Blueberry smoothie!!
Lets play wedding
Dressed up for ballet...made Mommy and Daddy want to sing "all the single ladies"
"I'm a weeeel mommy"
Oh little Luiza is so tiny and sweet
Baby Luiza likes me!
MUD PIESQ
Nemo and Poinsetta...our surprises for going 20 nights diaper free and dry!
Daddy brought home two kites!
We went to a park with Gramma and Grampa Oregon to fly our new kites and it was FUN! My favorite part of the whole day was when my Daddy had to climb up high in a tree to get the kite out. Mommy took some pictures and here they are….
Faster Daddy
This is the coolest thing ever!
...up to the highest hight...
Gramma, look at my kite!
Uh Oh...my kite got stuck in a tree and Daddy went after it just like a monkey...and he got it!
I'm on top of the jungle gym
Playing in the sand
I love being a Mom to two such different little girls.
Noelle is two years and two months old and a total riot!
She runs everywhere she goes and pumps her little right arm to grandiose proportions. The loud slap, slap of her feet on the tile floors precedes her big entry into whatever room she’s heading. She’s got these big beautiful eyes that look up sweetly as she says “peeeeese” (please) and those same big eyes produce some big tears and lots of snuggle time when she’s sad. Noelle is my wake up slowly, snuggly time on mommy’s lap is high priority little girl. Temper? Yes! Foot stomper? Yes! Usually both feet alternating. Seeing how Samara never stomped her feet and neither do Micah or I, we’re not sure where she picked that one up. Noelle is just starting to talk more and she mixes her English and Portuguese together. “Mais juice por favor” or “Sis brincar with me” lately she’ll come into the kitchen grab my hand, look up and say “mahahn.” This mean come on!! She’s blessed with a kind of deep and super loud voice.
Noelle’s favorite person in the world is Samara or “Sis” as she calls her. They are super great playmates, and it’s fun to listen in to the conversations they have while playing together. Noelle loves to “go out” for walks. She is always picking up sticks and rocks and stuffing them into her pockets. She is forever thrusting handfuls of flowers in various states of mashedness into my hand, and she has reminded me just how cool ants really are. The cupboard in the kitchen where the mixer lives makes a little squeak. When Noelle hears me open that cupboard she comes running, knowing there will be beaters involved. Noelle loves to wrestle and rough house and climb all over her personal jungle gym, aka. Daddy. Noelle gives the BEST hugs ever, and always kisses people on both cheeks. This little bundle of laughter and energy brings endless giggles and noise to our home and joy to our hearts!
Samara is four years and one month old and is a very sweet and very busy little girl.
dancing
She wakes up with her mind already full of the things she want to do. Play dress up, make a pretend cake, dress dollies, organize her closet…so much fun to be had that she has to get going right now! No time to snuggle for this girl, time’s a wasting. (never was a snuggler, more like holding a bag of antlers) Samara skips everywhere she goes and usually has some sort of song on her lips. Many of them are original compositions in either English or Portuguese. Samara is creative and is forever making up games like “tumble bumble” where we take all the cushions and pillows from the couch and cover the floor then “tumble and bumble” in them. She loves to draw and color and practice writing the alphabet and her name. We do lots of crafty things that involve glue and glitter and buttons and markers and stickers. As she says “I’m pretty good at making messes!” Samara is happy to stay home and play, often not wanting to go out, but always ends up having loads of fun finding bugs, and beetles and pretty flowers on our walks. She likes to “help” mommy around the house and is a great little window washer and laundry folder. Being a big sister makes Samara pretty important around here, she totally loves Noelle and is a very sweet, protective if often bossy big “Sis.” Samara loves stories, and we have lots of books that are well worn. She also loves for Micah or I to make up stories or tell her stories about when we were kids. I once told a story about a little horse named Sparkle and I’m certain I’ve now told hundreds of Sparkle stories as he has become her favorite character. Having devotions in the morning is something Samara never forgets, running to place her little Bible on the table at breakfast time where we spend a few minutes reading and praying together. She often likes to “read” Bible stories to us or to her grandparents via Skype. Dressing up in her princess or ballerina clothes always brings out the dancer in Samara and it’s off to crank up the music and twirl around the living room, usually sweeping Noelle up in the excitement of dress up.
Two girls, so different in so many ways and yet so special and dear to one another and to me. I would love to add some more little ones to our quiver… but God knows better than we do and thus we trust Him and are overwhelmingly thankful for these two sweet, busy, happy, silly little girls that we are blessed to be entrusted with. I thank God for every smile, giggle, tear, pout, fit, hug and moment that I get to be their Mom.
A few weekends ago we had the privilege of hosting a family from a city about four hours north of us. This family has a heart for missions and is beginning the application process with One Mission Society. We have been in email contact with them for several months and we invited them to visit for the weekend. It was a complete delight to have them in our home. Paulo and Fernanda have two daughters Laura and Luana (13 and 9yrs) and our girls thought they were their personal playmates. This family recently sold their business and they are waiting for God’s leading for their next step into missions. We thought it’d be fun to have a cultural experience with them so I made Indian food. And we did not put any silverware in the table. Now to appreciate this you need to know that Brazilians do NOT like to touch their food with their hands. They eat French fries with a fork, pizza with a fork, and always have a napkin wrapped around their sandwich or ice cream cone. So eating chicken curry with our hands was a BIG deal. They were all great sports and kept taking pictures to prove that they had done it. We spend many hours talking and getting to know one another and we are excited to see where the Lord will lead this precious family in the coming months.
Paulo's first bite
I want "Lu" to read my bedtime story
inseparable
New friends
Our Friends Sandro and Sueli invited us to go to the little city of São Jorge do Ivai this past Sunday. The city of about 2000 was having it’s annual Festival of States of Nations. Right from church we loaded up and headed into the Brazilian countryside. Beautiful green rolling hills covered with soybeans, sugarcane and cows filled our windows. Seeing how it was well over 100 degrees this day, we very much enjoyed our air conditioner while listening to Christmas Music in the car. Arriving in the small central square of the city we found it ringed with white tents each featuring cuisine from different countries. We went to the Japanese tent. The only Japanese thing I saw on the menu was Yakisoba. We had a huge hunk of roasted pork and some fish fingers along with rice and salad. Great food, but not very Japanese=0) Sandro is from this small town and so as we wandered around looking at booths and eating ice pops we were introduced to many friends and family.
Next we went to Sandro’s parents house where we had acerola and lime juice, changed the kids clothes and visited a bit. From there we loaded back into the cars and headed further into the country. Sandro’s sister and her family live on a small self supporting farm. Her husband João earns his living by milking about 10 cows a day. On their property they had chickens, mango trees, avocado trees, cows, coconut trees, pinapple plants and their own garden. They made their own butter and produced much of their own food. We spent the afternoon hanging out there. Sitting on the wide porch, relaxing in hammocks, picking fruit from the trees, gathering chicken eggs, swimming and sweating!!! It was a fun day, nice to be out of the city and to spend time with friends.
Samara and Sandro swinging. Notice all the mangos strewn on the ground! HORRIBLE sight for us mango lovers. Funny that when I told them that's how the apples are in Oregon they felt the same way.
Avacado anyone?
Sueli, Noelle and Daniel taking a break
Micah loved that he HAD to climb trees to gather litchi fruit...not sure what we're going to do with all of it=0)
Noelle and her buddy Sandro
Look Sueli, these are the eggs I helped gather
riding high
I LOVE animals and want to hold those chickens
These horses are STINKY!
farm girls
snacking on acerolas...very high in vitamin C
Micah and Sandro picking mangos to bring home
best way to end a HOT day
SPLASHING!
I'm not sweating anymore!!!
My Auntie Andressa was pregnant for a long long long time. I was weeely escited to meet her baby. Finally after a long time baby Leticia was borned, I packed up my suitcase wight away to go visit her. Later we went to Londrina and I got to hold the brand new teeny tiny baby. She was soooo cute and tender. My favorite part was changing her diaper and picking out different clothes to put on the baby. I even got to help give her a bath. I love baby Leticia she is very speical.
I was so happy to meet Leticia and my favorite part was getting to hold her
Hi baby Leticia
she was so cute sleeping in her bed, but I kept asking if we could wake her up and change her clothes
I got to help Auntie Andressa give Leticia a bath, she was wiggly and slippery
Well, after about 4 years since our last language class, Marla and I have once again picked up our books to dive into the wonderful world or Portuguese grammar. The distant dream is that we won’t always speak like gringos, but for now we’ll at least try to be constantly improving. Here you can see our teacher Tiago who’ll be coming to our house for a couple hours every couple of weeks. 
Every now and then, we all encounter moments where we wished we had a camera. Moments that we wish we could freeze in time. Not having a camera at the time, I now want to paint a couple pictures for you of the last two I’ve experienced.
A couple days ago, I got home from about 5 days of meetings at a camp 45 minutes outside of town. When I got home, the idea of “daddy” was once again a novelty, and I got to play dolls, push little girls on swings and everything else I had been missing for the previous days. Then, at bath time, Noelle came tearing down the hall, naked as could be, yelling “papai, papai” (Daddy, Daddy). After Marla took her back into the bathroom, I followed her. When she saw me again, she jumped from Marla’s arms into mine. Then she put her arms around my neck and squeezed for a long time saying quietly “papai, papai, papai.”
Then on Sunday, after church was over, Marla and I went to pick up the girls from their Sunday school class. As their class is in an old converted house, we could look in the room from one window, and see what was going on. Posted at the other window like a sentinel was Samara waiting to catch the first glimpse of us as we rounded the corner. I could see that clutched in her hands were the two gram crackers that she had been given. She had broken each cracker in two separate pieces, so that she clutched four equal sized crackers in her hand. As we picked her up, she carefully distributed one cracker to daddy, one cracker to mommy, one cracker to Noelle and one cracker for herself. Her teacher later told us that she had been saving those crackers during the whole class… just so that she could share with us.
How I wish a picture could fully capture such moments
Definition of Friend according to Webster’s:
Person one likes
We have recently been thinking a lot about friends. Those people whom we like and think about and spend time with and pray for and miss. Being that we live in Brazil and most of you reading this do not, you fall into the pray for and miss category. So recently when the pastor from the church that we worked at in Londrina called and said that they were bringing a group to Maringa for a holiday we were thrilled! Here in Brazil there seems to be many holidays, city ones, state ones, national ones. Most of the time were not even sure why there is a holiday, but try to enjoy it nonetheless. So just over a week ago Micah met this group downtown and played tour guide for them on a drizzly afternoon that eventually brought them to our home for “café da tarde” the afternoon coffee and snack time that Brazilians have every day. The girls and I had made cookies and ham and cheese sandwiches and of course we had coffee. They stayed and visited and we laughed and talked and thoroughly enjoyed our time together!. What a blessing for us to feel like we were not only among persons that we liked, but friends that we love.
Group from Belo Horizonte Church in Londrina
Samara and Isabella
Then we got another phone call from Andressa and Marlon and Wesley and Rosianne saying they wanted to come visit for the weekend. These are two couples that were in Micah’s discipleship group and became some of our closest friends in Londrina. Marlon and Andressa are married and expecting a little girl in August. Wesley and Rosianne are getting married in October. So again we were blessed by time with special friends who we love and who love us and really love Samara and Noelle.
Tooth brushing buddies
Wesley and Noelle
"decorating" Rosianne's hair
breaking in our Churrasco (bar-b-que)
Telling us the story...The directions said to "mix by hand" when Micah turned around Marlon was doing just that!
SUPER special people we like
The girls and I often take walks around the neighborhood in the afternoons when they wake up from their naps. I thought I’d “take” you along with us today…
The biggest reason that Samara and Noelle like to go on walks is to visit all the neighborhood cats and dogs
This little puppy is their favorite, he's not yet been trained as a guard dog so he loves our visits
overflow seating at the bus stop
It’s very normal to see large fancy homes
next door to not so fancy homes
The sidewalks here are pretty uneven, full of tree roots, broken concrete and holes, so pushing a stroller can be quite a workout.
In the five block radius that we normally walk I believe that we are one of three houses that does not have a dog (some have four or five). Here dogs are much more than the family pet, they are an important part of people’s security systems so you never hear someone tell their dog to “be quiet” or “stop barking.” I understand this but at 3am when the whole neighborhood chorus gets going…well you can imagine how understanding I feel.
We often see people going door to door selling things
Broom vendor
Corn on the corner, unfortunately not like the sweet corn we love in Oregon.
taking a rest on a brick
headed home
barbed wire, razor wire and an electric fence
beautiful poinsettia growing on the gate next door
Thanks for taking a walk with us this afternoon, hope you enjoyed this little taste of the neighboorhood
My mother’s day gift bags were many this year…Samara came scampering back and forth from her room her arms laden with gifts. As I opened each bag she explained why she had given me each present. Her dolly and doll blanket because “I love you so much, I want you to have her.” Her jewelry box filled with her jewelry “because you love jewlerrrery Mommy” Her pillow “because I love you so, so, so much Mommy” Item after item that she had picked out from her treasures, and wrapped up specifically to give to me. Then she sang an original Mother’s day song at the top of her lungs that went something like: “Happy Mudder’s day, it’s your Mudders day, Happy Mudders day…” and danced in circles. She presented me with a card that said Happy Mother’s Day. Micah had written the words in yellow marker and she had traced them in blue and was quite proud of herself. Later that evening when we were cleaning up she made sure that all the things she had given me were in my room. Dolly Isabelle was “sleeping” next to my bed and the jewelry box was on my dresser. I did convince her that it was okay if she “borrowed” her pillow back so she could sleep with it. I feel like I got the greatest gift ever. The love of my daughter, love enough to give to me her most prized and treasured possessions. As Micah was tucking her in that night she said “It made me wheeally happy to give all those things to Mommy, because it made her wheeally happy.” Well Samara, It made did make Mommy happy. So happy in fact that I don’t even mind when you “borrow” your jewelry back to dress like a princess.
Special card from a special girl
Well, it happened. Coming from the northwest where the change of seasons is marked by a slow and gradual change of temperature, we are continually amazed how the seasons change here. One day can be sunny, hot and beautiful, and the next can be sunny and beautiful… but yet cold. This changed happened a few days ago, over night quiet literally. It had us scrambling to find clothes that we hadn’t used in such a long time. Things like long sleeves, blankets, socks and crocks.
It’s a bit strange that of the four people in our family, I’d be the one writing a post called “girl stuff,” but oh well.
Lately Samara has discovered a new phrase which she uses any time that she can. That phrase “no way Jose.” We’ve been trying to teach he portuguese, and some how she’s come up with Jose? I don’t know.
Two prayer requests today. The first is for Noelle to get better. We just took her to the doctor yesterday after she had a pretty high fever. The doctor took one look down her throat and nearly jumped when she saw how bad her strep throat was. She’d on antibiotics now, and should be feeling better soon.
The second prayer request is for Samara. I was in her bedroom talking with her the other night. And she explained that she was keeping all the ants that would crawl up her wall at night beside her bed. “They are my friends” she said. “I don’t have any other friends besides the ants and my sister.” The way she said it was so matter-of-fact that it made me laugh. But at the same time it was kind of sad too. So if you all could pray that she’d make a little friend, that’d be great!
Wow time flies when you’re moving between two..or three places. Read the attached PDF to learn what we’ve been up to these past few weeks. Suitcases The pictures will be posted soon!
As Marla and I were driving the other day we were remembering how different life used to be for us here in Brazil. Car seats didn’t used to be a permanent fixture in our car in fact we didn’t even have a car. We remembered the time that Kim, Aaron and Lon all came down at the same time for a visit. We remembered that we did the best we could to provide transportation for our little gang and somehow 
managed to borrow three extra bikes for our friends. Then on our first ride of to a park across the city bike #1, #2, and #3 all broke down within 1.5 miles of each other. Suddenly we had people walking, and getting lost in neighborhoods as we split up in an attempt to get home. Then we remembered how one of our first bikes had a pedal that continually seemed to fall off at the 3.5 miles from home mark, and 
how we’d have to “ride/coast” it back. We laughed as we remembered the city turning the water off for days while we had a houseful of company and taking “showers” in the rain that poured off the roof. We sighed as we remembered the hours we spent studying Portuguese and the labor of trying to communicate with people. We remembered working on our first stove, 
loaned to us from our friend David, with black electrical tape and random wires trying to keep it working after years of sitting on his back porch. I remember trying to play court soccer barefoot after my only pair of soccer shoes ripped out. We remembered eating every day the only meal that we knew how to cook: potatoes, eggs and sausage.
Yeah, things have changed for us this time around. It takes us longer to get out the door, but shorter to get where we are going. We haven’t had to fight against the inconveniences of leaky roofs, jimmy-rigged stoves and not knowing how to communicate, and we eat a much more balanced diet. However we have become responsible for more things, have had to let our friends here know that we will not be staying in this city, have had to see people that we have poured love into not walking with Jesus, had to learn to balance work and family and have a little girl who is really starting to test her limits. Just yesterday in the car Samara said “Daddy loves me… even when I’m having a hard time. Mommy, I love you… even when you’re having a hard time too.” God is good, and we are thankful that He remains the same.
Pictured here is Andressa holding Samara at dinner last night
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this picture ought to be worth at least one and a half of my group emails. There’s been a lot of prayer that has surrounded our moving down here to Brazil. There was the logistics of luggage, bags, transportation, flight schedules and seat assignments; but in my mind all of those prayer requests paled in comparison with the adjustment of our kids (particularly Samara).
Samara was really little when she left Brazil almost a year and a half ago. Being a VERY verbal little girl, she only remembered a handful of Portuguese words, and we know will struggle to communicate. Going to Brazil, we knew she’d be leaving not only most of her toys (a very big deal to a 3 year old) but every one she’s ever remembered. To put it mildly we were concerned for her adjustment.
But all of that was put to rest (but please don’t stop praying) when she got to Andressa’s house. For some reason Andressa has always had some kind of magic when it came to Samara, even when Samara was a little baby. Even though they don’t speak the same language right now, Andressa and a few others still hold that same magic for Samara. In church, Samara grabbed her backpack full of crayons, paper and goldfish crackers to sit with Marlon and Andressa. Through out the service as Noelle was being passed from person to person Samara was running back and forth between Andressa and Mommy (something that is very Brazilian) only to show us the pictures Marlon was drawing and to get more paper, preferring to sit with them over sitting with us. Though she doesn’t yet know the language she knows very much that she is loved. Thanks for your prayers.
As I write now, all three girls are asleep in the guest apartment where we are staying. It is almost noon, and they are getting some well deserved rest. This’ll be a short message just telling of God’s provision in our journey.
Thank you for your prayers. The whole journey was so much smoother than I had expected.
The girls are now awake and getting started on breakfast… I mean lunch, so I better run.
For the only cause that matters,
M&M
This is us at the Portland Airport infront of all of our bags
Noelle passing the time
Wake up to sunshine
Two hours to…
Feed girls
Pack lunches
Gather snacks
Scrounge warm layers
Fill thermos with hot chocolate
Find sleds
Hit the road
Two hours to…
Drive up to Mt Hood’
Pile on the layers
Hike to the hill
One glorious hour of…
Sled rides
Throwing snowballs
Watching spectacular crashes
Enjoying the beauty of the day
Before…
Samara was “fwozen”
Noelle was bleeding (and screaming) from a rogue sled accident
Samara had to go potty
Noelle was hungry
So…
We hauled everyone back to the car
Strapped crying kids into seatbelts
Filled sippy cups with diluted hot chocolate
Rubbed cold toes and hands
Handed out blankies and
Sighed as tuckered out little girls fell into sweet sleep
Two hours…
To drive home
One hour…
To clean up and put everything away
Memories…
That will last forever
I love this stuff
When I first saw it sitting there upon my plate
I knew I wouldn’t like it though my parents said “its great.”
I’ll eat pasta, I’ll eat bread, anything else will do
Please don’t make me try it, I don’t like things that are new
But it didn’t leave, it didn’t go, it just sat in front of me
A lump of goo gone cold made of rice and broccoli.
On my fork, here it came my Daddy’s special “yes bite”
There was nothing left to do but dig in for a long fight.
I reasoned, I explained, I turned my head, I cried
But nothing seemed to change, no matter how hard I tried
“Green eggs and Ham” is what they said trying to get me to open wide
“Sam I am” is what they called me trying to break my pride
They all left, the table cleared, and I sat there by myself
I stared at the goo, and it at me as they started watching “Elf”
Then finally at long last we had a big break through
Mommy said that I could go, if for breakfast I’d eat this goo
Free at last, free at last, my excitement made me spin
I grabbed my dolls, I grabbed my books and finding a chair jumped in
The next morning as the light peeked in, I came up with a plan
I’d tell Mom lunch was better for eating goo that came from a pan
But she didn’t budge, she didn’t buy it, I wasn’t off the hook
The goo was on my breakfast plate and I really couldn’t look
My eyes got red, they filled with tears, I tried to plead my case
Soon the room was empty and my future I glumly faced
How much longer could this go on? It’s time this came to an end
Maybe if I cry loud enough, they’ll give up, they’ll cave in and I’ll win
Three hours later, it’s 11’oclock and I still haven’t taken one bite
I’ve cried, I’ve reasoned, I’ve negotiated and I’m tired of this fight
Then in one last try my Daddy comes walking in
He reaches in the cupboard, and I begin to grin
In his hand is maple syrup, sugary, thick and golden brown
As he gets to my plate, a few delicious drops he puts down
The fork, the goo, and the plate too was covered with sugar so sticky
With tastes so strong, I couldn’t be wrong, it really wasn’t that icky
So remember all you people; grandmas and grandpas, moms and dads
Maple syrup is my secret for anything that might taste bad!
finding the perfect tree
Mommy's helper
decorating fun
bath buddies
I had the most fun time today at this really amazing place. I’d never seen so many other kids before, running, playing, climbing, fussing, whining, laughing, shopping, splashing and creating, it was so great! I especially loved the water room where I got to wear a fun yellow cover up, chew on a rubber duck and splash in the water. Gramma found a slide that was just my size and I clapped my hands and squealed. I went down it over and over. My big sister really had fun too. She was bouncing up and down and so excited about everything. I think her favorite part was shopping for and buying things at the little store and playing with the clay. Mommy and Daddy took lots of pictures so I’ll ask Mommy to post some for you to see on our pictures page.
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