Christmas Fun

The past days have been full of time spent with family.  I can't think of a more perfect way to end our time in the US.  First we stopped by CA where we stayed with Jeyson's brother and sister-in-law.  We got to meet their new sweet baby too.  Jeyson's parents and sister, brother-in-law and their son were also there so it was a full house!  We haven't all been together in over 4 years so it was fun to make memories together.  Who knows how long it will be till we're back together again so we had to soak it in.

The three cousins were mesmerized by a show on a laptop.  It's so special to see them all together!

After an early Christmas with the Brauns, we headed down to Arizona to spend actual Christmas and new years with my family.  It is just us in town so far, but my sister Christa will be coming to join us in a few days.  Here's a few pictures of the fun...

Elijah had a surprise Santa diaper put on him in the church nursery on Christmas eve haha!  

Who can resist this bum?

 Christmas morning 3/5 of us woke up feeling sick and spent most of the day moaning and groaning :(  We didn't even feel up for cooking (and much less eating!) a Christmas meal!  But at least we got over it fast and were all feeling good within 24 hours.  And fortunately Elijah didn't get it so he had fun opening a few gifts.

It cracks me up how this boy automatically knows to make car/truck noises with his lips.  We've got a mechanic in the making.

And look who is up and walking about 50% of the time!  He can take about 30 steps at a time, but still prefers crawling at times because it is faster.

 Then, to top off the fun, Jeyson and I left Elijah with my parents for an overnight so we could escape to beautiful Sedona, about 2 hours from Phoenix.  We did a lot of hiking and enjoyed some Mexican food.  The occasion?  5 years of marriage.  It's been quite an adventure and I can't imagine doing it with anyone else!  

 2 weeks and counting and we are on a plane back to Brazil.  This has been the perfect ending to our time here.  I'm not QUITE ready to return, but I will be in two weeks.  It's all been just wonderful but our hearts are starting to turn towards Brazil and become anxious to be back.

Whirlwind Stop through Chi-town

We're in route on our way back to Brazil.  The first stop has been a whirlwind trip through Chicago to return our car and visit our supporting church.  Monday we fly out to the west coast.  It's been a few visits since walking around downtown and visiting Moody, so we went for a trip Thursday morning.  

We met up with my "little" cousin Jon who goes to Moody and went to chapel.

 I put "little" in quotes because as you can see it is no longer the truth!

 It was super fun getting to go to a worship chapel at our old school and visit Jon.  So much has changed to keep Moody up with the times, but it is still the same in so many ways...still that awesome passion for training the next generation for ministry.  It's so encouraging to see that.

After chapel we walked around downtown for about a half hour or so.  It's hard to do too much with a baby in tow, but it was a beautiful day so that was a plus.  

Elijah and me...love the ladybug cow "crawling" up the building.

Jeyson and Elijah in front of the new Trump tower...a new addition to the skyline since our Chicago days.

 This if a far too familiar scene lately as we've been doing a lot of traveling and much more to come before arriving in Brazil in January.

 While we've been in the US we've been buying a few essentials that we don't have in Brazil or are way more expensive and/or bad quality, such as a toddler car seat.  I can not even begin to tell you how overwhelming all of the decision making has been!  I mean, looking through options can be hard even for Americans, but coming from Brazil where we often have 2-3 choices, shopping in the US seems like an extreme sport to us!    It just boggles your mind to compare all of the options, prices, etc.

 We've been staying this weekend with my old college roommate and her husband.  It's been nice and encouraging to see them.  It has also been nice to get into the Christmas spirit too since we didn't get to decorate in Ohio (since we were leaving town).  So it's been a nice little perk in route.

Elijah and Clara (their daughter)

Helping to cook at Katie's house

And a double duet with Katie and Dan who are both musicians

 As fun as it all has been though, I would greatly appreciate prayer for travel grace.  I know it sounds like I meant to say travel mercies....referring to safety along the way.  Yes, we would like prayer for safety, but what I really mean is travel grace....the grace to make it through all this traveling!  I have enjoyed every one of our stops, but I am SO ready to no longer be living out of a suitcase.  I want my socks to be a in a drawer, not a zip of my suitcase! And oh how I long for a routine and no more changing time zones!!!  And based on the way things are looking at this moment, the "fun" has just begun.  More on this in a blog coming soon, but plans are coming together to move to a different base as soon as we get to Brazil.  So please pray for us, for travel mercies....and travel grace!

Christmas Good Byes

In the few months we've been in OH, we have really come to care about the wonderful missionaries who serve with MMS.  Some are apprentice families who are in training to be sent to another mission field and some are long term missionaries to MMS who run the training program.  They have all been very welcoming and made us feel part of the family.  Before we left Ohio, we got to be present at the annual Christmas party.  It is held at one of the missionary family's homes.  The family is from South Africa and their home is a gorgeous log cabin that is so open and spacious.  It fit all 80 of us!

 We all sat around in a big circle and the kids played on mattresses in the middle...

 While we sang Christmas carols and heard a message.

 I think Christmas carols are always moving since they remind us of Christ's coming to save us and they also remind us of so many Christmas memories from childhood...

 But I don't know...this time of being together singing songs especially chocked me up.  Maybe it was singing Christmas songs in English...something we rarely do in Brazil.  Or maybe it was just being together with people from many different countries, going to many different countries, all sitting together and singing about and to the same God.  Or maybe it was not knowing when and if we will ever see some of these friends again since we're all headed in different directions around the globe...All I know is it was the absolute perfect way to kick of Christmastime and wrap up our time in Ohio at once.

 Here is a (blurry) picture of two of the couples we've gotten to know more while in Ohio.  One is probably headed to Papua New Guinea and the other will be serving with an organization in Florida.  It will be so fun to follow their stories over the internet as they continue on their journeys.  

 Heather (who I also posted about with her play group) and her husband Andy have also been super sweet and encouraging friends.  They are from Scotland and will be probably headed to Africa in a year...though they're not sure of the details yet.  

 And Deb is the owner of the house.  She and her husband have been so welcoming and her husband has been one of Jeyson's main mechanic "mentors".  

 On one other final evening, we stopped by to have dinner with the Fischer's.  (They are the ones probably going to Papua New Guinea).  They are expecting their third baby very soon but still were so nice to have us over. 

 We were especially thankful to have them as our friends since our kids enjoyed playing together and they were so super generous with everything you can imagine for Elijah (pack and play, clothes, you name it).  It was so nice and encouraging to us to have our needs met and hope we were able to be an encouragement to them on their journey as well.  

As I type this post we are already in the Chicago area, where we are returning our car and visiting our supporting church for a few days.  In a matter of weeks we'll be across the world...very far from little Coshocton.  But we'll be bringing these friends with us in our memories, prayers, and in our facebook news feeds :)

Ohio Friendships

This morning we left Ohio for Chicago to begin our several step journey back to Brazil.  But before I  move on to current blog topics, there are a few aspects of our trip that I didn't blog about that I still want to in the coming days.  

One of the things that I loved during our time in Ohio was getting to know women in the community.  I signed Elijah up for the library story time and through the group I made a few friends with women from the Coshocton area.  I also began going to a mothers and toddlers play group at a church that one of the girls from the mission leads.  In both of these settings it was wonderful to spend time with and build friendships with other moms that I never would have otherwise.  It was even fun to connect some of the friends from the library group with the play group.  Here are few pictures from the play group...

 All the kids play with toys while the mothers have two wonderful hours to spend time talking.

 Ahh...so relaxing and such a great time of encouragement since being a mom can be a lonely endeavor at times!

 Heather, the one who leads and organized the group, is from Scottland.  When she arrived in the area she began to notice that a group like this is a real need for moms and started the group at her church.  She is just the sweetest and most encouraging friend and all the moms can really see God's love through her life and work to run the group.

 I had the privilege of keeping the group going for a few weeks when Heather was traveling.  It wasn't a big deal but I was so glad to have been part of the great project Heather has going.  It really reminded me of the importance of building friendships with other moms.

Heather even does a little music time at the end with the kids

 I will definitely miss all the of fun and friendships I made during the time in OH and I'm so thankful for  the internet so that I can keep in touch even from Brazil!

Yay!

This just in....Jeyson passed the practical part of his FAA mechanics test too!

Yesterday and today Jeyson was followed around by an inspector who asked him to do a bunch of mechanical work and also asked him oral questions (explain why this....  what would you do in this case....etc).

And he passed everything!   

(And he only even got 2 wrong out of the 96 questions of the oral section!) 

I'm so proud of my husband for stepping up and taking on a challenge he didn't even need to take on (he is already certified as a mechanic in Brazil) just for the sake of learning and doing so well in such as short time of studying!  I can't wait to see how God uses his mechanic skills even more in Brazil with the new level of studying he has put in!

Visit to the Homeland....aka NJ

I have quite a few posts to catch up on since we've been traveling.  The first leg of our trip was to NJ where we visited our home church and supporters and family.

Eli did great in the car, all things considered.

The first stop was him meeting his great-grandpa!

Grandpa loved Elijah and kept saying over and over how beautiful/pretty he is.  Then, he would apologize for saying that about a boy and then do it again haha!  So sweet!  Elijah loved grandpa's slippers and sat on his lap for some pictures once he got over his initial shyness.  

The next day was Elijah's birthday!

Birthday breakfast at Grammy's house....looking SO big!

There wasn't much we could think of to make his birthday special in the cold weather, but we brought him to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table

And he also loved snuggling with the stuffed animals

He fell into a super deep sleep in the car on the way to get some NJ pizza and missed the whole thing, though I'm not complaining, we got a lot more talking in :)

There's nothing like a slice of "pie" from NJ!  I loved the flavors available at this mom and pop shop...buffalo chicken

eggplant parmesan, 

And chicken caesar salad pizza...seriously can't beat that! 

That evening we had dinner with Grammy (Elijah's great grandma), who's house we were staying at.  He got spoiled with a few gifts.

And into bed he went

This huge bear was not a gift...it was just around the house.  We could never fit that into our bags to go to Brazil!  But he loved wrestling with it!

The next day we met a bunch of our supporters and friends from NJ for lunch at Wegmans.  We had a nice turn out...we were 15 people all together.  It was a fun, encouraging time, but forgot to get a picture.

Then, we went straight to visit my lifelong friend, Katie, and her family for the evening.

We slept there since it is close to our home church where we spoke the next morning.  We were so blessed to have 15 minutes to share about what we've been up to, but it's still so hard to fit it all in!  We were very encouraged to see old friends and to know people are keeping up with us and praying for us from even so far away.

Last stop was a family get together at Grammy's house Sunday afternoon.  They were all so thoughtful and celebrated Elijah's birthday while they were at it.  

Elijah did not get the concept of blowing out the candle.  Instead he started touching the icing and then even trying to touch the flame!  He LOVED the frosting on his cupcake and he started reaching across the table and touching putting his fingers in and licking every cupcake he could get at :)

Part of the Ciotta clan

We had a wonderful, whirlwind of a time in NJ and were so glad we were able to visit with so many people in such a short time.  From NJ we headed down to Virginia for Thanksgiving.  A post on that coming soon!

On the way Elijah saw and touched snow for the first time!!  So fun!