We're Ready

Okay, we've made our cookies for the big guy.......

.....and also left carrots out for his reindeer.

We've also had some time to spend with our neighbors to wish them a Merry Christmas.  Our new neighbors Abelardo, Jane and their granddaughter Maria Eduarda........

......and Dona Amelia.  We lived in her house for five and a half years before we moved in July. 

We've tracked Santa on the internet at the "official site" (very cool......if you have small kids then you need to check it out).........

..........and personally visited and ....... 

........shared our list with him before he left the North Pole. 

Or at least waved at him if we weren't quite ready to sit in his lap.  

We've had our Christmas nap.........  

..........and even done our Christmas stomach exercises to properly prepare for the good meals to come. 

It's Christmas and it makes us feel like dancing. We can't help it. 

We are officially ready for Santa.  

I wonder what I'm getting for Christmas.....

Last night while tucking Anderson into bed, we had this conversation:

Mom:  Good-night, Anderson.  Are you excited about Christmas?

Anderson:  Yes. Hey, Mom, what do you hope you get for Christmas?

Mom:  Um, well......

Anderson:  Is it soap?  Do you hope you get soap?

Mom:  Yes, I do hope it is soap.  Because when I'm cooking in the kitchen, I need to wash my hands a lot and I need some good soap for that.

Anderson:  What kind of soap do you like?

Mom:  Um, let's see......

Anderson:  Is it Apple?  Is that your favorite kind?

Mom:  Yes, I love Apple Soap.

Anderson:  OK!

Math Problem

Yesterday Anderson asked me this question:

Is eleventy bigger than a kazillion?  

I told him no.  Is that right?

What would the tone and volume of your home be like if you tried this biblical approach: 

"See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another" (I Thessalonians 5:15).

Few of us do patience very well, and none of us do it naturally.  But wise men and women will pursue it as an essential ingredient to their marriage relationship. 

From The Love Dare (Day 1: Love is Patient)

Summer Christmas

It took a couple of years to get used to it,  but we have come to love Christmas in the summer time.  We actually planned our recent furlough to end in time for us to get back home to have our Christmas here.  There are lots of things that we love about wearing shorts and a tee shirt during the Christmas season.  But today was one of those days when we long for a wintery Christmas. 

 

Today was about 95 degrees.  Horrible is the word we would use to describe days like this.  

Why?  Because Brasilian homes aren't built with central heat and air.  The heat gets in your house and stays.  You sweat as much inside as you do outside. We have some window air units but to run them a lot cost too much.  In fact, you can use them for a while and cool off a room but the room gets stinking hot within a few minutes after you turn it off.  

Thankfully this new house we moved into has screens on the windows so you can at least catch a breeze, if there is one, without letting ginormous mosquitos in to snack on you during the night.  They like to wake you up at night with buzzing in your ear.  I know God made them but I hate them.  

Even though we have some super hot days we don't let it slow us down in the things we do day to day.  

Here's a little play by play of our day today. 

Last night Benay told Anderson he could pick the breakfast for today.  He woke up today and stated his breakfast choice was champagne and fondue.  We had cream of wheat and toast instead.

 

Then it was time to make some Christmas cookies for our little friend, Maurício's, birthday.

Then Leni and Jorge dropped by.  They brought Ansley home.  She had spent the night with them.  Leni's next door neighbor had sent some Christmas presents for Carys, Anderson and Giovanni.  

We think Giovanni liked his horse.  

We then went to Freitas and Auristela's hardware store to deliver Maurício's birthday presents.

After lunch everyone either tried to stay cool under a ceiling fan by moving as little as possible........

.........or by not moving at all.  

Garrett then went to a birthday party.  He called about 30 minutes after he got there and asked if we could pick him up.  He NEVER wants to be picked up early.  What was the difference this time?  Ten girls at the party and only one boy.......Garrett.  

Everybody then cooled off in the backyard with a water balloon fight. 

After the water fight everyone came in for showers.  After his shower Anderson dressed himself.  We heard Ansley laughing and telling him to come and show me and Benay.  He came into our room looking like this.  

Somehow he picked out a long sleeve shirt and thought it was pants.  He quickly wanted to take it off because he said, "It's minty on my legs."

It may be hot but we stay busy.  

Rain and a cold front are expected to come through next week.  Amen.   

Christmas Traditions

This is our 8th Brasilian Christmas.  We have quite a few traditions that our family participates in during the Christmas season. 

One of the things we started a few years ago is to have a Christmas party.  It's always a "Dirty Santa" party.  If you've never heard of that it's a party where everyone brings a unmarked present and they are put under the tree.  Then everyone draws a number.  Number one gets to pick a present first.  The second person can then steal that present or pick a new one.  That goes on until the last one chooses.  One present can only have three owners.  After the third owner it can't be stolen again and it stays with that person.  If not for that rule, we would be playing until two in the morning every year. 

We always invite people from the house church that meets in our house and encourage everyone to invite someone new.  Last night we had our party.  Four new people participated who had never been a part of our house church before.  

We let the little guys go first and just trade their presents.  Dirty Santa would get pretty ugly if we let the 1, 2 and 5 year olds play. 

Then the adults play and start picking the presents. 

Some people steal and end up with just what they wanted.  Like Carys, and her chocolate. 

Others aren't so lucky.  Like Flavia (in the pink shirt) and her machete. Yes a machete. 

Actually she lost the machete as it was stolen. Twice.  What was given as a joke ended up being a serious present.  I love this picture because of the fact that everyone is cracking up.  This is one of my favorite pictures from the party.  The smiling and laughing by everyone is a great snapshot (even if our snapshots were all blurry for some reason last night) of what these nights are like.  

Then you have people that just surprise you.  On the left is our neighbor.  It was her first time to play.  She picked these blue Christmas hand towels.  She immediately said, "I hate these towels!"  She was hoping to keep anyone else from picking them.  She was a quick learner as she figured out that if you show joy with your gift then someone is sure to steal it.  

Her gift was stolen.  She was then reminded that she could get her husband to steal it back and it would be theirs to keep.  Only thing was he didn't want to be a part of the plan.  He's the one in the blue shirt right across from her.  He finally agreed after she took off her shoe and threatened to throw it at him if he didn't go along with it.  

There is always someone that surprises you and it's always fun. 

I think the thing I like the best is that we, as a house church family, get to be Christ to people who are coming for a fun Christmas party.  What a great way to share the love of Jesus.  

We had a great time. 

Abilene and Africa?

The day we got back from the states we had lots of mail stacked up.

One of the letters was a very important letter for Bronwyn.

What was it?

Here's what it was:

She is now officially accepted to ACU and will start the fall of next year.  She was very excited.

Before she leaves for college she will go on a short term mission trip to Rwanda.

She's going to be helping some missionaries who are friends of ours from college.  She'll be staying there in March and April.  She has had a heart for Africa since she was a little girl.  She will be doing lots of different things including working with orphan kids from the genocide (Have you ever seen Hotel Rwanda? It will crush your heart.).  

She has been fund raising for her trip and God has already blessed her with a few financial supporters, but she is still short of her goal.  

She has a blog if you are interested.  It's www.bronwynblume.blogspot.com or go here if you don't want to cut and paste.  

If you would like to be a financial partner to help Bronwyn get to Africa just let us know or go to her blog and leave her a comment stating your desire to help.  She HATES to blog so leave as many comments as possible to let her know you are following her blog.  Put some pressure on her to keep it up as her trip approaches. 

Our family knows first hand that fund raising is a hard but faith building experience.  We would appreciate you prayerfully considering helping Bronwyn on this faith walk.  

Test Week

As you know, our family just got home after being in the states for over 2 months.  We go back every two years to visit with family and friends.  Everyone that supports this ministry.  It's always good to share what God is doing here and to be encouraged by so many in the states.

This last trip was the most relaxing one we've ever had.  We thank God for that and for those people who went out of their way to make sure we were fed spiritually as well as those who just goofed off with us.  We were blessed. 

The difficult thing about these trips is that it's always a hard thing to find a good time to leave our life here for a couple of months.  There really isn't a good time.  No matter when we go we always end up missing something important here.  Imagine taking more than two months off of your job and your life.  It's not an easy thing to leave one and go to another and then go back without missing a beat.  Too many things change.  Too many things happen in that amount of time. 

This year we felt led to visit the states starting at the end of September.  We originally had planned on being in the states at the end of December through February of next year.  We weren't able to afford the airplane tickets for December so we had to look at different times.  

We know now that God had us go back to the states at the end of September so that we could see my grandmother one more time before she went to heaven. We arrived in Memphis on a Thursday.  She passed away the following Monday. We feel very blessed to have held her hand, to have given her a kiss and tell her that we loved her before she left this life.  God's timing was why we went back when we did.  

Because we left in September we had to take the kids out of school.  Our school year here is from February/March through December.  We took Anderson, Carys and Garrett out of their schools completely.  Benay then home schooled Garrett and Carys while we were in the states. Ansley stayed enrolled in her school here and did her homework online as her teachers and classmates sent her the work she needed to do.  

Because of our time away, Ansley and Garrett have to take some end of the year/make up tests this week.  

We just wanted to ask you for prayers for them as they take tests over lots of material.  It's not the funnest thing for a couple of teenagers to come back after being away for so long and immediately hit the books for some important end of the year tests.  

Thank you, as always, for your prayers.  I know they will give comfort to our kids during this week. 

To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid "big" sins---is this passionate, wholehearted love for God?

François Fénelon

Christmas

If you've followed this blog through a past Christmas or two then you know that our family LOVES this time of year.  

It's hard not to when you spontaneously have big kids reading Christmas books to the little kids in the house......

We are blessed. 

Back in Brasil

We made it home safely.  

As always, the trip was interesting.  We'll share some pictures and stories later. 

Until then, thanks for your prayers for safety.  God, once again, really took care of our family on the trip. 

Going Home

Today is the day we will get on the airplane to begin our journey back home.  

We've had an incredible time here in the states and have enjoyed being with our family as well as getting to spend time with so many of our good friends.  

We've been here since the end of September but during our time here we've also had plenty of reminders of our family.........

and funny misspelled signs that make us miss our Brasilian home.....or does this sign actually make sense?

We ask for your prayers for our safety.  It will be a long day that involves 4 different airports and 3 different airplanes.  

We hope to see you back here in a couple of days. 

Mini Vacation

Giovanni is pretty much back to 100%. The medicine has done wonders on Giovanni.  His spots are pretty much gone.  We are thankful for your prayers for healing and for good medicine.  

Because he was doing so much better my parents really encouraged Benay and myself to leave the kids with them for a day and get out of town last week.  They told us to go to a spot they have on the Tennessee River.  We went and had a great time.

I think Benay needed the trip - she slept 10 hours that night.

 

While we were there we also got to check out the Shiloh National Military Park.  If you don't know about Shiloh, it was a place of a big battle during the Civil War.  It happened in April of 1862 and around 110,000 men from both sides participated.  There were about 24,000 casualties. As one Union veteran said later, "No soldier who took part in the two day's engagement at Shiloh ever spoiled for a fight again.  We wanted a square, stand-up fight and got all we wanted of it."  It was a pretty humbling experience for us to be there. 

Before we toured the park Benay wanted to watch a movie about the battle.  It was a 30 minute movie that the park showed.  I can tell you it was not a sellout.

  And it wasn't a current movie.  It was made in 1956.  That's right...1956.

Even though it was old, it was still a very informative movie. 

After the movie we toured the park.  

This is a monument to the soldiers from Tennessee.  There were many monuments representing many different states.  Both from the north and the south. 

This is the National Cemetery for the Federal soldiers.

 This is the cemetery for the Confederate soldiers. It's a mass grave. 

This came to be known as the bloody pond.  Wounded soldiers from both north and south came here to drink water and clean wounds.  Many died here.  So many came that their blood turned the water red.  Thus the name. 

You can go here if you care to read about the battle. 

After Shiloh we, by my dad's request, visited a catfish restaurant that has been around for 70 years.

We enjoyed catfish, hushpuppies (don't worry

 Brasilians, we'll explain huspuppies later) and caramel pie.  

The place actually has a pretty cool history that you can read about here. We ate too much.  Can you say lots of diet and exercise when we get home? 

We drove back to Memphis and enjoyed watching a movie called "The Blind Side."  Good movie and a true story.  

Our trip was very relaxing and just what we needed as we prepare to get on the plane on Tuesday to head back home.  

When we came home that night we were welcomed by a happy, excited group who had really missed us.  

We are very thankful for mom and dad encouraging us to take this trip. Thanks guys!

If you have become a part of the story of God, then you have a story to share with the people around you. They are eager to hear it. They are dying to hear it.

Leighton Ford

Jake Olson

We've posted this week about Giovanni's problems with his allergic reaction to penicillin. 

It was scary seeing him like that and then hearing about a possible serious syndrome he could have had.  

His medicine is working and he is getting better.  It was one pretty stressful day.  One. 

My family and I watched the following video this morning.  You will be amazed, touched, encouraged and probably cry.  

My mom and I spoke after watching it.  We have healthy kids.  We were blessed to have my grandmother live to see 93 years and have good health throughout most of her life.  My parents are healthy.  Father and mother-in-law are healthy.  My wife is healthy and I am healthy. Sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews and cousins are healthy. 

Our ordeal this week with Giovanni is NOTHING compared to what you are about to see and yet you will see no finger pointing, no "WHY GOD?" and no complaining from anyone in the video.  

What you will see will uplift your day.

Enjoy:

 

The Day After

We are thankful that the doctor told us it might take 3-4 days for the medicine to kick in on Giovanni.  Otherwise we might be a little more concerned with how he looked when he woke up today.

Still tons of spots on his little body and the hives on his face actually moved from one side to the other which the doctor said would probably happen.  

Thanks to all for your comments on this blog, emails and instant messages we've received from 2 continents as well as the phone calls about Giovanni's health. 

Even though he looks bad he has had (besides some itching) a fairly good day. 

Thank you for your prayers! 

Staying a few more days

Today was the day  I was going to post asking for prayers for safety for our trip back home to Brasil.  

As I sit to write this post we should be about an hour away from heading off to Dallas on the first leg of our trip.  

During the night last night those plans changed.  

Why? 

Giovanni woke up yesterday with a rash on one side of his face.  He did this before about a month ago when we were in Dallas.  It lasted a day and it went away.  We assumed this time would be no different.  

Here is what he looked like yesterday:

Here is what he looked like when he woke up this morning:

Pretty, right?

Believe it or not it actually spread even more after taking these photos.  These pictures, as bad looking as they are, really can't show the severity of his hives. 

Me, Benay and my dad just got home after spending almost 7 hours taking care of our sick little guy.

We first took him to a neighborhood clinic to see a Nurse Practitioner.  She said she didn't have the medication to treat him and sent us to a bigger neighborhood clinic.  One that is affiliated with a big hospital in town.  There we paid a nice amount to see a Dr. we like to call Dr. Hands Off.  He poked Giovanni a time or two, did nothing else and said he was fearful that it could be this serious syndrome and sent us to a really good pediatric hospital in downtown Memphis.  We are familiar with this hospital as Garrett stayed there a few days when he was a 6 week old baby. It's a really good hospital. 

God really began to bless us at this hospital. We were told an E.R. doctor would be waiting for us when we got there.   We got Giovanni checked in and then my dad saw a pediatric nurse that our family has known for years.  She immediately took care of our family. 

We then were blessed by the doctor.  He was very knowledgeable, reassuring, encouraging, patient and explained everything to us.  He told us it was probably an allergy and that the guys at the neighborhood clinics are always sending him babies because they just don't want to deal with them in their clinics.  He said he was actually glad because those doctors were lazy and he preferred that they didn't treat little babies. 

He gave Giovanni some medicine and told us he had a 1 in 10,000 chance that his symptoms were the serious syndrome that the clinic doctor mentioned.  He saw no signs or symptoms of the syndrome.  (It's called Stevens-Johnson syndrome if anyone cares) 

He did however tell us to postpone our flight home just so we could know for sure that it isn't Stevens-Johnson syndrome as well as making sure he is completely healed before he gets on the plane.  

From what the E.R. doctor thinks Giovanni is now officially allergic to penicillin. 

Through this very long day God really blessed us.  He blessed us with a great E.R. doctor as well as nurses. 

We were a little concerned about paying for our hospital visit since we only have Brasilian insurance.  When we were leaving we were told if we could pay today they would knock 60% off the price since we have no American insurance. We did. I actually hugged the bill collections person when we left.  A very unexpected, money saving blessing from the Lord. 

We then went straight to the airport to change our tickets. After seeing Giovanni and seeing the hospital information, the worker at American Airlines changed every ticket for free. There wasn't even a discussion about paying for changing the tickets.  One more blessing.  

When we got home the girls told us they had already been in contact with our brothers and sisters in Brasil.  We were told that there is already a prayer vigil planned for Giovanni for God to heal him.  The blessings continue.   

We are thankful that it looks like it was only an allergic reaction and that with medicine he should be healed up in 3-4 days.  

We ask for your prayers for our boy.  As always, thanks in advance. 

As for Giovanni, he is sleeping hard right now.  We think we'll have enough helpers around who will want to pamper him while he is sick. 

The devil never sleeps, and your flesh is very much alive. Prepare yourself for battle. Surrounding you are enemies that never rest.

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

1-2-3.....Put your phrase here

Tonight we did some last minute shopping with my cousin and his wife to get the things we need before we head back to Brasil on Monday.  We were blessed by our short time with them. 

Bronwyn, Ansley, Garrett, Carys and Anderson were also with us.  It was kind of wild and it's never boring when so many of our kids go shopping with us.  

Bronwyn started bugging Garrett about his long hair and how he needed a haircut. Garrett NEVER wants to cut his hair. 

After some friendly play fighting between the two about the haircut, we got this exchange:

Garrett:  "1-2-3.......Be quiet."

Bronwyn:  "1-2-3......Cut your hair."

Garrett:  "1-2-3......Go to college."

Classic.  

I have no idea why they put the 1-2-3 before they cracked on each other but it worked for their conversation.  You can actually put anything behind the 1-2-3 beginning and somehow it works. 

Go ahead.....try it. 

It's not always good natured play fighting, like tonight, between the kids but we know they love each other and will always stand up to protect their brothers and sisters. 

We also know that, even though he might not admit it, Garrett will miss Bronwyn when she goes to college next year.  

Until then, we'll keep enjoying these funny conversations.