Focusing

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.

1. Arrived at Portland International Airport with 17 bags to check (each packed almost to the 70 pound limit), 4 wheeled carry-ons, two backpacks, 1 computer bag and 1 double stroller
   • Arrived three hours before flight time
   • Though the United ticket agents we all there, no other passengers were
   • We had between 2-3 agents working with us for about 45 minutes to get us all checked in.  They were all very helpful, and even upgraded us to economy plus for our international portion of the trip.  We had also underestimated the number of checked bags by one (we checked 17 instead of the 16 we had thought) and they waived it through telling us not to worry about the excess baggage fee for that last bag
   • Ate lunch and said our farewells to our parents
   • Left on-time to Chicago

1. Arrived in Chicago
   • Had 40 minutes to get a bite to eat
   • Left on-time to Sao Paulo

1. Arrived in Sao Paulo
   • At immigration we were almost immediately directed to the short priority line (only used for airline staff, pregnant ladies and families with small children)
   • The guy who directed to the shorter line, was waiting for us at baggage claim with three of his friends
   • I showed them the yellow MTS Travel Agency bag tags that were on each of our bags
   • They pulled each and every bag off the conveyor belt and loaded them up onto the carts
   • Our trains of 5 baggage carts, lead by Marla and the stroller went through customs
   • We all got into a couple elevators, and went up to check into our domestic flight
   • Our baggage train pulled right up to the counter and we took about 30 minutes to check in
   • From stepping off of our flight, going through immigrations, baggage claim, customs, re-checking our baggage back through security into the waiting area took 1 and a half hours!
2. The flight to Londrina was delayed about an hour
   • The reason they told us from the cockpit was that there were too many heavy bags.  Some of them had to be transferred to another flight
   • All of our bags arrived.  We were greeted at the airport by several people who formed a sort of fireman’s line into the awaiting van.
3. The girls traveled great!  Both Noelle and Samara slept most of the first night, and they made friends with people around us everywhere we were.

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