Well, this is my first official blog. I don’t know how often I’ll do it, although I hope its often. I don’t know what I’ll blog about, although I’m sure there will be plenty of embarrassing stories. I don’t even know if I’ll be good at it! I do know that this will be an echo of my heart. I will be honest on these pages about how our family is doing-adventures, struggles, and all. This blog will be a window into our life in Porto Alegre, Brazil. So, here we go!!

We have been here for 1 week. Its been a roller coaster of emotions in 1 week. At first, it was all so overwhelming. We were emotional from leaving our home, emotional about arriving in Brazil, and our heads were filled with all sorts of information we needed in order to get settled here. It really was overwhelming. And that was just the first 2 days!! We had a great welcome from our field council (the group of ABWE missionaries in our city). Friday night we all had dinner at one of their houses. It was nice to finally meet them all. Saturday Julia arrived! We were so happy to see her. She is going to be of great use during our language school. I’ll get into that more later. Later saturday we started exploring. Well, as much exploring as one can do without a car! Yes, we still don’t have a car. We have been able to function-there is a grocery store about 3/4 mile away, a bakery 2 blocks away, and a produce market 2 blocks away. One of the missionaries, Cal, has been taking us to and from school each day. So, we are getting to where we need to go. A car would be nice though. We are itching to get out and explore! Not to mention, being at home so much promotes opportunities to think about missing our friends and family. I think it would help our homesickness if we had something exciting to do! (Well, my homesickness anyway) Lord willing we will get a car soon and we can check out the many parks, shopping, and eventually the beach! (It is summer you know)

So, back to this bakery down the street. It is sooooo yummy! The bread is so good and so cheap!! We’ve been going there way too much. I think I’m eating a loaf of bread a day!! I will have to stop this eventually.

We had our language school orientation. It is going to be a lot of work! We start out with no homework and class 2 hours a day for the first 2 weeks. Gradually we will work up to 30-40 hours a week of combined class time and study time!! Julia is going to be so helpful to have around here when we have class, hours of study, housework, portuguese conversation assignments, not to mention the kiddos! This is going to be a bit of a stretch, I think. :-)

Over the next few weeks we will be visiting all of the ABWE area churches. There are a few, I can’t remember how many. After we visit all of them, we will choose one to attend during language school. We are not permitted to do ministry, just attend the church, make relationships, and attend a small group. Our full time job this year is language study.
The boys have made a ton of friends already. Our neighborhood is a gated, guarded community of about 80 homes. The kids can run pretty much freely inside the gates. There are a ton of kids!! Last night, when I was getting the boys ready for bed, there were little brazilian faces peering in the front window looking for the boys! Then tonight, some kids called our house from the guard’s office to find out what the boys email address was-in portuguese!! That is such an answer to prayer! It was a major turning point for them this week when they had kids to play with. I heard Nathaniel praying for some of them tonight, that they would believe in Christ someday. Some of their names are Julia, Lucas, and Larissa. Please pray for them, and for our kids as they share Christ!

Well, that is a recap of our week so far. There is so much I left out, but I’m blabbing already! Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do in a blog?

Until next time…