Gramma ‘laska’s side of the stoy

2000 words a day, isn’t that what girls are supposed to speak… This is probably an understatement for Samara who is quite the little conversationalist. And now she is singing and telling stories in Portuguese. One of her favorite things to do is talk to people on Skype and one of her favorite people to talk to is her Gramma ‘laska. Below is an email that Gramma ‘laska sent after a recent Skype conversation with Samara.

Somehow, I found myself smiling with a little chuckle under my breath all day long. How could I not be full of joy after the sweet, sincere Portuguese Bible lesson on Skype that began my morning. Just like she did it every day, Samara got her Bible and explained that this part was in English and this part was in Porgutuese and wanted to read me a story in Portuguese. I couldn’t understand the words, but the eyes and hands told it all. This was an important message! “Now I will tell you in English,” my tiny teacher offered. I heard about God’s name, his love, his death on the cross to forgive me, and that he loves14 and 22 hundred people all at the same time! I was informed that I would die and go to heaven first, then she would grow up to be a grandma and come to heaven and we would be together EVERY DAY…but maybe she might die first…we really didn’t know. I was instructed to be sure and tell Grandpa ‘Laska that he would be in heaven with us, too. And Gma and Gpa Oregon…and Noelle…and Uncle Josh and lots more people. When I sugggested Samara tell her daddy the story she just told me, she informed me that he already knew all about it.
Then the topic turned to the Israelites as Samara thumbed through the pages looking for the right place. The Portuguese version of the story was quite lengthy, once again filled with expression and gestures and was followed by an English translation. Those Israelites marched around SEVEN times and that wall just fell right down. “And this is a TRUE story!!” she emphasized. After that came the Porgutuese counting lesson way past seven…all the way to thirty.
Noelle joined her sister in front of the camera with a pile of books of her own. So eager to be like big sister, Noelle’s storytelling is on its way! The dancing eyes and big smile tell it all. After the 5 minute warning that it was naptime for the girls and work time for Grandma, Noelle blew kisses and we said out goodbyes. I logged off and was preparing to leave for work when a Skype call came right back to my computer. “Never forget, I love you Grama’Laska. Bye.”
“Never forget, I love you Samara, Bye”
I think everyday in heaven with you will be almost too good to be true!

Special Delivery

Samara and Noelle were conviently occupied with markers, glue and glitter as I descretely locked the door between the kitchen and dining/living room. As the girls sat as the dining room table happily glittering their freshly colored snowmen, a little white pickup pulled up to our gate and honked. Micah snuck out to help unload a very special delivery.

This was the girls Christmas present from Gramma and Grampa Oregon and Gramma and Grampa ‘laska.

They were just a LITTLE BIT excited!! A few minutes later after we’d explained that this was a present from their grandparents, Samara got a funny look on her face and asked “How did they fit it in a box?” She thought that like all of the other great suprises and presents that have arrived in Brazil from Grammas and Grampas that this playhouse must have come in the mail. This little pink house has been the location of many a giggle, a kitchen for making cookies, a nursery for armloads of dollies, a jungle gym for Noelle as she climbs in and out of windows, a hopital for sick stuffed animals and it was even caroled by Micah and I on Christmas eve as we “visited” the girls with a plate of cookies singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas. And I have a feeling that this special delivery will keep on delivering fun and laughter for years to come.

Day at the farm

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!!!

Where Do Ants Live?

Prior to moving to Brazil, I figured that ants lived in the ground or maybe a tree or maybe even in the walls.  Since moving here… I’m leaning that it isn’t always so.  We have found colonies of ants living in our cupboards behind the coffee can, in our mail basket, in our copy machine/scanner and most recently in the circuits and battery compartment of a digital voice recorder.  We have no idea what attracts them or why they decide to take up residence and lay their eggs in places where there is no hiding or no protection… but for some reason they do.  Our can of raid has been a constant companion these days!

Feira

There are moving markets here. Different days of the week they are in different locations around the city. The one closest to our house is on Saturday mornings. Mostly there are sellers of fruits and veggies, but also word work, some meats and fish, cheese and spices as well as random other things. It’s always fun to go and often we let the girls pick out whatever fruit or vegetable they want.

Saturday morning at the Feira (market)...

my weakness, wonderful ready to eat mangos.

Beans, beans, beans

This is our favorite place to buy fresh roasted coffee.

About 8 pounds of oranges for $1.50. We drink a whole lot of delicious fresh squeezed OJ.

Cleaning supplies anyone? These brooms totally rock!

Who needs Ross?

You can even buy replacement straps/rubber toe things for your flip flops!

Thursday Nights

Our church here in Maringa has six services each week. One of these is on Thursday nights. I’ve been helping in the Children’s Ministry Department on these nights. There is an average of 100 kids coming between ages 3-12. We started doing something a little different on these nights. We are offering “courses” After worship time the kids all go to specific classes. There are guitar lessons, painting, English and ballet to name a few. This is a way for the kids to learn new skills as well as have more of a small group Bible/devotion time. I am one of the teachers in the English class with kids from 5-12 years old. I’ve come to love these kids and look forward to Thursday nights!

one to ten race between teams

worship time

busy budding artists

Samara loves her ballet class

guess what letter I am?

practicing the alphabet by writing letters on a partners back and having them guess the letter

Better than Christmas

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

Casamento (Wedding)

Spent a wonderful weekend in Londrina for the wedding of our very good friends Wesley and Rosiane. They were part of a discipleship group that Micah led. Samara and Noelle were invited to sleep over at Aunt Gwen’s (fellow OMS missionary). Samara was SUPER excited as Gwen is one of her favorite people and she remembered the last time they’d stayed with Gwen they’d had red Jello! It was a full weekend as we tried to take advantage of our time and see as many friends as we could. The Wedding was beautiful and we were blessed and honored to be padrinhos. Brazilians do not have bridesmades and groomsmen who stand up with them, they have special people/couples who come in before the bride and are seated somewhere special. In this wedding we were one of 16 couples!!

All dressed up and no children in sight!

our entrance (the camera was in the hands of teenagers most of the night...got lots of silly and blurry pictures)

beautiful traditional ceremony...you can see us off to the right sitting at the table, I'm kinda peeking around Micah's shoulder

Happily Hitched!!

the happy couple being pelted with rice and rose petals. They left the reception for about 2 hours to go take pictures all around town.

We all snacked on finger foods while they were gone. And dinner was served at about 11pm

The cake is not real and is rented just for pictures...somewhere in the back was a real cake that was served at about 1:30am

Back to Class

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.

But Mom…

(whiney three year old voice) “But Mom, I just want one teeny weeny piece.” But Mom, I’m feeding my dolly right now.” But Mom, I need a few more minutes.”
It seems that every time Samara is asked to do something her first response is “But Mom…” This has been driving me nuts the past few weeks and we’ve been working on and practicing doing what Mommy asks the FIRST time without whining or complaining.
We practiced saying “Ok Mommy” and doing whatever was asked right away. We tried “redo’s” where Samara got a chance to “redo” the situation and make a different choice. This seemed to make no change in her usual first response so we moved on to consequences such as losing the toy, book, piece of candy, privilege that was causing the delay, and her being able to earn it back with an “Ok Mommy” response later on. Why does it make me crazy when she doesn’t do what I ask the first time? I’m not exactly sure but it has to do with respect and obedience, being heard and listened to. I’m the Mom, she’s the kid and I expect her to obey. I love her so so so much and desire only the best for her, and to me part of helping her is to teach her to choose obedience and respect.

On my walk this afternoon I felt God tap tapping me on the shoulder and I realized that as of late my first response to God has been “But God…” When He prompts me to talk to someone, when He says “stop, sit and spend time with me.” “But God, I’m on my way somewhere, But God there’s laundry to fold, floors to scrub, little girls to play with and diapers to wash. But God I’m tired and would rather take a nap. But God, I’ll do it later, But God, but God…

I wonder if it makes Him as crazy as it makes me? I know that He just wants me to choose Him above all else. Why is that so hard sometimes?

WHEW

WHEW…

Pretty much sums up our wonderful and whirlwind trip to the states.
Spent a fantastic week with my parents in the Homer area where
We enjoyed catching and eating fresh red salmon, A backyard hot dog roast complete with gooey s’mores, hunting for frogs in the pond, wresting with Uncle Josh, reading lots of stories, sharing with Homer Christian Church, doing puzzles with great Gramma “Nana”, playing on the pirate ship, bouncing on the trampoline with Aunt Heather, taking advantage of Gramma and Grampa and going on a date! and picnicking on Whiskey Gulch. It was a great time.

From Homer we headed to Sitka where Micah’s brother lives and spent a week enjoying
Some of the local hiking trails, visiting the library, hanging out with family, getting to know Emily’s family, hosting a bachelor party (Micah=), ironing groomsmen outfits, picnicking on an island, kayaking, being happily surprised when Josh and Heather walked on the plane and spent the week with us, staying up late, eating well at rehersal dinner, spray painting signs, taking care of last minute wedding errands and most of all being there to share in Aaron and Emily’s big day!!

From Sitka it was on to Newberg where it felt like summer time with motorcycle rides, cold watermelon, reconnecting with friends, burgers on the grill, Tuesday night prayer meeting, reading stories on Gramma’s lap, a day at the beach, playing with the water hose, enjoying the neighborhood park, thrift store shopping, munching popcorn at a local concert, jumping on the tampoline and buying things like pancake syrup and coffee creamer.

Whew…as I said it was a wonderful whirlwind!
Check out some pictures on the pictures and videos page

REAL! Fishing

I’m in Alaska with my Gramma and Grampa ‘laska and we are having SO much fun.
My Grampa built me and my sister a play house and a pirate ship in his backyard
and I love to “walk the plank.” I also make yummy food in my playhouse kitchen.
One day we went fishing in Grampa’s boat. I had to wear a special jacket to keep me
safe. We rode in the boat to a place called Tutka Bay Lagoon and there were lots
of other boats there. Mommy and Daddy got out on the beach to fish and I stayed
on the boat. A few minutes later with BIG eyes I said ” This is REAL fishing, I’ve never
done REAL fishing before only pretend fishing!!” I was super super super excited.
My Grampa had a special little fishing pole for me to use and he helped me catch my first
red salmon. Alaska is so FUN! My Great Gramdma ‘Nana’ is here visiting also and we are all making
lots of memories together.  You can see lots more pictures on our picture and videos page.

Set The Hook!!!

Proud fishergirl

Heart Melting

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

Are we there yet?

The attached PDF file is a small description of our most recent travels here in Brazil.  It also details what the next several weeks hold in store for us.  Cars, airplanes, campers and car seats just to name a few.  To read more click the following link Are we there yet.

Lar Betania (Bethany House)

 

                     There is an orphanage here in town that is sponsored by the church that we work with.  Many of the short term mission teams that come to Brazil spend time doing work projects around the property.  But mostly they love to come and play with the kids.  There are about 30 kids there now and they live divided in 5 houses with house parents/mothers.  The kids are from 10 months to late teenage years.  Few are true orphans the others have parents who are incapable (drug addicts, in prison…) of taking care of the child.  We have spent time at the orphanage when work teams are here and lately I’ve been taking the girls over on Saturday mornings just to play.  We usually show up as the kids are finishing up their chores.  As we start to play on the playground kids wander over and before I know it Noelle is in the charge of three or four “mothering” 8-12 year olds and Samara is giggling and testing out her growing Portuguese vocabulary.  I love to just sit and watch the kids play, to have Elle come and hold my hand and, to have Erik ask me to take pictures of him doing “stunts”, to hear their laughter and to have a pocket full of candies to hand out.  Below are just a few pictures of these sweet kids.

getting dizzy

Erik the stunt man

Who says that carting off piles of leaves isn't fun?!

Samara and her new friends playing house

Crutches smutches...I cruise pretty fast with my plastic chair

Finger fencing championship of the world!

A little help

National Tragedy

Why they lost?  Well, from my point of view… they lost their cool.  Could this meltdown have been avoided.   Hmmm, I don’t know.  You see, what makes Brazilian soccer fun to watch, as I have seen and as it has been explained to me by others, is that you can see that they are having fun when they play.  This wearing of emotions on their sleeves opens the game up to creativity and experimentation.  Brazilians like not just to win, but play beautifully with finesse.  Theirs is not a game of cold and calculated play, it is a game of emotion and creativity.  To ask them to play without emotion, would to make them un-Brazilian.  Do I wish they had won… yes!  Do I wished they’d have calmed down put their emotions in check and played their game…yes.  But I guess the show goes on, and our flag at least for a time, is at half mast.

Making the transition

I guess in hindsight, it was a good thing when I called Marla with some bad news from the Sao Paulo Airport.  My flight out of Chicago (I had spent the previous week in OMS meetings in Indiana) had already been delayed 24 hours due to severe thunderstorms.  When I arrived in Sao Paulo, I was informed that my connecting flight was already full.  On the phone I told Marla that I was put on a later flight, and for a moment it was quiet on the other end of the phone.  Then she said with obvious disappointment in her voice  “if I come to pick you up from the airport when you get in, I’ll miss watching the Brazil World Cup soccer game.”

It wasn’t “I’m sorry Micah,” or “It’s already been a week since we’ve last seen you, I miss you and I’ll jump right in the car for the hour and a half drive to come get you:” it was “I’m going to have to miss the game!!”

I won out in the end and she  loaded up the girls and tuned in the radio for the drive.  In truth I was/am happy that she’s enjoying this World Cup season and she can now talk intelligent soccer with the ladies at church (yes I’m serious… this is Brazil after all).

Below is a picture of Noelle’s latest feat.  We call it “hey, I can look out the window now all by myself!”

FRIENDS

     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

Wave Watching

I guess I’ve always imagined that when Peter was walking on water, what took his attention away from Jesus was a general curiosity and an ADHD inability to focus.  A “hey check this out, ain’t it cool” type of thing.  But recently I’ve began to wonder if it wasn’t something a little more.  Something that at one time or another will effect us all.  To read more read the PDF file Wave Watching.  And don’t forget to check out our picture page.

All in a days Walk

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.

Noelle gets tired on our 5 block walk and sits down anywhere she finds a seat

taking a rest on a brick

headed home

Wherever there is a construction site you see these wooden frames on the street for mixing up concrete

People rely on more than just dogs for security

barbed wire, razor wire and an electric fence

Even though it’s almost winter time there are still beautiful flower and plants that we enjoy

beautiful poinsettia growing on the gate next door

Here we are at home sweet home

Thanks for taking a walk with us this afternoon, hope you enjoyed this little taste of the neighboorhood