A Summer in Brazil

New Email Address

2008-07-21T19:27:00.002-05:00

First I want to apologize for not posting much the past week or so. Ariel arrived Friday and I have been spending time with her. I have not really had time, or to be more honest, I have not wanted to sit down and get together a post. I only have a little more than a week left here and I'm trying to enjoy it. I will try my best to get a post up soon though. I know it wont be tomorrow because me, Michawn, and Ariel are going to be gone most of the day, but anyway....the main reason of this post; I got a new email address due to junk mail. If you want to contact me please email me at gillian_hough@hotmail.com.

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-07-14T07:30:00.000-05:00

So Saturday was my birthday and it was fantastic. I normally dont celebrate my birthday because most of the time I am gone on some trip during my birthday. The only celebrations are eating out wherever I may be. But Saturday I got to sleep in; my Mom called told Michawn to wake me up but she wouldnt because one of the things I wanted to do was sleep in :-). After I got up and walked into the kitchen for breakfast the kids greeted me with homemade birthday cards and singing (which they did pretty much all day long, they love to sing happy birthday). For breakfast Michawn made one of my favorites....pancakes and Joel got me one of my favorites....pineapple. It was sooo yummy. For supper Michawn cooked me a wonderful dinner: Mexican enchiladas, rice, and beans. She ran out of time to make the desert so I got that yesterday and it was Red Velvet (my favorite cake) cupcakes! It was Michawns first time at making Red Velvet and she was afraid they wouldnt turn out right. They were good but didnt taste like red velvet. They tasted like regular cake that had a red color to it, but the icing was fabulous. It was that wonderful very easy to make cream cheese icing. Thanks Michawn, Joel, and kids for a wonderful Birthday!
When I walked in this is them singing Happy Birthday to me and giving me my cards.

I think I was laughing at Eissa because she was looking at me like what is going on. It was past her nap time and she was not really into it.
I got her to come to me to give me my card and then we went to the couch to look at the cards.
They were telling me all about what they drew in my cards.

Into the kitchen for my breakfast and more Happy Birthday singing.

They were singing Happy Birthday in Portuguese after singing it several times in English.
One plate of my cupcakes.
The yummy Mexican meal.
Grady took this picture.
Hadley took this one.
Just an up close of my plate. Man was it delicious! I ate so much I looked pregnant after eating it. Oh wait I look like that every time I eat ;-).

We're Soldiers

2008-07-13T08:09:00.007-05:00

The other night Joel went to church for some special celebration/service for the church's anniversary, I was fixing pizza for the kids (one of my new favorite things to cook), and Michawn was taking a shower/feeding Cass/ putting Cass down for bed. Joel put a movie on for the kids before he left so they would sit and be still until the pizza was ready. Michawn got finished and was on the computer when Eissa walked in with pen all over her face, not long after that Hadley came in and said "We're Soldiers" it was soooo funny and I could not help to laugh but they were told never to write all over each other again. Grady started feeling really sorry during supper and said "I never do it again." So sweet. So here are some pictures of the Ebersole Soldiers and me making the pizza :-).

NOTE: I know some of you are waiting on the hiking pictures....they are coming. There are almost 200 pictures so I am trying to narrow it down and resize all of them to get ready to post them.

WATERMELON TIME!!!!

2008-07-11T15:21:00.004-05:00

Its Watermelon season in mine and Michawn's hometown. This week is the Watermelon festival and we are not there to share in the festivities so we broke out some Brazilian watermelon.....its not Saline Watermelon but it was still good.

Saline Watermelon Festival

2008-07-09T14:54:00.002-05:00

So this week one of my favorite things is going on and that is the 26th Annual Saline Watermelon Festival; however, I am missing it this year :-(. I have grown up in the Watermelon city of Saline and I love it there. I always hate missing the festival and all the festivities. To everyone in Saline....enjoy the festival and someone take lots of pictures of the girls at the pageant (my favorite part of the festival) and get lots of pictures from the parade on Saturday. Continue to have a fun week and remember me as you enjoy your time. Eat some watermelon for me too because I dont know if I will get any when I get home. They may all be gone but I hope not. Love you all and wish I could be there.

Things I Like About Brazil

2008-07-08T07:36:00.001-05:00

These are some things that I like about Brazil and in no particular order.

1. Hanging clothes on the line to dry because we dont have dryers.
2. The chocolate candy (its so much better than a Hershey's candy bar).
3. The weather/ being able to leave the windows open all the time and not have an AC or heater.
4. The tile in and outside of houses and the practical ways of mopping them.
5. The bakeries/ the cheesy bread and coconut stuff.
6. Only having to pay $12 total for your nails and toe nails to be done.(its actually cheaper with the lady that comes to the house and she charges about $7 US dollars)
7. The Seminary campus we live on.
8. The guy in the grocery store walking around with a mic announcing the specials for the day.
9. English music in the stores.
10. Sitting out in the hammock swing thing.
11. Movie nights with Michawn and Joel.
12. Eliane's cooking.
13. The smell of the soap in the public bathrooms.
14. Cooking pizza with Joel (its sooooo yummy).
15. The orphanage kids.

Things I Miss About Home

2008-07-07T07:45:00.000-05:00

These are a few things I miss about home and in no particular order.

1. My bath tub.
2. The smell of my laundry detergent.
3. Mexican food.
4. My front yard/lake.
5. Being able to unlock the door from the inside without a key.
6. My Granny's cooking.
7. My Granny's couch.
8. My bed.
9. My XM radio station on my TV satellite.
10. Text messaging my friends when I think about them.
11. Leading worship/singing with a piano.
12. Driving my car.
13. Hot water from the sink/being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet.
14. Gatherings/parties that start before 8 or 9 at night.
15. Playing games with church family/family/friends.

My New Do

2008-07-06T08:03:00.010-05:00

Yesterday Michawn and I got to go to the mall in Goiania. This is the place Michawn likes to get away to when she wants something that feels like home. Even though this mall is not like the one we have close to Saline, it was awesome. This mall is 3 stories. Each story has a food court, each story has this McDonalds ice cream stand, and lots of stores (some of which are on all 3 stories). We started off our day by going to this little bakery for breakfast on the way out of town, went to the mall and saw a movie, got a bite to eat, and then we got our hair, nails, and toe nails done. To top off the night I got to experience a Brazilian wedding. We had a wonderful day!

Here are some pictures of the day!

Cass sleeping through part of the movie.

Michawn and Cass at Cass' first movie.

Trying to find that thumb.

The three levels of the mall.

McDonalds ice cream stand.

One of the places to eat at the mall. Sounds yummy but we didnt eat there cause Michawn didnt know if they had real syrup!

This was some Art Exhibit. Around the area it had a little "river" thing with water flowing and some lounge chair things but they were wooden and you could lay all the way down on them. I didnt get a picture but there were several men on them reading books.

The big sky light in the middle of the mall.

Before the hair cut!

I didnt realize my hair was that long!

Royal treatment! I had one lady on my hands, one on my toes, and the guy cutting my hair!

After!

I got a lot cut off!

Pictures form the Wedding!

The stage.

Upstairs they had a live orchestra! Talk about awesome!

During the ceremony.

I dont know if you can tell or not but the parents sit on stage, they do not have bridesmaids or groomsmen, I didnt get a picture of it but they have a processional of couples that mean a lot to them walk in and sit in the front. And they dress like they are going to prom or something. Very fancy.

One of the little girls that was in the wedding playing with Cass.

Cleaning up.

Breaking down all the music equipment.

The 4th of July

2008-07-04T07:48:00.000-05:00

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE! I do not have a post for today.....sorry. I will be busy all day! I am keeping kids this morning for Michawn and Joel to have their meeting with Asas and this evening I will be partying it up with the Americans! We are having our own 4th of July celebration. Im so excited to be with just Americans and have Engligh speaking company! Woohoo! I will have pictures later of our party tonight. Hope you all have a wonderful day and great weekend full of Celebration!

A Kid at Heart

2008-07-03T09:32:00.004-05:00

Tuesday I got to spend the afternoon with the two older kids (Eissa was napping). Michawn went to the last Womens meeting for the semester, Joel went to Asas for work, and that afternoon the two were suppose to have a meeting with Asas to see about when they will be moving and where they will be going to serve. All of the couples with Asas is having a meeting and they are running a lot longer than planned so Michawn and Joel did not get to have their meeting and still have not had it as of now. But anyway while they were gone Grady, Hadley, and I had a little fun. First we did the sidewalk chalk, then we baked a cake, had a snack outside, and then went to the park after Eissa woke up. Unfortunately I only got pictures of the sidewalk chalk. But we had a lot of fun!

Everything we drew.

While I was drawing Grady's name he told me the "r" was wrong. He got a piece of chalk and drew an "R" so that lead me into a little lesson on Capital and Lower case letters. So I drew them all out so he could see. After we got done talking about them he was calling them "Big Case and Lower Case." It was sooooo cute.

Grady asked me to draw a elephant. This is my attempt at it. That is the daddy and momma elephant.

Orphanage

2008-07-02T12:08:00.032-05:00

So yesterday was my last day of going to the Orphanage. I already miss those kids so I may go back every now and then to see, play, and help feed, but not every Tuesday and Thursday. For the month of June I walked to the Orphanage every Tuesday and Thursday morning. I worked in the Nursery, go figure :-), my favorite place. I would play with the kids for a little while and then would help feed them lunch, my job was usually to feed Victor (age 2), Bruna (age 1), and another little girl whose name I cant pronounce or spell (almost 1 yr). After I fed them I would hand them over to get changed and ready to go down for a nap. I did not get to get pictures from when I first started because the kids were still going to Portuguese class and it would make Michawn pushed for time to get them dressed, fed, and off to school. But when I first started going we had 7 kids: 4 boys and 3 girls; 2 of the boys which were babies. I took my camera the first day but I did not get a picture of the two boys that are no longer there. because they also were not there on my first day. (Im not sure of the situation with them and why they came and went like they did) I am not sure exactly why there is only 4 kids (2 girls and 2 boys; 1 boy which is a baby) now. I know one of the little girls moved out of the nursery and is living in another part of the orphanage (kind of like moving up to a older age group).

If you want to know something that I didnt say just leave a question for a comment and I will do my best to give you an answer.

So here are some pictures of everything.

Walking out of the driveway to head to the Orphanage.

When we walk through the gate of the seminary there it is!

The entrance of the orphanage.

This is Agda. She is the operator of orphanage, but I dont think she is the owner.

Right when you walk through the door there is 4 offices.

Keep walking straight and there is just this little open area and then through the next door is the cafeteria.

The left half of the cafeteria. That door goes to the kitchen.

The right half of the cafeteria. The door that they are heading through goes to the nursery (on the left) and the girls dorms (on the right) and stairs to the court yard (straight).

Entrance to the nursery.

The clothes line.

The nursery has their own washers. The have two of them.

Kitchen in the nursery. (All the little kids eat in their housing units but the older ones come to the cafeteria)

This is Eliane, she stays with the kids. She is fixing the kids lunch. They just take real food and put it in the blender to make baby food and thats what all the kids eat. If they can chew the food up then they dont blend it.

This is Bruna.

This little girls name is really long and I cant even say it, much less spell it.

This little baby is 6 months old. His name is Jean (Jeh-uhn). He is soooo precious. He is a happy baby too. When I first started going he was drinking the food out of a bottle (they even put the blinded food in the bottle) but now he has upgraded to the spoon.

This is the dinning area. To the left is a door to one of the rooms.

Bruna getting something to drink after eating.

They dont have sippy-cups so this is how we give them drinks.

When she really started smiling the picture was blurry. But still cute.

Bruna getting her diaper changed before nap.

This is one of the bottles they have. They have one normal bottle that he use to use for the food.

After lunch we change their diapers and just put them in the bed. They usually play for a little bit and then they just lay down and go to sleep on their own.

She was playing with her teddy bear.

She always throws her stuff animal and blanket out before she goes to sleep.

This is Victor. He is 2 years and has some problems. He can not walk and he can not hear. But he is such a happy camper. He always smiles and laughs when I play with him.

Michawn was trying to get him to smile and he kept following her finger with his eyes.

Michawn was telling the kids that he cant hear.

So they started doing sign language with him.

To the right of the kitchen is a playroom.

Inside the playroom is a door to the bathroom.

They dont have bath tubs so this is their little shower. The kids usually live in the nursery until they are two.

The playroom also has a door to the other room.

This is where they keep the clothes.

Changing table. If you click on the picture you will notice there is a mattress under the table. That is where the person staying the night sleeps.

The room off of the dinning room.

This is the girls dorm "hang out" room.

Hallway for all the rooms.

Inside one of the rooms.

The girls little door. The translation of what is on her banner is "Here sleeps a Princess"

When you go down the stairs right by the nursery and girls dorm entrance this is where you end up. These buildings are more housing units.

The girls living room. I think the girls that live here are from ages 2-11.

One of the bedrooms.

Another bedroom.

This is the wash room. When the girls move into the dorms at the age 12 they start doing their own laundry. When they are still in the housing units the workers take care of it.

Soccer court.

Back behind the soccer court.

Looking back up on the orphanage. The part that sticks out on the green building is the nursery and the kitchen.

One of the boys housing units.

Two little boys sitting out eating lunch.

To the left of the boys house is some playground equipment under those big trees.

Back view of the boys house.

Looking up on the orphanage from behind the boys housing unit.

Behind the boys house is this BIG patch of bamboo. If you looked at the pictures from Michawn that I posted this is where the cookout was for the party.

It doesnt really look as big in the pictures as it is in life so this is just to kinds show in comparison to me how big it is.

The sun shinning through the bamboo.

Hadley.

To the left of the bamboo patch is a pasture.

The cafeteria for lunch.

The kitchen and only two ladies cook and clean for everyone.

Thats A LOT of rice.

Pot of beans on the left and pot of meat and carrots on the right. Grady was saying he wanted to eat.

And we have our salads. That is a lot of chopping! This is a typical mean for Brazilians. You have beans and rice at every meal.

A view from on the way home. When you walk through the seminary gate this is what is straight ahead.

That gate with the green wall is the gate to the seminary campus which is where we live.

When you walk through the gate and go straight for about 1oo feet and turn to the left that is the trail to the house. Our house is the blue one at the end.

Random Pictures

2008-06-30T08:56:00.009-05:00

These are just some pictures from here and there. Hope you enjoy.

This is Joel moving part of the couch so we can watch a movie off the computer.

I was doing my Bible study for the day and Hadley decided she wanted to look at her Bible too. So cute.

Eating out!

This is some kind of pudding stuff but it was made out of corn. I didnt care for it but Michawn liked it. Pudding for me has to be chocolate. ;-)

The girls running around playing.

Joel took the picture before I was ready. I was licking my teeth to make sure no food was stuck. But this is a really good one of Hadley.

We just couldnt get it right.

Sweet little Cass. She was just a talking while I was kissing on her.

Still talking. She is a talker and giggler. She smiles a lot and is laughing out loud now. She is also a stiff little thing. When we go to put her in the swing or car seat she is just like a board and wont bend.

I was sitting at the computer commenting on Michawn's blog and I heard this little voice but I could not make out what it was saying. I looked over and Grady was on his little cell phone. He was having a conversation, with whoever he was talking to, in Portuguese. It was soo cute. During his conversation Michawn asked him something in English. When he returned to his conversation on his phone he started talking in English. He hung up and his phone rang again and he went back to speaking Portuguese. It was so so so so cute.

School Program/Festival

2008-06-27T08:45:00.012-05:00

Grady and Hadley had a program for the little school they go to for Portuguese. Its was really nice and so much fun. It was kind of like a festival too. The had booths for each class and the theme was to conserve and take care of our earth. Im not positive but everything that was made at the booths I think was from recycled stuff. Anyway here are some pictures from the program and around the track. This program was from a while back but their last day of school was yesterday.

Getting all ready for the program.

Hadley was a vine.

Not sure what Eissa was doing here.

Family picture.

On our way to the track. They held the program and the high school track.

Its kind of hard to see but this is just a view of a lot of the booths from up on the hill.

Carrying the stroller down the stairs.

Walking through the bamboo walkway. Very cute!

Here in Brazil they do fireworks for everything. I hear some from out my window almost every night.

Eissa couldnt decide if she liked them or not. She thought they were pretty but did not like the loud noises.

Hadley's performance.

Hadley's class. They were sooo cute.

Grady's performance.

This little girl reminded me of a little girl I have on Wed nights at my church. The way she was dancing reminded me of Maddie.

Grady's class

Like son....

like father. :-)

This was at one of the booths and I thought it was the coolest thing. I have never seen furniture made of old tires.

Some more booths.

Hadley decided she didnt want to wear her flowers so I put them on and after that she wanted them back.

Monkey see monkey do! ;-)

Grady showing something he made in class.

Grady and his teacher.

Hadley and her teachers.

Weight Watchers Update

2008-06-25T07:42:00.000-05:00

So I got the bright idea that I would start weight watchers with Michawn. I started on the 20 pts a day system along with 64 oz of water. I started in weighing 126 lbs. I did good for the first 3.5 days. I did good up until Thursday night when Joel fixed pizza for supper and for those who know me know that I LOVE me some PIZZA. I ate about 6-8 pieces. I lost count and cant really remember exactly how many I ate. Friday morning I weighed 124. I was doing good but I just couldnt take it anymore, I did not like the whole points system I did not feel full ever (but I dont know if that was just a mind thing or what). I like to eat as much as I want of whatever I want when I want it. It was really hard for me to limit my eating to 20 pts a day. I wanted to develop healthier eating habits but that didnt happen. The Friday that I weighed in at 124 lbs, well we had a birthday party that night and I had a ton of sweets and I ate like crazy. Last night I had 4 pb&j sandwiches and I weighed again and I was back up to 126. Which is not a bad weight by any means but considering the two lbs came from junk food was disappointing. So I am going to try to start back on weight watchers and cut out all junk food (if Michawn would stop buying chocolate I wouldnt have that much trouble;-)) I am also going to try to exercise everyday by running a mile everyday and eventually work up to two miles. The way I have been eating while here in Brazil is the way I eat when im on vacation for about a week, which is ok, but 9 weeks is a little too long for "vacation eating." Something has got to be done.

The Orphanage

2008-06-24T08:18:00.004-05:00

These are some pictures of the orphanage from Michawns blog. I have not had time to get pictures from the whole orphanage, but I hope to get some on my last day there which is June 30. Everyone is off for July and so I will be at the house helping with the kids since Grady and Hadley wont be going to Portuguese class. So I will be helping with them while Joel is gone on the mission trip and while Michawn continues to study Portuguese. Sorry it has taken me so long to get these pictures for you. Keep in mind that this is all Michawn talking, but still you can get an idea of what it is like.

From Michawn's Blog:

There is a man that is good friends with our good friends, Pastor Jefferson and his family...Carmen, Acsa, Bia, and Pedro. This man grew up in an orphanage and now, along with his family and whoever wants to help, he visits this orphanage at least once a year. He brings a whole party with him...they have a churrasco (pronounced shoo-ha-sko by the way), bring lots of presents for everyone for Christmas, have a humongous cake and lots of other goodies. So, this year Pastor Jefferson let us know about it so we could participate...and it just so happens that this orphanage is only a couple of streets over from our house, literally.

So, here are some pictures of our time there. There are lots, but that's because I just wanted to show you all of it. It's amazing to think of the life of an orphan. There are many horror stories of orphanages. This is not a horror story place. The kids are very well taken care of and provided for adequately. But, even in those conditions, the fact remains that they just don't ever get to experience family. When we went, there was a little boy, 4-6 years old probably...he just kept staring at me. The ladies with me asked him what he was thinking about. He wanted to know what was in my belly. :-) He kept asking to see the baby. He had no concept of pregnancy and what that meant...that he couldn't just see the baby. He probably just never had been exposed. If you think about it, most of what we are initially exposed to and learn from is family and family members (a mom or aunt being pregnant, a grandmother dying, etc.). If you don't have that, you just don't learn those and experience those things. Of course they've experienced alot in their young years, but not necessarily the normal, everyday things that we take for granted.

Anyway, really cute kiddos. Here are the pictures so you can see for yourselves. Suggestion: Pray for these kids as you scroll through the pictures. Many of them need some major healing from things that have happened in their past. And they all (no matter how old or how young they are) need homes.

They really have a great place there...gorgeous view. We had the churrasco, played a bit (here they are jumping rope), and then went inside for the presents and cake.

We had the picnic under this massive amount of bamboo...it was all around us.

The orphanage buildings.

Again, look at that great view...right on top of a great hill overlooking lots of farm land and rolling hills. There is Acsa in the middle of those kids...she had prepared a little fun activity for them to do. Acsa and her mom, Carmen were actually leaving just a few days after this to go to the states. She is now going to Gordon College near where Joel's parents live. That's where Joel's dad works and all of Joel's siblings have gone to college. Pastor Jefferson and his family have lived in the states on and off for several years, so they are completely fluent in English and the "American ways." She was excited.

Pastor Jefferson manning the grill.

Bia and 2 of the 4 daughters that belong to the man who puts this all on.

This is the man that grew up as an orphan and now brings this party to the kids every year. That's his wife talking to him.

They have a nice court area.

When we made it into the room where we would have the party and cake and pass out presents, everyone sat down at tables. So I just went around to each table and took pictures.

This little girl was SUCH a ham. She wanted me to take her picture over and over in different poses. :-)

Eissa hanging out with Bia. Bia reminds me SO MUCH of Auny (Baker) Gill. Oh my gosh!! Bia's family is such a fun family.

The room all decked out for the party.

The youngest baby there I believe. Her name was Gabriella and that girl holding her is her older sister...they also have 2 brothers there.

Pastor Jefferson shared a word with the kids and then here he is praying over the kids. The lady that runs the orphanage is to his left.

This girl was such a feisty little thing. She would just talk and talk to me...in Portuguese and then in the few words of English she knew. So very cute. She was something else.

When I posted about visiting the orphanage nearby back in December (the post was in January), there was interest expressed by a friend to get her church/mom's group involved. She asked me about specific needs that they could maybe meet for this orphanage...such an awesome, practical idea.

We went back to this orphanage in January...took a tour, got more acquainted, dropped off some stuff for them, and asked their needs. They told us they would evaluate and determine their most immediate needs and get back with us. It was a great day. Pictures of that day are below.

About a week ago, Joel was actually able to go back and investigate more. When we went in January, they had shown us a locked room. It was the computer room (computers had been donated to them), but because they have nobody to teach them how to use the computers, they just keep it locked. Joel's brain went "ding ding" and of course he thought it a possibility that that could be a very practical way for him to help out there. Well, last week he was able to go over and spent about 4 1/2 hours in that little room. The computers were all in parts and scattered around the room. He was able to get 2 of them up and running before he left that day. So wonderful.

Also, he was able to talk to the director and she let him know one of their needs. As you've seen from our pictures, everyone here going to school wears school uniforms. Of course, those cost money. So, that is one practical way that people could help them. They said that of course there are always needs...they are always in need of something (aren't we all?...just multiply that times 200 I guess).

So, as far as the school uniforms, this is the list they gave us for meeting a very real need for them in a very practical way.

They need uniforms for 22 kids.
One shirt - R$14,50 (Brazilian currency; = $8.30 in US dollars)
One pair of pants - R$18,00 ($10.30 in US dollars)
Therefore, one full school uniform for each child: $18.60
And, for all 22 children: $409.20
**Figures based on the current exchange rate, which changes from day to day.

If you'd like to help in this, please let us know. We would be overjoyed to be able to present help to them in any way possible.

The orphanage is very basic, but very clean and orderly. Seems like they have some great people who work there with the kids and they have a very consistent schedule. Now, for some pictures of who you will be giving to (there aren't very many pictures of the kids themselves...some were in school or other classes and we were wanting to capture shots of the facilities anyway):

Us on the way...it is literally right behind our house...a street and 2 walls in between us.
This is the way I, Gillian, go to the orphanage.

In the nursery part; this is where the kids stay from ages 0-2 I believe.

This is where I, Gillian, work and help. The nursery because there is not really a language burrier except with the adults in there. But all they have to do is demonstrate what they want me to do and that works just fine.

This little girl's name is Gabriella and I spotted her when we were there before in December; I held her once at that point, but this time she just begged to be held constantly...even though they are taken very good care of, they still long for a mama and that holding...so crazy how they know instinctively that there is a difference.
This little girl also wants me to hold her the whole time I am there and when I put her down she just goes to crying.

She was so cute and playful...she also has an older brother and sister there at the orphanage.

One of the rooms in the nursery.

Another room...that baby in the crib had just gotten there the day before; she had some kind of itchy skin disease (language barrier, so not sure what...but hopefully nothing serious and completely curable and treatable).

This little boy (Pedro) had just gotten there too a few days prior...he was about to get a bath; the girl on the left in the striped shirt was the one showing us around; she is 18 now...they have a choice to keep living there and working there after they turn 18 under the condition that they continue their education somehow, so that's what she's doing; she's lived there since she was 6...her name is Viviane.

This little boy you will see in a couple of other pictures; his name is Marquinhos (mar-keen-yos) and he is tiny for his age of 4...he has HIV; he is super funny and really smart though; he ALWAYS closes his eyes when people try to take his picture, just to mess with them...hilarious.

Still messin'.

Joel still trying (and trying to do it without the little boy knowing), although Marquinhos is too clever...and, Joel chopped his head off anyway.

The older girls' (ages 2 - 11 I believe) room (one of them); they have the nursery area, the older boys' and older girls' area, and then the oldest boys' and oldest' girls area...so 5 areas total.

The little living section for this area.

Another room in this older girls' area.

The wash room...they have employees to wash the little kids' stuff, but the older kids are responsible for their own.

A view of part of the outside of the orphanage...between all the buildings.

A pretty tree on our walk back. :-)

On the walk back...our cute kids.

Americans and an American Meal.....woohoo!

2008-06-22T00:15:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday night we went to an American couples house for dinner. We had a Mexican chicken casserole and brownies for dessert. It was the perfect meal to end the week before Weight Watchers. It was so delicious and the kids had a great time too. Oh I lost 2 lbs on Weight Watchers from Monday until Thursday at lunch and then for supper I couldnt take it any more. We had pizza and I ate like 6 pieces and ate all day Friday and whatever I wanted yesterday. Lets just say that the Weight Watchers did not help me change my bad eating habits. But here are some pictures form the wonderful supper with some other Americans, oh so nice to hear English speaking people.

News Interview

2008-06-21T10:45:00.001-05:00

One day last week I guess it was the news people came out to interview Joel again. (If you read Michawn's blog you know that they did a clip on Cass' birth) They wanted to do something on car seats here in Brazil and show how it is hard to be legal. Here are some pictures of the kids in the car getting videoed and some of Joel being interviewed.

Churrasco/BBQ

2008-06-20T02:28:00.001-05:00

The church Michawn and Joel go to have a different schedule. One weekend they will have church on Sat night and the next on Sunday morning. The main service is on Sunday nights. So one Sunday morning we got up and went to a Churrasco which is the BBQ and we got to go swimming. It was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shinning.....it was just great. Something that reminded me of home and reminded me of the Six Flags trip I took with Mrs. Rebekah, Malloy, and Allison a week before I left. It made me think about our time at the pool. That was a great girls trip, so much fun! Anyhoo here are some pictures from the day at the pool and then that night we went to Goiania to a church that supports Joel and Michawn and there are a few pictures of the girls dancing during worship.

Joel was telling me how to dive. I wanted to try to do it because I dont remember the last time I tried to actually dive.

My legs fell forward so....

I decided to try again.

I was laying out and Hadley came and sat by me. So cute.

Im really not sure what the guys were doing.

This was some Peach Cobbler type stuff and it was yummy!

Weight Watchers

2008-06-19T11:37:00.000-05:00

Michawn and I started Weight Watchers this week. I know most of you are probably saying “Why in the world would Gillian do Weight Watchers, she is already a toothpick.” The main reason I decided to do Weight Watchers is because I normally eat however much junk food I want when I want it. My main goal is not to loose weight, but to just develop a more healthy diet. This past Sunday I weighed in at 126 lbs. My weight has had a history. Not that it has ever been bad but it has fluctuated through the years. When I was in the eighth grade I was about 5’ 1” and weighted 102. During that year I started to get really bad migraines and had gone to my pediatrician several times with them. One time it was so bad she gave me two shots for the pain and it didn’t do that much. Prier to that migraine she put me on a prescription called Verapamil (not sure of the spelling). One of the side effects of this medicine was weight gain. I went from 102 to 125 in about 3 months. After the episode of the shots she referred me to a wonderful Pediatric Neurologist in Monroe, Dr. Pena. He has helped me so much with trying to control my migraines. The first time I went to him he kept me on Verapamil but ordered me to have an MRI done. The appointment after the MRI he told us that nothing showed up and that he wanted to take me off of Verapamil and put me on Topamax. By this time I was in the beginning of my 9^th grade year. I had grown to be about 5” 3’ by now and was still weighing in at about 125-128. After I started taking Topamax I started to loose weight (weight loss was one of the side effects) and dropped back down to about 110. You can imagine how many clothes I went though throughout those few years with all that weight fluctuation. The Topamax did wonders for my migraines but every year in high school I would have to study harder than the previous and my GPA was dropping, not by much but it still dropped a little. We found out that memory loss was also a side effect to Topamax and before my Senior year I asked if he could change my meds to see if I could do better in school. So he put me on Inderal and my grades came back up to a 4.0, but anyhoo….this has turned into a headache post lol ;-) So back to Weight Watchers. I have never been overweight for my age and height and I have always ate what I wanted to when I want it no matter how unhealthy it is and I have never gained weight form it. But my thinking is that if I continue to eat like this then my body will be run down by the time in 30…..:-( and that would hinder me from being the Mother God has called me to be. So the whole point of this Weight Watchers is to develop more healthy eating habits and take more care of my body physically. I hope to get down to 120 lbs and then try to gain about 10 lbs of muscle.

A dream, desire, want, vision, longing, calling

2008-06-18T07:53:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of things on my mind and heart that I want to say, but I don’t know where to start and I don’t want to leave anything out. So I guess we will start with the first thing in my title…

A dream, desire, and want: Every little girl dreams of the day she will be a bride and marry her groom. Every girl wants a “Prince Charming” in her life. So if I could plan everything out the way I “want,” it would go like this. Within the next three years I would marry someone in the ministry. Preferably I would like to marry a youth pastor. Bro. Stan would become Magnolia’s Pastor and my husband and I would take over the youth at Magnolia Baptist Church. I would continue to lead worship and after I graduate from college in Elementary Education I would possibly go to Seminary to be a Music Minister (depending on how much I learn in piano lessons and how much practice I get at leading worship to see if I feel I need extended training. It would be nice to go and learn more about Bible theology and stuff) but if I do go obviously my husband would have to go with me and Magnolia would be without a Youth Pastor and worship leader for about 2 year. They could find an interim Youth Pastor until we returned and I would eventually become the Music Minister at Magnolia, my husband would be the Youth Minister, and Br. Stan would be our pastor. (Keep in mind this is all me planning everything out the way I would want it) After all of the schooling and we settle down in a church (preferably Magnolia) and I find a teaching job we could then think about having kids. I would like to have 2 if not 3 kids by the time I’m 30. After my first kid I would quit teaching and be a stay at home mom until I am finished having kids and all of them are in school. After they are all in school I would go back to teaching. This is my dream life and what I WANT and DESIRE, but is this what God has planned for me? Is this the route he has for me? I am saying all of this to ask everyone to pray for me, so that I will have wisdom to see God’s plan for my life and be satisfied with what he has planned for me and not just want what I WANT. Pray that I will desire what God desires for me.

A vision, longing, and calling: I have a vision for Magnolia Baptist Church in Saline, Louisiana. Br. Stan has always told me that I am going to be a Music Minister. That never felt right to me until a couple of months ago when I was given a big desire and longing to get a worship service started for the youth on Wed nights. I am in the process of getting people together to start a praise and worship band for Magnolia’s youth on Wed nights. We run anywhere from 30-40 youth and ¼ of those may come on Sunday. Most of the youth do not get to experience worship with music. Worshiping to music is a big part of my life; however, I do realize there is more than just music to worship. Our life should be worship, but the form of worship that touches me most is through music. I want the youth at Magnolia to experience that type of worship without having to go to summer camp or YEC. I want it to become the norm for their lives. Be praying that God will give me the wisdom and knowledge about who to ask to play in the praise band. Eventually when the band gets up and running I want to get a contemporary Sunday morning service started to try to get the youth in. This service will be for anyone who wants to attend but my goal is to get the youth churched on Sundays. This service may start off as just being an early evening service before discipleship training and then they can attend class or it may be an early service in the mornings before Sunday school. I don’t know what God has in store but this is one thing I have envisioned for Magnolia. Be also in prayer for God to lead and guide me in this matter. I know that I’m called to be a wife of someone in the ministry, I’m called to be a Music Minister of some sort (whether it be just leading worship for youth (where I feel the most comfortable) or it be the Music Minister of a church), and I’m also called to be a mother. I have had a love for children ever since I was a little girl and I know God has called me to be a mother of several children. I desire to have several biological children and to possible adopt. Adoption has always been near and dear to my heart and would love to have the opportunity to care for a child that needs Gods love in their life. So there again you can start to pray that my husband and I will have the wisdom to do what God has called us to do in the aspect of having biological children and adoption.

This is just a little glimpse into my heart and they way I think. Be in prayer for all the things that I feel God calling me to and where he wants me to be in life.

Womens Meeting

2008-06-17T11:47:00.001-05:00

Every week I believe it is, all the ladies from Asas has a meeting. Every week someone different is in charge of doing it. They meet up and have a little devotion and have a craft or something to do. The women here are very crafty. Last week they made these little chocolate candies (they are wonderful) for their men. I think it was last Thursday, it was Brazil's Valentines Day; they dont call if Valentines Day. I think they call it Boyfriend Girlfriend day. Well we made these chocolate things that were fabulous! So Tiffany I found a new way to make the cookie dough balls so that they will look prettier! I will have to make you some when I get home. Here are some pictures from the womens meeting.

The lady behind the counter was in charge and she was explaining to everyone the first step

This is a little heart box they made the meeting before to put the chocolate candies in.

Michawn called me from across the room to pretend like she was about to lick the spoon of chocolate....and well she accidentally touched it to her lips....so

she couldnt just wash the chocolate off the spoon and not really eat it.

First step was to fill every little hole 1/3 full of chocolate.

Michawn was getting in trouble for licking the spoon....not really she was trying to explain to the lady what happened in her Portuguese.

Eissa was helping too :-)

Wanting some more chocolate on her spoon.

Like mother like daughter.

Demonstrations are always helpful.

During this step they were filling the chocolate shell with more chocolate stuff! Yummy yummy, cant get enough chocolate.

Eissa was playing and tripped and fell and busted her lip. These next pictures are of her playing with her "big" lip.

Life on the line

2008-06-16T11:20:00.001-05:00

So every Monday I get to do my laundry. Do I sound excited and thrilled? Well partly so and partly not. The washer we have is about half the size of the one at my house in the states and it takes two hours to do one load of laundry! TWO HOURS!! We do not have a dryer so I get to hang the clothes on the line. I never thought I would like hanging clothes on the line, but for some reason I really enjoy it. I dont know what it is about it that makes me enjoy it. Now do I enjoy it so much that when I have a family I will use that method of drying clothes....ummmm probably not. I am just one person and have lots of clothes, I cant imagine being like Michawn and hanging clothes for 6 people. Here are some pictures of my clothes minus one load and a load of sheets.

Girls Day Out

2008-06-14T16:34:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday Michawn and I got to take a trip to town. She showed me around downtown Anapolis, where they live, but for some reason I didn't take any pictures of the town. Silly me. The main reason we went was to get a fan for my room. At home in the States I have a ceiling fan and I always sleep with it on. Well my room doesn't have a ceiling fan so we went to get just a little fan like the kids have in their rooms. After we got the fan and walked around the shopping area we went to Super X to eat, translating that, its Super Cheese. The letter X is called cheese. Here they use some English words just because they like them. Michawn and I said if they think English is so cool then why don't they speak it, sure would make it easier for her :-). After we ate our burgers we went to rent a movie and then came home and played with the kids for a little while, went running that night, and then watched Hairspray.

Mallory I didnt know you would be here!

I love you and miss you!

Brazilians are really big on beans and rice. They have it at every meal. This is the beans and rice isle, but this is just part of it.

I guess Ariel decided to come early. Ariel is a laundry detergent and this is actually the detergent we use while in Romania.

The restaurant we ate at. It was super good too. :-)

This is the famous fan. After: 30 mins of waiting in an isle for someone to get the fan for us, three sets of paper work, a man opening and putting the fan together to make sure it works, boxing it back up, and about $60. I have a fan in my room. Electronics are extremely expensive here and quit a process to get them.

Some time with the kids when we got back from town.

If you blow this picture up you may can see the little white tail of the kite.

Michawn had to go into the kids rooms before the movie and get their swimming stuff ready for Sunday and Eissa was sleeping like this. She fixed her and later she had to go back in there and she was hanging out of the crib again. So cute.

Life in the air

2008-06-12T11:01:00.001-05:00

Tuesday June 3, 2008 I got the privilege to go up with Joel. This flight was some more training for Joel. We flew about 15 mins northeast of Anapolis, I think, to this little landing strip that was very narrow and short and is surrounded by trees. Joel was to practice how he would land on this little strip, he was not allowed to actually land because it was dirt and gravel and it would damage the tires some if he actually landed on it. It was kind of a bummer because Joel, his instructor, and me all wanted to land it. Once we located to strip we circled it about 4 times and the he went down about 4 times. So we did a total of 8 circles. This flight was a lot of fun. I love to travel by air and most people think im crazy when I say I enjoy turbulence while in the air and I love take off and landing. Once im up in the air I get really bored. This plane that Joel was flying was so much more fun than a big jet that im accustomed to traveling on. On this single engined plane we got to turn in sharp circles and there was more action I guess you could say. This flight really made me want to ride an aerodynamic plane. Then Joel was like, yeah those are fun! I got to fly one of those while training to get my pilots license in the states. Talk about made me jealous :-). Anyhoo here are some pictures from the preparation to take off to practicing landing and to landing back at Asas. Hope you enjoy.

If you read my post on Asas then you know that every morning they start with a devotion. This is the devotion and prayer time.

Filling out paper work.

More paper work.

and more paper work.

and more.....

and more along with some instruments.

I think this is about it.

"If you are to get sick to your stomach there is a "Sic Sac" right above your head."

"Please locate the nearest exit closest to you, keep in mind it may be behind you."

We had to wait a while before we could take off because the Military was practicing para shooting.

All of them walking back to the plane.

Preparing for take off.

Here we go!

Joel and his instructor.

That little dirt strip to the left of that road is our landing strip.

Preparing to land, but not actually landing. We went down several times and never touched the ground before taking off again.

Tight squeeze.

Oh wait more paper work when we got back.

Woohoo for the internet connection

2008-06-11T18:29:00.000-05:00

So I told everyone that I would post today, but we did not have internet last night or all day today. I just got it back about an hour ago. So therefore I will not be posting anything tonight. I will try my best to post tomorrow after I get back from the orphanage and eat lunch. Sorry for those of you who get on everyday to see if I have posted something new and worth reading lol. Sorry today is not the day for an interesting post with lots of pictures to see. Hope you all have had a wonderful day.

Crazy Busy

2008-06-10T07:18:00.000-05:00

So I have not really posted in a while and I apologize. Things have been crazy busy around here lately. We have been on the road going places and and just have not had much time to sit down. I have lots of pictures of the things we have been doing that I need to post. I probably wont be able to post today though. Today will be my first day to work at the Orphanage and then when I get home I will just have enough time to grab a bite for lunch and we will be off to a Womens Meeting at Asas with Michawn. I am going to try to sit down tonight and get some pictures and stuff up. Sorry I have been slacking on the blog. I love you all and miss you too!

Want to talk to me?????

2008-06-07T09:08:00.000-05:00

Just so everyone will know. You can call and hear my voice if you would like. You may already know this, but Joel and Michawn have a Boston number that you can call and it will ring on the house phone here in Brazil. If you call from the United States it will just charge you a long distance call, you will not be charged for an international call. They pay a monthly payment to have this number and they have unlimited minutes. One thing is that I can not call you, you will have to call me if you want to talk and you can call whenever you want but just keep in mind that we are two hours ahead of yall. If it is 9 am there then its 11 am here. Hope to talk to yall soon, here is the number: 1-978-364-4247

First Saturday

2008-06-06T08:40:00.001-05:00

The first Saturday that I was here we got up and walked to a Bakery for lunch. Then we walked to the Orphanage that I will be volunteering at, walked to the University that is near by, and stopped at this little truck to taste some coconut water and sugarcane juice. Here are some pictures from throughout the day.

On our way to the bakery.

It was too dark to take a picture from inside so Michawn went outside to take a picture through the window.

Michawn got some chips and they were all gone, but Eissa was determined to find some more.

Just some pictures of the sights I saw while walking around. These few we were headed from the Bakery to the Orphanage.

This is the "Bobcat" house as Michawn called it. It is an orange house with black and white tile in front. Very cool!

This is the entrance to the Orphanage.

This is the main entrance to the University.

To the right of the entrance, the rest of the building.

The gym at the University.

Eissa playing while we were getting a tour of the place from Joel.

Grady playing with a plant while waiting on Hadley to finish using the bathroom so we could leave.

The little truck we stopped at to taste the coconut water and sugarcane juice.

Joel giving me a clean straw to taste the coconut water with.

Big sip!

NASTY!!

Michawn wanted to taste it too. She had had it before but had forgotten what it tasted like and was reminded that she doesnt care for it to much.

Time for the sugarcane juice.

It was even worse than the coconut water.

Time to pay.

On the way home we attempted to get a kids shot and this was the best I got. lol

Daily Schedule

2008-06-05T13:13:00.000-05:00

This will be my life for the month of June. Everyone here is off the month of July so I dont know what all we will be doing during that time. I know Joel will possibly be gone 2 weeks during July so I will be helping Michawn during that time. Also Ariel is coming down the last 2 weeks of my stay here in July, so that will be a blast! Woohoo, cant wait for you to get here Ariel! Love you and miss you! We may do some traveling (if they can find a bigger vehicle, right now Grady and Hadley share a seat belt and me and Eissa share a seat belt with Cass in her infant seat between us, fun times :-)) while Joel is off because I know they have to take care of some business with Eissa (something about her dual citizenship or something another, dont really know. I just know it has to be done in Brasilia and that is a good sight seeing place I think). Anywho here is what my days look like.

Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays

8:00-9:00—wake up and get ready
9:00-9:30—breakfast
9:30-11:00—take kids to the park
11:00-1:00—free time/lunch
1:00-2:00— clean up kitchen from lunch
2:00-2:30—Eissa time and put her down for a nap
2:30-5:00—blog/layout/quiet time
5:00-5:15—get Eissa up and ready to get the kids from school
5:30— pick up kids from school
6:00-7:00—supper
7:00-8:00—kids shower/kids down for bed
8:30-9:30—work out
9:30-10:00—shower
10:00-11:00—read/bed

I started my MWF schedule this week but I wont start my TR schedule until next week

Tuesday and Thursdays

8:00-9:00—wake up and get ready
9:00-9:30—breakfast
10:00-1:00—volunteer at the Orphanage (I will be helping feed the babies’ lunch and put
them down for a nap)
1:00-2:00—lunch
2:00-4:00—lay out by the pool and relax time
4:00-5:00—blog/free time
5:30—pick up kids from school
6:00-7:00—supper
7:00-8:00—kids shower/kids down for bed
8:30-9:30—work out
9:30-10:00—shower
10:00-11:00—read/bed

What if his people prayed......

2008-06-04T11:16:00.000-05:00

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

A lot of the time we (as Christians) ask “what is this world coming to?” “What’s wrong with the world?” “Why are courts upholding abortion rights and getting friendlier with gay rights?” But yet we Christians are united primarily by grumbling and sitting on our hands. We mostly hear, “It’s the government’s fault that all this is happening. The schools are doing this, and the politicians are doing that.” The government, the schools, and the media were always the problem. They’re easy targets, and we’ve proven it by jumping on them. I think one of our problems is that we have forget a lot of this world is lost. Lost people sin. There is no Holy Spirit in them pointing them in the right direction, we Christians have that “compass” if you will that points to true north. Maybe it’s not always the rest of the world, maybe it’s the Christians. Look at God’s promise in that verse above. IF my people...who are called by my name…will humble themselves, and pray…and seek my face…and turn from their wicked ways…THEN will I hear from heaven…and will forgive their sins…and heal their land. So God promise

1. He will hear our prayers,
2. He will forgive our sins, and
3. He will heal our sick nation.

Yet we are still saying, “God, heal our land. Feed the poor. Bring revival to our country. Why aren’t you moving, Lord? Why is all this stuff happening?” Have we forgotten the first part of that verse? It’s an if/then statement, “IF my people…….THEN will I hear from heaven.” Nothing will change if Christian don’t change their ways. Let it start within yourself.

Some questions to ponder:

Read Matthew 7:2-4, how often do you struggle with judgmental thoughts, and what do you think is the source of these thoughts.
Can you think of an occasion when you or someone you know took a proper stand on an issue but did it in the wrong spirit? What was the outcome? How could the situation have been handled better?
In what areas do you think the Church is failing its New Testament mission? In what areas is the Church strong?

For those of you who don’t know my favorite Christian band is Casting Crowns and if you are familiar with them then this title should have rang a bell. This brings us to the song “What if His People Prayed” here are the lyrics and if you want to listen to it you can, just click on the link below (awesome and powerful song).

*Note: In the song it says

“What if the family turned to Jesus,

Stopped asking Oprah what to do?”

Mark Hall is not pointing fingers at Oprah Winfrey or putting down her talk show. He is merely pointing out that we exalt people and take advice from others instead of finding counsel in God’s word. Psalms 118:8 says “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF-lXgjEHo0

"What if His People Prayed" by Casting Crowns

What if the armies of the Lord
Picked up and dusted off their swords
Vowed to set the captive free
And not let satan have one more

What if the Church, for heaven's sake
Finally stepped up to the plate
Took a stand upon God's promise
And stormed hell's rusty gates

Chorus I:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His faith, yeah
And turn from their old ways

And what would happen if we prayed
For those raised up to lead the way
Then maybe kids in school could pray
And unborn children see light of day

What if the life that we pursue
Came from a hunger for the truth
What if the family turned to Jesus
Stopped asking Oprah what to do

Chorus I:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His face yeah
And turn from their own way
Chorus II:
He said that He would hear
His promise has been made
He'll answer loud and clear, yeah
If only we would pray

Bridge:
If My people call by My name
If they'll humble themselves and pray
If My people call by My name
If they'll humble themselves and pray

Choruses:
What if His people prayed
And those who bear His name
Would humbly seek His face, yeah
And turn from their old ways
He said that He would hear
His promise has been made
He'll answer loud and clear yeaah
If only we would pray

Asas de Socorro

2008-06-03T18:26:00.001-05:00

On May 30 I got to go check out Asas de Socorro, which is where Joel works and trains. This is also where Michawn goes to help out and work on her Portuguese (mainly just by being around people speaking it, but does a little studying there too). At Asas de Socorro they have missionaries, students, and employees. They train missionaries, teach people how to do maintenance on planes, and also train pilots. Asas de Socorro has been running for 50 years and has never had a plane to crash or anyone get hurt! Amazing huh? They are so good at what they do that outsiders want them to do maintenance on their planes, build engines for them, and etc. This type of maintenance for outsiders gives the Asas students more hands on training time; there would not be a whole lot of that if they just worked with the Asas planes. Since Joel has his pilots license from the states he does not have to attend the classes Asas, but he does have to take all the test that are required for the students. Because of this he still has to put in study time. He also has to get more flight hours here to obtain his pilots license in Brazil. We did not get to go flying that day but Joel plans on taking me up while I am here. Every morning they start the day off with a little devotion in the hanger, then students go to class, they do maintenance on the planes that need to be worked on, and they fly. This is what they do all day long. So that is Joels life as of now.
Michawn; however, goes to Asas every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from about 1:30-5. This coming week she will start a project of sewing little salvation booklets together for the mission teams to take to give to the little children during the mission trips. These little booklets are kind of like our salvation bracelets in the States.

These pictures are of where Joel spends most of his time.

This is the flight school/maintenance hanger. To the left of it they are building more classrooms and on the right of this hanger there will be another hanger built to house JAARS which is WYCLIFF aviation dept.

This plane actually got done with maintenance that morning and is now ready for a test flight.

As you can tell this plane is still being worked on.
Nice pose Joel! ;-)

This is another picture of the plane that is having maintenance done to it.

This is the inside of the plane that just got done in maintenance.

This is the runway. They actually have a paved runway at the back, you may can see it if you double click on the picture and blow it up. But once they are finished with all the training and schooling and actually start to fly for the missions they will be landing in the Amazon. These places will be very hilly, have lots of trees, and some landing will actually be done on water. Training and preparation is very rigorous because you have to be highly qualified and good to do these kind of landings.

This is the headquarters for Asas de Socorro which is just down the road from the hanger. This is where Michawn works and studies her Portuguese.

Its time to party......

2008-06-02T12:52:00.002-05:00

The first Friday I was here I got to experience a Brazilian BBQ. Well it was not really a BBQ but maybe more like a cookout. Anyway it was a get together for this couples birthdays. There was lots of food, fun, and excitement. There were several people there that spoke English so I got to enjoy it also. There were lots of kids so they all had a fantastic time playing and staying up "late." But you could tell towards the end of the party it was way past their bedtime, a little more disobedience was involved. We all had a wonderful time and I got to experience something not like my culture. Im not saying it was weird or crazy or anything but it was just not like the way we do a cookout. We all usually cook the food, have a blessing, and everyone eats at the same time while enjoying everyones company.....well at this party they cook the meat and you eat as it gets done. As Joel says "You have to be like a vulture if you want to get any meat." The party was here at our house because the house Joel and Michawn are staying in has a great porch around the house and a grill area. Its the perfect set up for this type of party.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

This is a...I guess you could say a community drink. Its kinda like a hot tea, but a little different. I got to try it, and it is not that bad, but I would'nt drink it all the time though, its just ok. It is more common in Southern Brazil than in the area I am in.

Eissa enjoying her some meat.

Pedro (the boy in the yellow) is trying to get a little camp fire going. Pedro was really great with the children, and he speaks English.

They were getting some meat or waiting on some to get finished cooking.

Cant have a party without any music!

Grady getting some meat, and dipping it in the corn mill looking stuff. Im not sure what that stuff was but it is just some type of extra seasoning.

Meat Preparation and Cooking!

Chowing down!

Cass enjoying the party too!

Eissa thought it was so funny when Michawn would blow the chicken to cool it off.

Sister love!

Still chowing down!

Eissa was not happy when Grady and Hadley got some coke and she didnt.

Eissa would just laugh so hard and smile so big when I would go up and down with her on my leg.

It was birthday cake time and those two thought it was for them.

Sunday Morning

2008-06-01T12:14:00.001-05:00

Note* I will apologize ahead of time if this post gets a little confusing. This is just a glimpse of my mind and thoughts and sometimes they are hard to put into words that make sense.

I find it so AMAZING how God works. We went to church this morning and even though I could not understand a word that was sung or a word that was preached I still could feel the presence of the Lord. While I was sitting there I began to think, since I had no clue what the preacher was saying; however during the worship I recognized one song :-) Here I am to Worship. My mind began to wonder and i began to think about life. As I sat there I wondered.....God what do you really want out of my life? I know for sure I am called to the Ministry. I surrendered to the Ministry when I was 12, but I didn't know what part of the Ministry God was going to place me in. I have been involved in missions since I was 12, but is that going to be my full time calling, am I going to have to learn another language, will I have to move away from home...? Lots of thought began to stream through my head. I also began to wonder who is my husband? What does he look like? Where is he from? I know he is going to be an awesome man of God but can I just have a little glimpse Lord? Children are my passion and my joy! I love them soooo much and want a house full when I get married. So then I began to wonder will I even be able to have children? I surely hope so. I also pondered the thought of going to Seminary as a music minister, but is that where God wants me? I have always told myself I cant go to Seminary to be a music minister because I know nothing about music, I just like to sing and lead worship. I have always admired my music minister Br. Stan. He is so smart when it comes to putting on a cantata, I dont have a clue when it comes to that stuff. I cant even read music. How can I be a music minister? I can show you where middle C is on the piano, lol, but that is it.

A lot of the time we look at ourselves and give reason and ways God can use us if we were just someone else. Why do we always think God can use someone else in a more powerful way then our own self? All of that is Satan pushing our buttons and throwing that thing called FEAR in front of us. God calls us, equips us, and is always with us. God wants us just the way we are.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.~ Marianne Williamson

Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
Galatians 5:26

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
1 John 4:4-6

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength.
Ephesians 1:15-19

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7

Here are some pictures from my first Sunday.

Before church and at church. (I don't know why I didn't get any of me with the kids while at church)

Some girl time while Joel and Grady went to the grocery store and to get lunch.

The Brazilian Drink

2008-05-30T09:45:00.001-05:00

When Grady and Hadley went to school, Michawn and I ran to this little store while Joel was still home for lunch to watch the two little girls. Michawn was wanting some coke so thats what we were going to the store to get. While we were there she got me this little drink. It is the thing here in Brazil and she wanted me to taste it. Since I have been here we have not really done much, we have just been chillin. This weekend I hope we are going to get a schedule made out of the things I will be doing for the next several weeks until Ariel gets here.

Here are just a few pictures of me tasting the drink. The drink was just ok, it was nothing to die for or do cartwheels over.

This is the little store we went to to get the goodies!

This is just the other side of the store.

I was trying to figure out what the taste reminded me of and saying it was ok.

I guess this is Joel's reaction to me tasting it. I guess he was remembering the taste in his mouth as I took the first sip of it.

Eissa had to have some too.

Getting Settled In

2008-05-29T11:51:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was my first full day in Brazil with my cousins. The day was great and relaxing. I slept in and got up and took a shower. I spent a little time with the kids at the kitchen table eating oreos! Their first ones since I got here. Michawn and I had some the night before. The loved them, as you will see in the pictures of the black teeth! :-0 After lunch Michawn and I walked Hadley and Grady to Portuguese Class (school). They go to school from 1-5:30. When we got back home I blogged and then started to unpack all of my stuff. About the time I got done unpacking it was time to go get the kids from school, and off to the park we went. Michawn and Joel live on this campus where there is a seminary and for supper we went to the cafeteria. We went there because Joel wasnt going to be home until late. The cafeteria is right next to the park so after the kids got done playing for a little while we walked over for supper. After supper we walked back home and put the kids to bed. Michawn, Joel, and I were going to watch a movie but Joel was really tired. He had been flying most of the day and was exhausted. So tonight Michawn and I are going to have a movie night and watch "Bella." Joel wont be home tonight, because Joel wont be home until about 10:30. I was about to go to bed last night and Michawn was on the computer talking to Aunt Nena and she told her to tell me not to go to bed yet that my mom was going to call me. Well mom tried several times and the line kept being busy but she finally got through. I talked to her and dad for a little while and then went to bed.

Here are some pictures of my room and bathroom, Hadley and Grady's school, and the park.

"On the road again".....or should I say "In the air again" and 26 hours later

2008-05-28T13:40:00.000-05:00

Michawn and I are sitting at the table, both on our computers, the two older kids are at school, and the two little ones are down for a nap and Michawn was like "You need to blog." So thats what im doing.

This title is not accurate, it has been longer than 26 hours. But it took me about 26 hours to get here. Monday morning I got up at 7 to tell my dad and brother bye because they had to leave to go to a golf tournament for one of the scholarships Colby got for school. After telling them bye I finished packing and got ready to leave. We (Mom, Aunt Nena, Tucker, and I) stopped by Granny's to tell her, Aunt Marilyn, and Ariel bye. Then we headed off to Shreveport to eat at my FAVORITE restaurant, Red Lobster. The guy that waited on us was awesome. Aunt Nena ordered 2 dozen biscuits for me to bring to Brazil for Michawn and the family. Well our waiter did not charge us for them and he also went through a lot of trouble to package them to make them easy to carry around. He was great. So after we ate, we headed off to CVS to get me a calling card so I could call home during my 8 hour layover in Rio De Janeiro. Then off to the Airport to check my luggage and all that good stuff. Well for those of you who dont know, the airlines are starting to only allow 1 checked bag and you have to pay for the additional bags. I had two bags and they were both overweight. My Aunt Nena was generous and paid the 2 overweight fees and the additional bag fee. After all of that was taken care of I said my goodbyes and I love yous and headed through security and to my gate. The flight from Shreveport to Atlanta left at 4 pm. The flight was good and we had no problems or complications. I had about a 2 hour layover in Atlanta so I got me my favorite fast food, McDonalds, for supper. I talked on the phone some and did some text messaging to pass the time. The over night flight was also good. I sat by a Brazilian guy who spoke English so that was good. I slept most of the flight, which is unusual for me. Normally I cant sleep very good on the over night flights, but I had no problem. When arriving at Rio De Janeiro I went through passport check and to baggage claim to get all of my stuff then proceeded to customs. I went straight through customs with no problems. They did not check anything or ask me any questions. Awesome right (most trips I tend to be the one to get checked from head to toe and all of my stuff looked through)? I head upstairs to check my bags and get my boarding pass and all that good stuff. I found a lady that spoke English and she informed me that I had to wait until 12 or after to check in. So I got "buff" from about 8:30 to 12. When I would get tired of sitting around I had to hall all of my luggage around with me to walk some. Keep in mind that I had 2 checked pieces one weighing about 70 lbs and the other about 85 lbs plus my carry on which weighed about 20 lbs, my purse, and my pillow and blanket. :-) can't go anywhere without my pillow and blanket. Oh the calling card situation, almost forgot. So after I find out I can't check in until 12 or after I went to go find a phone to call mom and dad. I could not get the card to work. When I activated my card while in Atlanta the lady gave me instructions on how to use it to call the US from Brazil. I could not get it to work at all. I started to panic for a second but then I thought well maybe I can get on the internet and see if Michawn and them were on Skype and get them to call mom and dad. What do you know, I could not get internet service either. So now im really starting to panic. I started walking and started praying that God would let me run into someone who spoke English. I asked this one worker if he spoke English and he said no, well while I was asking him I overheard these people speaking English. So I turned around and there were 3 men and a lady. These 3 men just so happened to be from Louisiana around the Homa area. The lady was Brazilian and she let me use her cell phone to call Joel and Michawn. For some reason I wrote their Brazil phone numbers down and boy was I thankful. Thank you Lord for letting me write their Brazil numbers down. God was totally watching after me and taking care of everything I needed as he always does. So after 3 tries I got a hold of Joel and he told Michawn and she got word to my mom and dad and let them know I was in Rio and ok but that I wouldn't be able to call every two hours like my mom wanted. So time began to slowly start passing by. 12:00 rolled around and I went to this guy Hosea who spoke English, and again God took care of everything, Hosea took all of my stuff and completely did everything for me. He also informed me of some good news, which was that I did not have to pay another additional baggage fee or the two over weight fees. Talk about awesome. Hosea was great! Thank you Lord for letting me run into him. I get to my gate and find out that our plane is not there so I was delayed another 2 hours so now instead of being in this airport for 8 hours I was in there for 10, but I can't complain. God was totally with me and let everything line up perfectly. While I was at my gate this pastor from here in Brazil that spoke a little English came and sat with me and we talked a while. One of the things that really touched me that he said was "My dream is to be able to preach a sermon in all English." So the whole time we talked I introduced him to some new English words and helped him know how to use certain words. Our plane finally arrived and we were on our way to Goiania where Michawn and Joel would pick me up. When I walked through the door and saw Michawn, Joel, Eissa, and Cass I started crying. Michawn started laughing and said why are you crying? I was so excited to see them I could not help it. I could hardly even talk lol. It was funny but a great feeling to finally see family that you haven't seen in over a year. We got to their house between 8:30 and 9 and some of their friends were here to have a bible study/ meeting thing. Michawn and I just went to the kitchen to chill and finish cooking the supper. After everyone left I got the privilege to be Santa for Michawn and Joel and give them all the stuff I brought to them. Michawn and I stayed up until about 2 this morning and finally went to bed after some Oreos lol. Well thats the update for the trip over. Pictures later, Michawn (the expert blogger) has to show me how to do them.

Here are a few pictures that Joel took of us when I arrived! Thanks Joel!

Getting Started

2008-05-25T23:25:00.000-05:00

The time has come for me to head to Brazil to live with my cousin Michawn, her husband, and their 4 children for the summer. I have never really been much of a blogger or diary writer or anything of that sort, but those of you who know Michawn knows that she is a BIG time blogger. Well she told me I needed to get one and post everyday and put up pictures so everyone can have easy access to see and hear from me. So here I am getting a blog the day before leaving to go to Brazil I will be flying out of Shreveport tomorrow at 4:00 pm. Be in prayer for me, and my family that I am leaving back home. Pray that God will surround my family with comfort and peace. I can't imagine being in their shoes and watching my daughter, niece, or granddaughter leaving the country for 9 weeks. I on the other hand am very excited about this opportunity and hope that since I will be with my cousin and her children (by the way those of you who do not know, I absolutely love and adore kids) I wont get homesick. Love yall and will post more later.