Prayers Needed

Hello everyone, its Ansley (Kevin and Benay's daughter). I just wanted to post this small prayer request because I think my dad needs all the prayers he can get. He just left to go to the hospital with my mom with very bad back pains - he could barely move and had trouble breathing. He was already having back problems, but he lifted something heavy and it got much worse in a matter of seconds.  If anyone reads this I ask that you pray for him, because we at home are all praying. He is very stubborn and would probably never ask for prayers for himself on his blog, but since he isn't home I am doing it for him. Thank you in advance for your prayers for my dad! - Ansley

Update: he just got two shots and is on pain medication. He will be home in a little while! Thanks for your prayers, I hope he feels better tomorrow.

Awesome Wednesday

Yesterday we had a pretty awesome day.

Why?

Inter won of course. Here's the goal in our 1-0 victory:

Okay, that's a joke. We did win but that's not why yesterday was so awesome.

My girlfriend, daughter and son came home yesterday.

Our kids did an amazing job cleaning the house. Carys especially worked hard all day on Tuesday and yesterday morning as well. Even our teenage boy worked on cleaning up his room.  Missing people you love can make you do crazy things. The house looked great.

Tuesday night the kids had gone out to buy some welcome home flowers.

I let all three of them skip school yesterday. We felt like it deserved a skip because it felt kind of like a holiday.

We picked up Leni and Auristela, who had brought their own flowers, and we were off to the airport.

Their plane was a little late.

That made waiting tough on the kids and on me but it was well worth it when we finally got to see and hug everybody.

We left the airport, got some pizza for lunch and went straight home.

After lunch we had "present time."

This is a family tradition in our family. If somebody goes on a trip they usually get presents when they come home.

The kids used their own money to buy something for all three of the travelers. I take them to different places but leave the decisions totally up to them. I love their generosity and the love they have for each other. Wish Bronwyn could have been here with us but she'll have her turn again at Christmas.

Benay looked at me yesterday, during this time, and said, "this is something about our family I wouldn't change for anything." It really is fun to see the excitement in the eyes of the givers.

Naturally having visited the United States and seeing relatives those of us who stayed here received some gifts of our own.

We liked that part as well.

Some more than others.

We had a good time.

After present time, Benay and Anderson had some make-up drawing time together.

Giovanni got off the plane with a bad cold, Garrett has had a cold this week, I've haven't been feeling well this week, Carys was tired from all the cleaning, Anderson can go to be bed early any night and Benay and Ansley had jet lag. All of that to say that we were all in our beds at 8:15.

And it felt like home again.

One

Anderson has always been one to wake up in a great mood.

He wakes up smiling and happy. He did it as a baby and he still does it every day. I love that about him. 

You can wake him from a deep sleep in the morning and he opens his eyes and shares some kind of happiness in his life. 

Over the last week the first thing, the first happiness, literally, out of his mouth was the day count on when his mom, sister and little brother were getting home. We are now at one.

We are very excited that they are getting on a plane in a couple of hours and leaving the states and will be back home tomorrow. 

The day count by Anderson has been great but just in case we forgot what day they were coming home Garrett let him add a little reminder to his calendar. 

On our furlough last year, Garrett bought a 2010 Tennessee football calendar. He marks every day off as they go past. 

Looking at it closer you can see what Anderson penciled in on the calendar for tomorrow. 

If you can't tell, in between Garrett marking his test days, Anderson drew a picture of my girlfriend. Nice job. Almost as good as a photo. 

It's been a long 3 weeks for us and for Benay as well. Neither one of us cares to do this 3 week separation again but God has helped us make it. I might share later about how His family blessed our family while Benay was gone. 

It's good to be a part of His family. 

We would ask that you guys pray for their safe travel back home and that Giovanni would do really well on the trip. It's hard enough for us, as adults, to handle almost 24 hours of travel but super tough, at times, for a one year old. 

Thanks, as always, in advance for your strong prayers for our family. 

Excuses
by Charles R. Swindoll

Hebrews 10:23-25

I'm a sports fan. I'm sure that comes as news to no one! For some strange reason, even when I was growing up, I could remember the most amazing details---okay, maybe "trivia" is a better word---about different ballplayers. You know, stuff nobody really cares to hear, but nevertheless sticks in my head . . . the way it does with most sports fans.

Another characteristic of a fan is an indomitable sense of commitment or determination---okay, okay, maybe "addiction" is a better word! Against incredible odds, sound logic, and even medical advice, sports fans will persevere to the dying end! Difficulties are viewed as a challenge . . . never an excuse to stay away!

I've often wondered what would happen if people were as intense and committed and determined about church as they are about sports---or any number of other pastimes. This was reinforced some years back in a Moody Monthly piece that illustrated twelve excuses a fella might use for "quitting sports." The analogy isn't hard to figure out.

Every time I went, they asked me for money.
The people with whom I had to sit didn't seem very friendly.
The seats were too hard and not comfortable.
The coach never came to call on me.
The referee made a decision with which I could not agree.
I was sitting with some hypocrites---they came only to see what others were wearing.
Some games went into overtime, and I was late getting home.
The band played numbers that I had never heard before.
The games are scheduled when I want to do other things.
My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
Since I read a book on sports, I feel that I know more than the coaches anyhow.
I don't want to take my children, because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.

I've come up with a few more:

The parking lot was awful . . . I had to walk six blocks to the stadium.
Nobody came up and introduced himself to me . . . very impersonal, also loud!
The public address and lighting systems don't suit me.
It's always too hot (or cold) in the stadium.

Enough said. Think it over.

Rivalry on Steroids

I realize this blog will only be funny to Portuguese speakers and mainly to those people who used to live here and to those who still live here (that would be the part of my family that is STILL in the states......sheesh Maria come home already!!).

This won't make any sense to the rest of you and to you guys I apologize.

To the ones I listed above you can bet that Inter and gremio started popping off with their websites/advertisements right after we won the Libertadores.

First gremio gave this "subtle" dig yesterday:

And then we responded with a dig of our own today:

Of course I like ours better.

It really is a fun (and sometimes funny) rivalry.

One More Time

For the 2nd time in our team's history, and the 2nd time in the last 5 championships, our favorite sports team is the best soccer team in all of South America.

Big deal you say? You're right. It's not really a big deal. It's a huge deal.

Periodic fireworks have been going off around the city all day. Lots of cars are covered in Inter flags. Lots of houses and businesses have Inter flags hanging out their windows. Guys on motorcycles are riding with Inter flags tied around their necks and look like Superman capes as they flap in the wind. If you are wearing a team jersey today then other Inter fans will honk and wave at you and give you a thumbs up. For us, it's been a fun twenty four hours.

I've even had 3 Gremistas (the names of the fans of the super arch enemy and cross town rival of our team) congratulate me today. They may not like that we won but they appreciate what it means. They've won two South American championships themselves.

Garrett and I got in bed at 2:00 this morning, got up at 6:30 to take him to school and we've felt like we've been a step behind most of the day.

So, for those Inter fans in blog land (my girls, Pops, Sascha and the Aggies, among others), because of our tiredness we are going to have to make you wait for more details but for now these pictures should make you happy.

Like Anderson told our friend Jeff today, "It's good to be a Colorado isn't it?"

For My Inter Girls

Bronwyn and Ansley (no one else will probably care about this video),

Tonight is the night.

Anderson and Carys are spending the night at their friends house.

Garrett and I (thanks to Garigran and Junior) were able to get two tickets.

You know how Garrett gets ants in his pants on big game days?  Multiply that by 10 today.

Gates open at 6:30 for the 10:00 game. Guess what time he wants to get there?

We will miss you guys. It won't be the same going without you but we hope to share some good news after the game.

For now, so you can matar saudades, here is the video of the Inter bus arriving before the São Paulo semifinal game. It will be, as you know, even louder, wilder and smokier tonight.

Vamo Inter.

P.S. You can listen to it live on the internet if you want. Rádio Gaúcha will hook you up. 8:00 your time.

New Home/Old Home

Today my girlfriend and Ansley said goodbye to Bronwyn and started their trip back to Tennessee.

It was another tough goodbye for Bronwyn.

I am thankful for lots of things but a couple in particular.

First, I am thankful that Bronwyn has Asia, her roommate. You see Asia is also a missionary (aren't all believers supposed to be?). She grew up in Thailand.

They met for the first time on Saturday and are already great buddies. Bronwyn loves her and has told us how happy she is to have Asia as a roommate.

We are thankful that Asia is there with Bronwyn. They will both be able to encourage and uplift each other when they miss their families who will be thousands of miles away. There, obviously, won't be many people on campus who will understand what they are feeling. I'm glad they have each other.

Secondly, I'm also thankful that Bronwyn goes to college in the city that she does.

You see our family actually moved to Abilene, Texas about 10 years ago.

We lived there for almost a year.

Not enough time, you might think, for us to get super involved or to make lasting friends. You would be wrong.

My girlfriend and I have been married 22 years. We've lived in 4 different cities in 3 different states and 2 different countries.

We've never lived in a city where we felt the Spirit's presence as strongly as we did when we lived in Abilene, Texas.  There are three Christian universities in this city and they get along great. Bronwyn's nursing program is actually for students of all three universities. God's family in action.

I felt the Spirit's presence so strongly when we lived there and I loved being there so much that I actually talked to my girlfriend about us staying there and not moving to Brasil. She, rightfully so, reminded me of God's call for our family. I, selfishly, had wanted to stay for me and not because I felt God asking us to do so because I honestly had never felt the Spirit's presence so strongly in a place before.

One of the things that I loved so much was our church family. To tell you what they mean to us and all the things that they did, and still do for us, would take too long but I'll share some quick details.

We were a part of a small group. It was our first real glimpse of what house church looked like. They took us in and really showed us the love of Christ. We laughed so much with them. The last time we were together with them, when we lived there, each family member of each family in the group blessed us with a different scripture and then they washed our feet. No one had ever done anything like that for us. Part of this group even came down here to work with us a few years ago. The last night we lived there one of the guys from this group took us to an elders meeting at our church just so they could lay hands on us and send us off to Brasil. This group continues to be actively involved in this ministry. They have taught us so much.

Benay took the girls to church there this past Sunday in Abilene. I told her that she had to find two men that are very special to me. They are shepherds at the church and I got to be close to both of them in different ways when we lived there.

I met regularly with one of these guys when we lived there. He is a man who is extremely humble, Spirit led and a prayer warrior. Right before we left, in 2002, he invited us to a prayer room at another church. When we got there, he and two women we had never met before from another church, laid hands on us and prayed for God's work in Brasil. I can't tell you how powerful that was for my girlfriend and myself.

Anyway, my girlfriend got to church last Sunday and there were about 1,000 people there and she said she looked at all the people and thought, "I'm just going to have to tell Kevin that there is no way that I could find them." About that time the leaders asked all freshmen and their parents to come up so that the shepherds could lay hands on them to ask God's blessing on them in the upcoming school year. Want to guess which elder laid hands and prayed for Bronwyn and my girlfriend? That's right. My close friend.

When church was over my other buddy came over to talk to my girlfriend. So she was able to speak to both men that I wanted her to see. A complete God thing as neither one of them even knew my girlfriend and the girls would be there. Next time, Jim and Ed, I'll be there to see you guys and give you a hug.

Okay, enough about our time there right? I mean why am I sharing this stuff?

Because many people there have emailed us and told us that they want to and are going to take care of our daughter. They've already invited her to share meals, to share some one on one time and have offered help with anything that she might need.

My girlfriend and I feel so blessed to have our spiritual family right there taking care of her. To know that people are looking after our daughter is such a blessing.

It reminded me of a lesson I heard recently from Francis Chan. He said the elders at the church he used to preach at told him that if anything ever happened to him that they promised to take care of his family forever. That he didn't ever need to worry because his spiritual family would take care of his blood family. What an incredible statement by the leadership. What an incredible display of what God's family is supposed to be like. Real family.

Bronwyn was 11 when we left Abilene. When she started looking at colleges, ACU was always at the top of her list. There never was much wavering on her going anywhere else. It's like she knew from the beginning where she was headed.

I really believe, even though she says she doesn't remember much, that she does remember bits and pieces about her time in Abilene and that she also felt the Spirit's presence in a strong way. In a way that just kind of tugged on her heart to go back.

Whatever happened, I am thankful that she followed the Spirit, that she is at ACU and that God's family is already taking care of her.

God continues to tell us that no matter what happens to my girlfriend or myself (life/death, sickness, thousands of miles separating our family, etc.), His family will take care of our family for the long haul.

Andersonisms

I know I have some extra people that are in the United States right now that are missing hearing their little boy/brother and his ism's. We also have had people emailing us asking us for more from Anderson.

That isn't a joke. He has his own fan base.

Since his public demands them and since he daily adds to the list, I thought I would share some today. Here we go.

One night he was doing his homework in the dining room. I was in the kitchen. He came into the kitchen and we had the following exchange:
Anderson: "Dad, two questions. What is monkey pox?"
Me: "Monkey pox?"
Anderson: "Yes."
Me: "I have no idea."
Anderson: "Second question. What is technology."
Me: "Are those questions part of your homework?"
Anderson: "No."
Me: "You're just asking?"
Anderson: "Yes."
Me: "Okay."

One night he was eating chicken nuggets in the dining room and I was in my room. He then yelled the following:
"Hey dad. Did you know I ate the first gumwich?"

On the way home from school a couple of weeks ago he shared this:
Anderson: "I had a great day. My teacher said I did great today. I didn't get in trouble at all! Not one time. "
Me: "Wow that's great. Not one time."
Anderson: "Nope. Not once. Well maybe once or twice.........or thrice."

Conversation last week (from where this could have possibly come from, other than a certain teenage big sister who loves music, I have no idea):
Anderson: "Do you think that Lady Gaga kisses girls?"
Me: "I have no idea. I don't know anything about her. I don't like her music. I think she's weird."
Anderson:  "Yeah. She's weird.....and gross. I don't like her either. She probably has a gun."

I know, I know. How does a 6 year old's brain want to have a conversation about Lady Gaga, who she kisses and whether she is a gun owner? We don't have cable tv. We don't watch music videos. We don't talk about her. I don't have a clue.

One thing I do know is that if he hears any bit of information, from anybody or anywhere, that slightly interests him it becomes locked into his little brain. You don't ever know when or how that information will be regurgitated but it usually comes back out with a funny twist. We are continually working on Anderson's "you don't have to share everything that's on your mind" button. So far we are losing that battle.

So welcome to Anderson's world. It can be a interesting place to visit. It can sometimes make your brain tired. It can even be kind of scary. But one thing is for sure, you will always leave his world laughing.

I urge you to consider and actually live as though each person you come into contact with is Christ.

Francis Chan

Moving In

After a couple days of traveling from Tennessee to Texas, Bronwyn (along with my girlfriend and Ansley) finally arrived to her college town today and she is getting moved into her dorm room.

We just spoke with all of them on skype. We were also able to finally meet Bronwyn's roommate. Her name is Asia. She was introduced to the rest of the kids and had a special family introduction from Anderson.

I won't share what he asked her but if you know him, or have followed this blog and know some of the things that can come out of his mouth, then you know it was very uh........interesting. She just rolled with the question. It didn't even phase her. 1,000 cool points for Asia. If she can handle Anderson with no sweat then is already an official part of the Blume family.

Bronwyn is very excited about this new phase of her life and we are very thankful that God put her and Asia together. It really was a God thing on how He did that.

My girlfriend and Ansley are planning on hanging out with Bronwyn and Asia for the next 3-4 days before heading back to Tennessee.

I'm thankful that they have this opportunity to be with them.

I'd ask that you pray for Ansley. She's been sick with a stomach virus and, as you can imagine traveling while sick, she's pretty miserable. We'd appreciate your prayers for her to be healed quickly and that my girlfriend, Bronwyn and Asia don't catch it.

As always, thanks in advance.

Guy Night

Tonight Garrett is playing in a soccer game and won't be home until late. Carys went to her friends house for a birthday sleep over.

That leaves me and Anderson.

I let him pick out everything we were going to do for our guy night together.

Here's what I got:

First we rented the movie Alice in Wonderland.

We decided to watch it in our room so we could shut the door and turn on a little gas heater. It's a cold night in our city. We also watched it with a friend.

(Quick side note for Benay, Bronwyn and Ansley......Even though it's cold and even though it took him to flood level, you can see that Anderson still got three rolls out of his waistband. Some things never change.)

He also picked our supper which you can see, from the picture, that he is munching on while watching the movie.

Bronwyn was giving me grief today about what my kids were eating since my girlfriend left. She thinks she they've just been eating junk.

That's insane.

Tonight for supper we ate popcorn sprinkled with m&m's (one of my girlfriend's favorite things). So that's a vegetable (corn) and dairy (milk.....chocolate). We also had grape soda. That would be our fruit (grapes....duh) and it's also mainly water and everybody knows that water is very good for your body.

Take that Bronwyn.

Almost There

Last night the best soccer team in the world played the first game of the finals of the Libertadores.

We went to Mexico and played a team called Chivas.  If we won last night and then win or tie in the return game next week here in our city we will be the champions of all the club teams in all of South America.

I'm sure some of you don't care (at least that's what my wife keeps telling me). That's okay. My soccer blogs will now mainly be directed towards my Inter daughter who now lives in U.S.

First things first. We won last night. It's a huge deal.

The game started at 9:50 our time. We are all usually in bed or are close to being in bed by then. That changes on game night. It's like a shot of adrenaline.

Although we played better for the entire first half, Chivas scored on the last play of the half.

We came out in the second half and played just as good as we did in the first half if not even better.

With about 17 minutes to play in the game we tied it.

Here is what a 13 year old boy does at 11:30 at night in Brasil when his favorite team scores in the finals of the biggest championship in South America (sorry for the darkness in our house.....it's mainly the sound that matters).

I love his little Napoleon Dynamite "yes" towards the end. Classic.

Anyway, that vuvuzela blowing on our front porch woke up his 6 year old brother (the 11 year old sister who was about 3 feet away from the noise just slept right through it) who then wanted to watch the rest of the game. He got on our bed and watched the rest with his friend.

We then scored again. Everybody went crazy.

One thing you need to know about Brasilians. They love soccer and fireworks.

When your team scores, you shoot fireworks.

When your team wins, you shoot fireworks.

You even shoot fireworks when your rival team gets scored on or gets beat.

All of that is magnified by 100 in a big championship.

It's a lot of fun to be around.

Here is a brief example of what happened in our neighborhood right after we won the game. This was around midnight and it went on for about 30 minutes.

We love it. Fireworks still periodically went off through the day today.

Now we play the final game here next Wednesday.

Our team sold every ticket for that game, online, in only 90 minutes yesterday. I had two computers going trying to buy tickets and I had a friend who had three computers on trying to buy tickets for us. He was able to get us one.

We are still trying to figure out a way for us to get one more ticket so that Garrett and I can both go.

The Bible says pray about everything. Do you think He means even tickets to a soccer game? We think He does so we've been praying for a ticket miracle. Feel free to pray with us. Honestly it's one of those father-son moments that I hope Garrett and I can share together. I was blessed to experience that same kind of moment with Bronwyn 4 years ago and it's something we still talk about to this day.

We hope to share some championship video next week. We are optimistic about our chances.

For those that want to see the best moments from last nights game (sorry Machado) just check out this video.

1st Loss

I took Carys to tennis practice this afternoon which means we left Garrett and Anderson at home by themselves.

What do two boys do at home when they are all alone?

Yank teeth of course.

Garrett had the privilege of pulling Anderson's first tooth.

To say Anderson was thrilled would be an understatement. He proudly posed to show off his new look.

And my personal favorite.

I hope this isn't a trend. After pulling almost all of Bronwyn, Ansley and Garrett's teeth I only got to pull one tooth out of the mouth of Carys. Why? Because our daredevil, independent child had to pull all of them out herself. The one I did get to pull was just a token pull as she only let me do it because I was bugging her so much.

So we'll see if I get to pull any of Anderson's or if he will want Garrett to pull them all.

I think he looks pretty cool with that one tooth missing.

After I took that picture he told me to "put it on the blog".  I'm just obeying.

He's a funny little dude.

Side note: At 6:45 this evening Anderson came into my room and told me that he had brushed his teeth, gone to the bathroom and washed his hands. He then looked at me and said, "It's time to tuck me in." After I explained to him that if he went to bed at 6:45 he would wake up at 3:00 in the morning, he just smiled and said, "It's just that I am so excited about the tooth fairy and I can't wait to go to sleep."

At 7:05 he was back in asking when could he go to bed. I told him in a little bit and he wanted to know exactly how many more minutes he had to stay up.

At 7:30 he was conked out in his bed.

All I know is that the tooth fairy better not forget to visit Brasil tonight.

I love being a dad.

Origami

The other day Carys came home from school and told me that she had learned how to do origami.

So what did she make on her first day of practicing origami?

A dress shirt of course.

What goes good with an origami dress shirt?

A little pair of origami underwear.

Today I started thinking about how long I have been married versus how long I lived my life without my girlfriend as my wife.

I have now lived more than half my life married. 

That thought made me smile for two different reasons. 

Reason number one (my all time personal favorite reason):

Reason(s) number two:

I am blessed. 

Happy Father's Day

Today is Father's Day in Brazil.  I, Benay, have kind of hijacked this blog to tell you to go here to read about my husband who is such a great father.  Since Bronwyn, Ansley, Giovanni and I are in the US, we are separated today by lots of miles, but our hearts are in Porto Alegre with our dad and husband.  We wish we could be together but we know that he will have a great day with our other kids and our church family.

We love you, Kevin!  Happy Father's Day!

Man Food

Last night Carys went to spend the night at a friends house.

So what do three men do on a Friday night with no women around?

We rented the movie The Blind Side and ate a healthy meal.

The meal consisted of bar-b-que Pringles, chocolate covered peanuts, burnt popcorn and some kind of candy bar that Anderson called a waffle. All of that was washed down by soft drinks of course.

This morning Anderson and I got up and made real waffles.

Even from a photo taken from behind you can see the concentration and determination on his face.

He said they were the best waffles he has ever eaten.

I have to admit they were pretty good. Of course it's because of the time Anderson has spent in the kitchen lately with his sisters. He likes to cook.

So who needs women in our house when you can eat like this all of the time?

We do. We definitely do.

Winter Break

The kids started back to school this week after a two week winter break.

The last two weeks of every July are basically the weeks for our winter break.

Some people go out of town for a vacation during that time but there are many that stay in the city.

It's usually cold during those weeks and people try to get out of their homes and go to warm places.

Like malls.

The malls do a great job of having attractions for young kids that are usually free. They are also very hands on. We love them.

It's a perfect way to spend one of your winter break days when your kids might be dying of boredom.

Last week two different malls had two different activities.

One was Toy Story 3 (which we still haven't seen because the only time it played in English here was at 10:00 at night......not conducive to the Blume sleep schedule) and the other mall had a Jedi Training activity.

Carys, Anderson and Giovanni did Toy Story 3 and Anderson went solo to the Jedi Training Academy.

My girlfriend took lots of pictures and then made them into mini slide show/movies.

If you haven't checked them out on her blog yet and you want to see how we sometimes kill time during our winters then just click here.

Interesting 36 Hours

Before my girlfriend left for the states I had five different people tell me to call them if I needed anything while she was gone.

I was offered babysitting, meal preparation, house cleaning and even (jokingly) company on our weekly date night since my girlfriend would be gone.

It's nice to have so many people wanting to take care of us while my girlfriend, daughter, and son are away but I wonder if they knew something we didn't.

Why?

Within an hour after we got home from the airport on Tuesday one of our dogs (Lucky) ran out of the slightly opened gate, as Garrett and I were taking the trash out, and he was gone. Garrett chased him for 20 minutes but with no luck. He hasn't returned since Tuesday night.

That night I got Giovanni's stomach virus that he had last weekend. From Tuesday night until this morning I only got out of bed to take the kids to school and pick them up. I'm still not sure what they did or what they ate yesterday after school (I was that out of it) but I know the house didn't burn down and nobody starved. That was good enough for me. Garrett was a good, responsible big brother.

This morning we were involved in a car accident on the way to school. It was really a small fender bender. Three cars involved. Nothing happened to my car and one other car but a third car involved had a cosmetic scratch on the bumper. Just enough that we had to call insurance companies. Fun stuff.
Thankfully the dad of one of Garrett's friends saw what happened, stopped and gave my kids a ride the rest of the way to school. Very nice.

This is only what has happened so far on our side. My girlfriend has a pretty wild story of what happened to them after they left us at the airport. You can read it here.

Carys went home with a friend today after school. That leaves me, Garrett and Anderson. Just the boys. Normally they have soccer practice today but the rain cancelled everything.

So what do three guys do together on a rainy, boring afternoon?

Eat McDonald's and watch Napoleon Dynamite (their choice for both). What else? Right now they are playing soccer in the den. It's a true guy day.

I'm hoping the next few day are more uneventful than the last 36 hours.

I do know for a fact that very soon the kids will be missing their mom's great cooking.

And I'm also pretty sure in a couple of days the daily question will be, "How much longer until mom comes home?"

Twenty more days but who's counting?

One More Travel Day

We just put my girlfriend, Ansley, Giovanni and Grace on a plane going to the United States.

My girlfriend and Ansley are going to take Bronwyn to college.

Giovanni is going because this is the last time he gets to fly free. So he's going to have some hang out with grandparents time.

Grace is going to live with my parents for a few months and to be led by the Spirit to do whatever He wants her to do. She just wants to be Christ to people while she's there.

This has been a pretty busy travel year for our family so far.

Bronwyn and Ansley went to São Paulo state earlier this year to take the ACT.

Benay went to Paraguay for a women's conference.

Bronwyn went to Africa for a couple of months and then moved to the United States.

Later this year Ansley will go to Peru on a school trip.

So today was another Blume travel day.

We don't get too freaked out on travel day which is amazing since we usually put off packing until the last minute.

But we have our ways to take the edge off.

This was Giovanni about two and a half hours before his flight left.

Sometimes you just need a good soak to relax before a trip.

Their flight left at 6:00 p.m.

At 5:00 p.m. we were checking in and were told that since Giovanni is Brasilian, and that only one parent was traveling with him, he had to have a certain document that was signed by both parents before he could leave the country.  If we both were going then he didn't need the document.

Not too stressful to hear an hour before your flight leaves right?

While the kids stayed at the check in, my girlfriend and I headed to this little room.

It's a small office in the airport. Thankfully we know the lady who works there because in the past we had to get Bronwyn and Ansley the same document (even though they aren't Brasilian they had to have one too because they traveled alone under the age of 18) in the past.

She was very kind, as always, and had us in and out in about 5 minutes.

We then checked everyone in, got the kids something to eat.....

(Yes her eyes are crossed)

......and said our goodbyes.

They come home in about 3 weeks.

I would appreciate your prayers for their safety as they will be traveling a bunch after they get to the states.

You might also want to pray for those of us left behind. That Garrett, Carys, Anderson and myself won't weigh 20 pounds more than we do now.

I don't cook but I know where the good, and not always the healthiest, restaurants are. You can do the math.

P.S. My girlfriend just called. They arrived safely to São Paulo. They are now waiting to board their overnight flight to the states. Thanks, in advance, for your prayers.

Just for Pony

There is a certain 19 year old who let us know yesterday that she wasn't happy with the infrequency of blog posts this past week.

So this post is basically for her. It's a couple of videos to help her not miss her little brother so much. For the rest of you that want to continue reading we'll share a little about videos.

Last month Garrett asked when Giovanni was going to start talking. What he doesn't get is that Giovanni is already saying lots of things in his own language and it all makes perfect sense to him.

He actually has a tough job just trying to learn the tough names in our family. Here he is last month trying to say some names.

B....you'll be happy to know that Bronwyn is still the name he calls Ansley.

This next video has to do with cartoons. Carys has a notebook and she loves to draw cartoons (Sponge Bob, Veggie Tales, Dora the Explorer, etc).  Giovanni loves cartoons and so he naturally knows a lot of their names.

Here he is going through the book and naming them in his language.

Just think Pony, less than two days and you will be hugging on him again.

Doubt

Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don't have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.

Frederick Buechner