"Preach the gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." Saint Francis of Assisi

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Tooth Fairy Revisited

Remember the loss of the first front tooth and then the great "stolen" tooth dilemma?

As you know, that all got worked out.

About 3 days later Anderson looked like this:

The second one came out. Knocked out really by an accidental elbow from Carys while they were goofing around with Giovanni.

Anderson wasn't shy about showing off his new toothless grin.

And since he noticed that we were taking pictures of people smiling Giovanni figured he had to get in on it as well and asked me to take his picture.

No misplaced tooth this time, tooth removal taken care quickly by big sister, and another visit by the Tooth Fairy which means more stuff. Much smoother experience for Anderson this time and I think he's kind of enjoying this money making deal/sticker earning deal.

I don't think he'll ever be like Carys and pull all of her teeth out on her own, (we've never actually had any of our another kids do what she does) but I think he's getting used to them coming out and I know he's enjoying his visits from the Tooth Fairy.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Honesty

Conversation in the car on the way to school today:

Garrett: "Hey Anderson, let's play I spy."
Anderson: "Okay."
Garrett: "Okay, I'll go first. I spy with my little eye something that is white."
Anderson: "Uh, dad's hair."
Me: "Uh, hey, what? What did you say?"
Anderson: (while Garrett is cracking up) "Nothing. Nothing."
Me: "What did you say boy?"
Anderson: (while Garrett is tickling him to tell the truth) "Okay, I said your hair?"
Me: "That's what I thought you said. Well, at least I still have more dark hair than white hair. I think I'm going to color my hair to make it dark again."
Garrett: "Serious?"
Me: "No."
Anderson: "Well it's your hair. You can do whatever you want with it."
Me: "You know who likes my white hair? Mom. I don't understand why but she does."
Anderson: "Well old people like old people hair when they get old."

Anderson is the king of honesty. He doesn't say things to hurt. He just thinks it and it comes out. We're still trying to work on the filter part of that honesty.

If you are coming to stay with us anytime soon (Traci it's your job to prepare the group and Stephen and Weston you guys have been thoroughly warned by Bronwyn) please be prepared for this little boy. He's a straight shooter.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

When you love God, it will not matter to you what you must suffer on His behalf.

Fenelon

Friday, May 27, 2011

The Season Begins

Our favorite soccer team started the Brasilian championship last weekend. It goes from now until December. We have our first home game tomorrow night.

With our family moving from our house to our new apartment over the next few days I don't know if we will be able to go to the stadium this time but I do know one thing.......we are ready for the season. 

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Busy Weekend-Part 7 for Machado (The Finale)

So this is the last post about Huckle's busy weekend.

And this post is for my great friend Machado.

I will try to share more about him and his family but for now this post is about a soccer game that took place during that weekend.

It was the final of our state championship. It may not sound like a big deal to an American but it's a big deal to a Brasilian.

It's a tournament played at the first of every year to see who is the best team in the state. The winner is usually our team, Internacional, or the other team in our city, gremio.

We, as you know, are fans of Inter. Machado is a fan of gremio.

I really like Machado because he's a gremista (name of fans of gremio) but he's not obnoxious. He's gone with me to a couple of games in our stadium when we played other teams. We lost both games so I told him he's never going back with me.

Machado now lives in another town outside of our main city. About 30 minutes away by car. We don't get to see him and his family as often as we would like so when there is a chance to be together we take it.

A couple of weeks ago he called to tell me the volleyball team that he coaches had a game close to our house. So I went to go see him.

The final of state championship is a home and home deal. When I went to go see Machado it was in the middle of the two games and gremio had gone into our stadium and beaten us 3-2. It was highly probable that they were going to win the championship because we had to go into their stadium the following Sunday and win by 2 to be champs. Super tough to do for us. A score of 3-2 for us would make us go to the penalties.

So we lost at home to our biggest enemies and 4 days earlier we got put out of the biggest tournament in South America. Again at home. We were playing like, well, like a bunch of Norte Americanos.

When I went to his game we only got to talk briefly. It went like this:

Machado: "Hey my friend how are you?"
Me: "I'm good. How about you?"
Machado: "I'm good (smiling). I don't see much about your team?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Machado: "On your blog. I don't see you saying much anymore about your team (smiling)."
Me: "You're right. We stink right now. I don't see how we are going to beat you guys in your stadium. It's going to be tough (angry that I have to admit this)."
Machado: "You're right my friend. It will be tough but anything can happen."
Me: "I don't think so. Not this time. I think you guys will be champs."

Sunday's game came around and guess what happened?

We won 3-2, went to the penalties and won.

It was an amazing game. It's easy for our fans to say how great it was because we won but it really was. Even my gremista friends were saying that's one of the best championship game they've ever seen. Sports guys on the radio were saying it's the best finals they've ever seen. It wasn't dirty, it was good football and it was super exciting.

So Machado, my friend, I know you wanted to win but I also know, as a good soccer coach, you appreciate good, tough gaúcho football and I know you are proud of your team for the way they played.

So this video is for you to remind us of a great gaúcho final.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Busy Weekend-Part 6

Warning: LOTS of pictures of somebody else's kid on this blog. If you aren't a grandparent of this child you might be extremely bored. You've been warned. 

Have you ever witnessed one of those moments in your child's life when you literally saw the light bulb go off in their head and the confidence just grew like crazy?

Maybe it was studying and getting a good grade and believing, really believing that he/she was as smart as you were telling them.

Maybe it was playing a musical instrument and really believing they could do something special after years of telling them of the gift they have from God.

Maybe it's sports. Maybe God made them to be an athlete and they excel on the field, track, court, etc.

My girlfriend and I were blessed to witness a moment like that with Garrett in January.

Ever since he was six or seven he's been praying and asking God to be a professional soccer player. Not an unusual request for 99% of boys that grow up in Brasil.

He's been persistent about the request. Other people have been praying for that as well.

The world's most popular sport definitely could use a strong Christian role model.

Garrett has played soccer every year since we've lived here. Another "not unusual" thing for 99% of the boys in Brasil.

He has talent, but it always seemed that his confidence level kept him from being what God made him to be. Garrett has a tender heart and thinks of others. Being aggressive on the field was tough for him naturally because of how God made him.

That all changed in January.

He played in a 3 day soccer tournament in a town about 3 hours away from our city.

My girlfriend and I, along with Anderson and Giovanni, decided to drive up one day to watch a game. Garrett had been calling us after his games to let us know how they were doing.

We had one last chance to see him play before they were possibly knocked out of the tournament. They had to win the game we were going to see to continue.

The place was very rural.

Here was the field.
 It was a beautiful place with vineyards in the background as well as cows.

 Here were our seats during the game.
We got there just in time for kick off but Garrett wasn't playing. He had started every game as an attacker  (forward in the U.S.?) but wasn't starting this game. We thought maybe the coach was giving everyone a chance to play.

We found out later that his stomach was bothering him after he ate breakfast. So he didn't start. He didn't think he was going to play at all.

His team was losing 1-0 and not playing well.

There was about 5 minutes left in the game and we saw him get up and talk to the coach.
He entered the game and about 1 minute later he was fouled.
The foul set up the free kick. Notice the the foot hitting the ball on the bottom left of the picture.
The goalie stopped the free kick but didn't hold on to the ball.
Garrett (number 7) came across from the other side of the field.....
......and knocked in the rebound for the tying goal.....
 ......followed by the celebration.
His mom tends to get a little loud during her kids' games. Especially when they do something good. She's fluent in Portuguese but the yelling always comes out in English. Completely embarrasses Garrett. So the faster we can wave and acknowledge mom the quicker she will stop yelling.

About a minute later he kicked again and hit the post.


Note the agony of his face.
About 2 minutes later another guy on his team hit the winning goal and they/we celebrated.
When the game was over the team mobbed Garrett.
The team then prayed together.....
......and as he walked off the field he heard the call from one of his biggest fans and he came over to talk to him.
I love this picture because you can see in Anderson's eyes how awesome he thinks his big brother is.
As he came off the field the rest of the team started yelling "Norte Americano" which means "North American." There aren't many North Americans that play soccer here.
Before we left the coach came and spoke with us. He told us Garrett wasn't feeling well at all and said he couldn't play at all but the coach said that when he saw us he changed his mind and decided to give it a try. We, and he, are glad he did.

Garrett, as is his humble nature, just kind of shrugged and got kind of embarrassed by all the attention.

We went back home that day and the next day I got a call from Garrett. He was crying in a way that I haven't heard in a long time. He was devastated because his team was beaten in the penalties of the quarter final game.

I called him back a few minutes later. The sadness had passed and we were able to talk about how well his team did. No one expected them to do much and they finished in 6th place out of 51 teams. One thing I like about Garrett's nature is that he doesn't hold on to stuff for a long time. He loves soccer, wants to be a pro but it doesn't consume his being.

He came home that day and was a different person on the field. A more confident person.

Why do I share this? Why do I share something that happened 4 months ago if I am still sharing about last weekend?

He went out of town again, last weekend, with his team to a beach town a couple hours away from here. Another championship.

They won 3 games and won the championship against teams from different cities.

They won their 3 games by a combined score of 21-1. Garrett only played the first game and 10 minutes of the second before hurting his foot and wasn't able to play anymore.

In that one game and 10 minutes he scored 5 goals. He was the leading scorer of the entire tournament.

He shared with us but didn't brag. He was more happy that his team won the championship.

I can't explain the difference in his confidence level compared to January but I like that how the team does is still more important than how he individually does.

When the Spirit moves you to pray for our son, we would appreciate you joining us in prayer for him to be a professional some day.

Like we said, the sports world needs more strong, Christian men to lead it.

And the busy weekend continues.