Elijah Lately

It's hard to believe this guy is already 4 1/2 months old! Seriously...where is the time going?? Elijah is just the sweetest baby and very easy going. He is an AWESOME sleeper, which we are just loving! Elijah has been sleeping through the night from 8 weeks and he also takes 3 great naps everyday....WOHOO! He also is great at playing independently and let's just about anyone hold him. He is really finding his voice and his hands lately. He goes on and on "singing" as he plays. It can be very entertaining.


As for us, we just LOVE being parents. Elijah has brought tons of joy to our lives. Although being parents has brought new responsibilities too, it really feels so incredibly natural to sacrifice for your child. It's hard to remember life before we had Elijah.
The newest thing going on with Elijah is he has two bottom teeth coming in! It's really fun to see the process taking place, but I had no idea it was so wet! Because of the teething he had a drippy nose, TONS of drool, and even some tears. Not to mention the usual spit up and wet diapers. I think we went through 17 outfits! :)
I can't wait for this guy to meet the rest of his family this fall!

Crazy!

We had quite a crazy, eye-opening cultural experience this weekend. The house three houses down the street from us had a party this weekend. This is NOT the first time they have had a loud party since they moved in a few months ago, and this time we just couldn't handle it. LOUD music and cars spinning their wheels up and down the street. At midnight we rolled our eyes. At 1 am were a little annoyed. At 2 am we were very annoyed. At 3 am we decided to call the police. We didn't want anyone to get arrested, but we did want the music to stop so we could get some sleep. Oh, and this family has a small baby and at least one other young kid in the house!! By the way, that was not even the crazy part yet!

So Jeyson called the number for the police. And?? No answer!! He tried again. Still no answer!!! Jeyson called the fire department (different number) to confirm that we had the right number for the police. Yep, it was correct. They told Jeyson to call again. But once again, the phone just rang and rang and rang and rang and eventually the line automatically hung up. It was insane! Of course we were not having a true emergency, which was a relief, but what would have happened if we were having one? I just can't get over the fact that we couldn't get in touch with the police!!!!!

We wound up just putting on a fan to drown out the noise and sometime after 4am the music stopped. The next day we were telling our Brazilian friends about the situation and they suggested that we get a police officer's cell phone number (they are written on the police cars apparently) so we can contact one directly next time. Crazy! It seems a whole lot easier to dial 9-1-1 in an emergency than to get out your phone agenda to locate and dial a random 10 digit number! At moments like this the reality hits that we live overseas where our sense of logic is not the same as everyone else's.

Change of Plans

About a week ago we got official word that our year is going to be MUCH different than we had thought. Why? We're being sent by our mission to the States.

Here's the basic details:

Who: Jeyson, Elijah and me
What: We will be working with a partner organization called MMS Aviation (Mission Maintenance Services). Day-to-day Jeyson will be doing a lot of what he does here every day...working on mission airplanes. The only difference it won't be for Asas planes, it will be for mission airplanes from all over the world! They are sent to MMS for preparation to go to the mission field and major overhauls.
Where - A small, country town called Coshocton, Ohio
When - July 1 through mid-December in Ohio and hopefully a little extra time before and after with family on the west coast.
Why - The mission has seen that Jeyson is a talented mechanic and wants to invest in him to make him even more of an asset around the mission. At MMS he will do much more in-depth maintenance projects than he does here in Anapolis and he will hopefully be able to come back to Brazil even better equipped to serve and pass on these new skills to others.
How - How am I feeling about all of this? Let me show you in a picture....
I. Am. Overwhelmed!!!

On one hand I'm super excited. After what will be about 4 1/2 years serving in Brazil (counting furlough time) I'm excited about mixing things up a little and us getting to have a new experience. I'm also excited for my family to all meet Elijah and get to have a few months in the same country as them (though still quite far for most of the time). We're excited to follow God into the unknown and see what it brings. We have no idea what to expect and it will be an adventure to find out. Of course we're also excited for this very unique opportunity for Jeyson to get this advanced training. The chances of this all working out again at another point are very slim, so we're excited for all that's going to happen.

On the other hand, I'm oh so loving my little nest here and routine with my four month old baby and I dread the thought of leaving it. We don't even have a crib lined up to borrow while we're there yet! When I think about leaving the cute nursery we set up...I confess I get quite sad! It's not really about the nursery, it's just the security and comfort and the KNOWN. I have also grown to really like where we're at and I will miss the friends, ministry opportunities, and so much more. (I suppose that is a good sign that I'm adapted to Brazil if I'm uncomfortable returning to the States!! :) Also, I am a little nervous to go to a town where we literally only know one family (also from our mission who are going to be there at the same time and opened up this opportunity for us). So scary to know (almost) not a soul. I am afraid of being lonely for 6 months.

And then there are the logistics we have to figure out in the next the next 2-3 months. I am OVERWHELMED!!! I can't stress that enough. Here are the major things on our minds:

A car to use while in Ohio - we have nothing figured out that could work yet.
Tickets - We haven't bought them yet and haven't found any great deals.
A family to stay in our house while we're gone. - We THINK we might have this solved, but there are still some complications.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg of the to-do list. So, please be praying for us! We will keep you up to date as things unfold.

No Window Shopping Available

When my parents were here visiting, they kept noticing things about life in Brazil that I had never mentioned before. Why had I never mentioned them? Because I've gotten so used to life here, that I forgot those things were weird! So, over the next while I'll randomly show you those thing in posts. The first...is storefronts.

Do you notice anything different about the storefronts of Brazil from this picture?


How about here?
While it may be a bit hard to see above, it is very clear in this picture. Shops don't have doors like stores in the States. Instead, the WHOLE front of the building is open. The storefront is a huge metal panel that rolls up and above, like a garage door and locks down totally at night. So, when you're walking down the street you can see right in each store without entering. And if you're shopping (or getting your hair done like below) you can see right out to the street as you do!

Here we were doing some shopping in downtown Goiania. Here the stores are grouped by type. This area was several city blocks of just fabric stores! There are whole city blocks of car parts, beads for jewlery making, bakery equipment, and just about everything else you can imagine. Since the storefronts are all open, the products just spill out onto the street during working hours.

Also, since there is no front of the building, that means there are no windows....so therefore no "window shopping", but it's even easier since you can just see in the whole store :) What would you call that, then? Storefront shopping? I'm not sure...we'll have to work on that one!

Trip to a Tribe

Jeyson recently went on a flight with a Wycliffe pilot to take the missionary on the right (Betty) to a village, where she serves translating the Bible. The couple on the left, Sam and Wanda, are her dedicated logistical support back in the main city.

The trip was an important one because the New Testament is now complete in the language. Betty went to bring papers that the tribe could sign to approve Wycliffe using their language to print the New Testament.

The 45 minute plane ride saved Betty from traveling 8 hours on extremely rough dirt roads.

It was impossible to land in the village where Betty actually serves because of flooding, so they landed in a nearby village and some men came to transport Betty to the tribe by truck.

In exchange for the ride on the truck, the plane had to bring tanks of gas. Here the men were transferring the gas into different containers. In the middle of nowhere, gas is quite a commodity!

Someday I'd love to see (even if just by pictures Jeyson brings back!) pictures of the more remote tribe where Betty serves. Thank the Lord for dedicated missionaries like Betty making a difference on the front lines!

Day Trips

The final post I want to put up about my parents' visit is of the 2 day trips we took. The first was to this quaint old mining town about an hour away from us called Pirenopolis. The roads are all made out of stone so it's a fun walk.

Lots of fun eclectic sights and shops

And we had lunch at a fun little family run restaurant. We sat out on a big wooden table on the front porch and the food was brought to s family style. There were about 20 items brought to the table, all typical Brazilian food. When there was nothing left to even imagine them bringing to the table, the husband offered to make anything else in the kitchen that we wanted (included in the price). He suggested he could make us a fried egg if we wanted. My parents found that quite random and went for one!

It was a really fun way to introduce my parents to typical Brazilian cuisine.

The second day trip we took was to Salto de Corumba. This is a waterfall/hiking area that we had never actually been to before this way. We had heard it was a pretty light hike up to the main waterfall. (The waterfall from a distance.)

But in the end the hike won and we lost. It was quite a bit tougher than advertised! We stopped at a smaller, second waterfall and enjoyed the view before hiking back down. (Eli hiding from the sun!)

We sent Jeyson up ahead and he took pictures of the view that we missed. (This is very large...the trees at the top can give you perspective).

In the end we decided to have a nice picnic lunch and call it a day, but it was still a fun experoence being together.