1 Year in Brazil and Eye-Camera

This past week we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of us arriving together here in Brazil. I can't believe how quickly the time flew by and how excited I was to arrive at this milestone! What an adventure this past year has been for us getting used to married life and life together in ministry....and this year has especially been a challenge for me as I've adjusted to living overseas. Wow, there is just SO much I could comment on - so many emotions, so many challenges and highlights we have faced, so much we have learned, but to keep it simple here’s a quick glimpse of some of what I’ve faced over the last year:

• Getting a new mindset, getting around a new city, getting my permanent visa
  



• Taking risks, taking trips, taking ministry opportunities, taking worries to the Lord
  



• Making friends, making mistakes, and making my first pot of beans.
  



• Learning Portuguese, learning to function, learning to serve, and learning to trust Lord more each day.

Above all else, as we look back over the past year, we see God's faithful hand guiding us each step of the way. So many obstacles seemed impossible - raising support in such a short time, learning Portuguese without going to language school, and much more, but God has truly led us and directed us and we can only give Him the praise for the ways He has worked in and through us.



Throughout this year when I had a tough day, Jeyson has encouraged me to just keep my eyes set on the one year mark of living overseas since trying to take in the big, long term picture can seem so overwhelming. So, to me this one year milestone was a HUGE accomplishment - so naturally that means we needed a big celebration! We decided to go out to dinner at our favorite restaurant around (actually about an hour away) Outback Steakhouse. We just love being transported "back home" for a few hours and have gone there only twice on special occasions, and this definitely was one! So off we headed, and even better, we brought our good friends, Andres and Camila with us. It was so much fun to show them around an American style place with booths, carpeting, ice tea with endless refills, apple sauce, and they had a great time. Camila was even impressed with the different American style FOAM soap dispensers in the bathroom she had never seen before. It was a great evening and a wonderful celebration!



So, why do I feel a twinge of sadness thinking about arriving at the 1 year milestone? I've actually put off blogging about this for a few days to figure that out and I finally have. Since the 1 year mark has been such a goal to strive towards on the tough days, arriving at that goal I felt a bit disappointed to realize the struggle for adjustment is not over. After one year and one day of being here I didn't wake up speaking Portuguese fluently and I don't automatically know how to handle every cultural situation with ease. Also, I still miss Target and munster cheese :) Passing the 1 year mark doesn't mean the adjustments are over, it just means by God's grace I have gotten to an important point and in His strength each day I'll continue on this adventure.

Now on a COMPLETELY different note, I have some pictures that I wanted to post of sights from around Brazil. Jeyson and I have often joked about how great it would be to have an eye-camera. No - I didn't mean to write iCamera, I literally mean a camera in my eye. Strange sounding? Let me explain. There are so many situations here in Brazil (and of course also in the States) that I wish I had my camera with me and could pull it out and take a shot of a picture that is worth more than 1,000 words, pictures that capture so much about the people and culture here. However, in many many of those situations I either don't have my camera or it would be inappropriate to take it out and start snapping away. In those situations I wish I had an eye-camera....a tiny little camera in my eye that would take a perfectly framed and focused picture when I blinked. This way, no one would have to know I had taken one and I'd be prepared at all times! Wouldn't that be a great invention? Then I could just put my finger in the USB drive of the computer and they would upload automatically to the blog :)

Anyway, occasionally I do have a situation where I see a great shot that says so much about Brazil and I DO have my camera and it IS ok to take a picture. Those, Jeyson and I call eye-camera pictures. From time to time I'll post them on the blog and refer to them as that and you'll know what I'm talking about :) Below are a few of those:

A newspaper vendor resting his bundle of newspapers on his head as a client searches for change

Jeyson's uncle making a broom from a plant especially grown and used for this purpose. You can see the dried plant on the table and he is wrapping them together around the handle.

Exotic dog food....a whole cart of avocados! Can you imagine serving your dog avocados as a treat? Here they are so plentiful that they are dumped in carts and given to animals like cows and this lucky dog who LOVE them!

And Bobby also loves snacking on corn on the cob that grows at the Braun's farm.

Ok one more animal eye-camera shot...Andres giving milk to the Braun's lamb who was rejected by its mother

Feet in a hammock, a great symbol of the laid-back speed of life that Brazilians love and closely stick to!

Ok don't peek too far down....first, I want you to imagine a bunch of bananas growing on a tree.

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Are you ready?

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Scroll down and see if this is what you imagined?

Did you imagine right? Did you know that bananas grow in THIS direction? Before living in Brazil I had always thought that bananas hang down from the stem (the part that you split open to peel it). However, actually they grow in the opposite direction....with the stubby "bottom" end of the banana at the top and the opening "top" part at the bottom. Lastly, one last fruit eye-camera picture...pomagranate....a fruit I had always heard of but only recently tired for the first time. It is both beautiful and delicious!

Well enough fun pictures for this week.... Tomorrow Jeyson will be driving to Goiania (1 hour away) in order to sign up to take the final 2 areas of his written commercial pilot's test. Brazil is a little behind with online things like this :) Also tomorrow evening we will be kicking off the next couples small group study "Overcoming Stress in Your Marriage". Since the study is all built around discussion, we are praying that the group will be open to sharing at that we will all be challenged.

Oh, and great job for those of you who figured out that Jeyson looked different because he got contacts! Very perceptive!