand, has taken to the streets selling. She definitely has a gifting in sales, and just loves it. Chad's goal is to be selling 1,000 pieces per day by the end of the year :) Guess who the visionary / dreamer is in our relationship??? Time will tell where this business goes!!

Fun pictures

2008-05-24T13:50:00.003-03:00

Here are a few pictures from the other night out at the rock jetty...

Her hair is finally long enough to put in little pigtails!! Gotta love that red hair... where did that come from?!?!

What a week...

2008-05-24T13:05:00.005-03:00

This has been one of those weeks... one where you just want to brace yourself for what is going to happen next. We are really feeling like we are in a spiritual battle. Things had been coming along so smoothly with the transition and Victor & Vânia arriving, and then all of a sudden things started happening. It just reminds us of how real the spiritual war is that we are in. The enemy is NOT happy with our growing church and the awesome new things that are happening with the new leadership that is coming in. So we are more aware than ever of how we need to be on guard and doing our prayerful part in this spiritual war. We are planning for the month of June to be a month of serious prayer and fasting especially for the leadership here. We are so excited for what God has planned for the future, and we want to make sure that no plans of the enemy stand in the way of His plans!! So we would appreciate your prayers and support, as always, during this crucial time.

As for family-life, we are doing well. Elysia has a bottom tooth coming through, so she is not always her jolly self these days. Larissa's favorite song just now is "Old McDonald", but she doesn't like when I sing along with her - she wants to sing it by herself. We're pretty sure Giselle is going to be a drum player. She loves hitting things while Chad is playing guitar, and she has amazing rhythm. Baby is quite active these days. I'm 24 weeks along and feeling great physically. We are having quite a time finding a name for our little girl. We already came up with 3 girls' names, so we're running out of ideas!

Here are some pictures from this past week.

Silliness at bedtime.

Bedtime kisses...

And hugs.

Yup, she crawls up on the couch all by herself.

Everyone looking out the front door (including Molly).

At the beach with Victor & Vânia and their little girl Vanessa (the one one the left).

Our corner we call home

2008-05-18T15:11:00.004-03:00

Here are a few pictures for you to see our little apartment at Bruce & Lyndell's house...

This is our main room (living room, office & bedroom).

Here is the same room from the other side, looking in from the varanda (porch).

This is taken standing in front of the computer in the middle of the room. Straight ahead is the shower to the left and the 1/2 bath to the right. Then there are two small rooms off either wing - to the right is the playroom and to the left is the girls' bedroom.

This is the toyroom. As you can see, we had to improvise to hang our clothing.

Here is the girls' bedroom. When they're not sleeping, Larissa's mattress gets pushed in under Giselle's bed. Larissa often rolls off and sleeps on the floor with just her head up on the mattress.

So there it is... our little corner of home for the next 2 1/2 months. We obviously don't spend all of our time in this area - we have the family room, kitchen, and back area downstairs where we all hang out together a lot.

My Little Helpers

2008-05-16T16:16:00.005-03:00

Giselle & Larissa have all of a sudden taken an interest in helping with the dishes. They do a remarkably good job in drying them all the way too. Larissa is a little more thorough... might take after her mom.

Yup, another girl...

2008-05-13T09:54:00.003-03:00

I just had an ultrasound this morning, and they confirmed that we are having another girl!! I had 2 ultrasounds before, but she had her legs crossed both times and the doctor wasn't able to tell for sure. So now we have to start thinking seriously about a name...

Home Is Where Your Stuff Is

2008-05-12T10:11:00.004-03:00

I have finally decided to enter the blog world! My goal is to post once a week. Our lives are a bit crazy right now, but hopefully I will be able to keep all of our family and friends informed of what's happening in our lives.

The title of this post is something that we say a lot these days. When we first moved, the girls had a hard time knowing where "home" was, because we are living at Bruce & Lyndell's house. So we explained to them that we have all of our "stuff" in our living space at Bruce & Lyndell's, so that is our home. This will be true for another 2 1/2 months yet, at which point we will be moving to Juazeiro for about 4 months. That will then be home, because that's "where our stuff will be". Then in December that will change once again (providing all goes to plan) as we move to the states.

The girls are doing very well. Elysia just turned 1 on Wednesday, and we had fun celebrating her first year. She is walking and loves to climb on anything possible. Giselle is 3 1/2 and loves to watch tv. That can even be golf or baseball - whatever is on tv, she's glued to it. The other night she was watching a basketball game with Daddy, and I told her it was time to go to bed. She looked at me and said, "But I'm watching the game, Mommy." Larissa is 2 1/2 and talking like crazy. She constantly makes us laugh with the things she comes up with. She also likes to dance (especially during praise and worship at church) and sing made-up songs. All three girls love to play together... most of the time.

Here are the 3 princesses out at the beach a couple of weeks ago. It is nearly impossible to get them all smiling together like this for the camera!!

Elysia's first birthday!

Here I am with my 3 precious little girls last night at church (Mother's Day).