July 29, 2010
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
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July 19, 2010
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
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July 19, 2010
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.
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July 6, 2010
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
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July 3, 2010
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.
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June 24, 2010
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!”
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June 15, 2010
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
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June 9, 2010
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.
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May 28, 2010
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
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May 18, 2010
For those of you who might be confused over the title of this post, at least 1 of 2 things are true.
1. You do not know how hard it is to find peanut butter overseas
2. You do not know how my wife loooooves her peanut butter
Of all the sacrifices it is to live in Brazil, perhaps none has been as great for Marla as living without peanut butter. They do have peanuts here in Brazil, but people here haven’t developed the taste for peanut butter so it is almost impossible to find. And when you do find it the in the import section of some supermarkets, the jars are small and so ridiculously expensive that we’ve never bought it. So until recently, the gift of good peanut butter was something only a visitor could bring.
Oh don’t get me wrong, I did try to make some. I’d first buy the peanuts, then I’d roast them. After roasting them in the oven, I’d take each one of those red papery skin things off of each peanut. Then I’d roast them again. After their second roasting, I’d put them in a mini-food processor and blend them up adding oil and salt. The process took about 2 hours to yield about 2 cups of peanut butter.
But then about a month ago, I saw in a health food store dry, roasted, salted peanuts, without the little red skins. Oh my goodness, how my heart jumped. Not only did this store have salted peanuts, but they had unsalted as well. Sooooo after trial and error, I have discovered that 1.3 kilos of unsalted peanuts (that I have to roast again) + .7 kilos of salted peanuts + a cuisanart + about 40 minutes of work yields almost 5 pounds of delicious peanut butter for about the same price as you can buy it at Cosco! Oh how God is good, and life can go on!
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May 13, 2010
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
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April 29, 2010
As the girls continue to grow, we increasingly are becoming aware of phases. There are toys that aren’t used anymore, and clothes that are now too small. In so many ways, life has changed for our little ones. But what we are finding out, is that phases aren’t just for kids. Lately, we’ve been coming face-to-face with the fact that there are phases in ministry as well. To read more click the following link: Phases The relating pictures can be found on our pictures and videos page.
In a completely unrelated note, a few days ago I was joking around with Marla about the size of my head. I said “Marla you just don’t know how hard it is to carry this thing around all day” To which she responded “sure I do, it’s like being pregnant on your head.” hmmm, nothing spiritual there, but it did make me laugh.
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April 16, 2010
Today was my first day of pweschool in Brazil. Mommy and Daddy have been talking with me for a long time about going to school and making friends and learning more Portadeese (Portuguese). This morning I woke up SO essicited but nervous. Daddy made me waffles for bwreakfast and I got to put on my new school clothes that I wear just for school. I was so proud and Daddy took my picture. School was gwreat, I went on a slide and a trampoline and think I went on something else. The bunny, we petted him and he runned
away, the turtle was a gwreat swimmer and the chicken was in the sink. I had a teacher and some new friends. I was very essicited but I missed my Mommy, I had SO SO SO SO SO much fun that I asked when I can go back again.
All wheady for my first day
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April 12, 2010
Start with two days, add 175 kids ages 5-11, mix thoroughly with 15 counselors, sprinkle in over 250 pieces of luggage, toss in a few handfuls of homesick tears, spice it up with a variety of games and activities, combine with Christ centered teaching and top it all off with a torrential, unrelenting downpour and you’ve got the recipe for an unforgettable time…
Getting groovy
one of my new buddies
clowning counselors
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April 9, 2010
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.
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April 1, 2010
It’s amazing how easy it is to travel 40+ hours without small children and all their paraphernalia. I found myself listening to music and reading for pleasure!! Not to mention napping at my every whim. Aahhh vacation. After a year and a half of saving pennies and tax returns, Nairobi, Kenya was my destination as my best friend Kim lives works and was getting married there. So off I went all by my lonesome for two weeks filled with hanging with college girlfriends, Kenyan safari, market shopping, tea farm tour, seeing a glimpse of Kim’s life, meeting her fiancé, and ending up with a week at a little resort on the Kenyan coast with a simply beautiful wedding ceremony on the final night to top it all off. Stayed in a cottage with three girlfriends, had a personal chef who greeted us each morning with crêpes and fruit and cooked up the most delicious fresh seafood every night for dinner. I lounged by the pool, took long walks on the beach, snorkeled at a beautiful reef, and spent time getting to know Kim’s friends, fiancé and family. Oh yeah and I missed my husband and my girls!!! This was the longest I’d been away from my girls ever. So while I was off relaxing on the beach Micah was home doing a stellar job playing Mr. Mom for his two weeks of vacation. I’m so glad I went and so blessed to have spent time supporting and celebrating with Kim and Will. This really was an amazing trip. Micah totally LOVED his time with the Samara and Noelle and was blessed by several friends here who helped out with the girls and some meals here and there. Both Samara and Noelle adore their Daddy and this time with him all to themselves was really special. I know that Micah had a great time but he did say that he’d seen enough poopy behinds to last him a long long time. So here I am back home, and Micah is back to work and our routine is getting kind of normal again and I love it. The nonstop 3 year old chatter, Noelle climbing onto the top of the dining room table and clapping with pride, reading the same story 13 times in one day, eating beans and rice and rice and beans, cramming every possible moment of the 2 hour nap time full of emails, housework, blogging…warm little bodies climbing onto my lap with favorite blankies for a quick snuggle. I guess it’s the paraphernalia that makes life life.
for more pictures of this trip see the pictures and videos page!
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March 15, 2010
Doubts come in all shapes and forms, and often spring up from difficult circumstances or unexpected events. But what do you do when you’re absolutely sure that God has placed you where he wants you, but it isn’t as easy as you had expected? The following PDF file deals with that question as God challenged me once again to quit toying with a “back up plan.” Nope, we’re to be here sink or swim, no plan B. For more information please read Killing Plan B
Marla is in Kenya attending her best friends wedding. It’s great that she can be there, and I’m having a great time with the girls… though it is a lot harder to do anything else during the day. Thanks for your prayers
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March 3, 2010
posing for Daddy
Been singing "I got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart!"
Tucking Samara into bed is one of my favorite times of the day. We both share our “thankful for” things of the day, then we talk about what we want to pray about and follow that by taking turns praying. Lastly I sing a song that my Mom sang to me and my brothers as we were tucked in at night. It’s to the tune of Alleluia, Alleluia but we sing “Mommy loves you, Daddy loves you…and go on with all the people I can think of who love Samara. Many of you reading this are in her bedtime song each night. Tonight as I was praying I thanked Jesus for loving us and for his presence in us . After I prayed Samara was really quiet for a minute then she said “Do you think Jesus likes to hug my bones?”
“What” was my reply thinking that I’d misunderstood her
“You said Jesus is inside us, does He hug my bones?”
“Well….Honey I bet Jesus loves to hug your bones and your heart, and all of you.”
BIG smile “Jesus loves me, Mommy loves me, Daddy loves me, Noelle Loves me…..”
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February 23, 2010
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!
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February 20, 2010
Just posted a few pictures of the move and our first weeks here in Maringa. Thanks everyone for you prayers, comments and emails. We appreciate you!
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I’m in Alaska with my Gramma and Grampa ‘laska and we are having SO much fun.
micahandmarla