Bom Ano Novo

Happy New Year's Eve Everyone!

Is anyone one else excited about the New Year?!?

I am... 2008 was a HUGE year for our family. On January 1st of 2008, we still didn't even have know for sure if we were going to be approved to go to Portugal. And now on December 31st, here we are... in beautiful Lisbon. In the midst of making friends, learning the language and culture. In many ways it is what we expected and in many other ways it is not. The journey has been amazing and we can't wait to see where the next year takes us.

I don't have any "new year's resolutions" ( I think that is really just setting yourself up for failure) but anyways... I have several plans for this next year... hopes!

I HOPE to be speaking Portuguese considerably better than I do right now!

I HOPE to have developed some deeper friendships with some of the women I have met here.

I HOPE to go to several new places...

I HOPE to see small groups start... the gospel shared...new believers........

I also HOPE to get more of you involved in praying for our adventures here, for specific people that God is allowing us to interact with... if you are interested email/comment or facebook us. We will send out some more info in our next newsletter but since some of you may not get it I wanted to throw the opportunity out.

I pray that all of you have a wonderful beginning to this next year! We will be celebrating with friends, playing games and watching fireworks over the river!

Bring it on 2009- we can't wait!

Christmas continues...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

We had a wonderful Christmas day... The girls had a blast getting into their stocking and then opening presents in the morning. Since we had all day we got all the toys out and let them have toy central in the living room. Mark got a new espresso maker so he and I enjoyed that several times and the day went on:)

In the evening we went to our friend's, Buck and Donna) house for a big Christmas dinner. It was wonderful... turkey, mashed potatoes..the works!! We talked, played games and just enjoyed the time. It was a wonderful day of relaxing and enjoying being together!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas too!

Feliz Natal!

Christmas begins

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We started our Christmas celebrations a few days early before our friend, Caroline, went out of town for the holidays. We made Christmas cookies, went out to eat, watched Christmas movies and opened a couple presents. Then on Christmas Eve we got things going... everyone had taken turns being sick (except me) and the last sickies were just finally recovering on Christmas Eve so we were ready for some fun celebrating. Our mail came in the morning and we got a package from Mark's sister, Joy. And then some how later that evening another package was delivered from a bunch of our friends in Jackson! So with candy canes and new Christmas jammies we were ready for Santa to come:)

Ornaments

Hold on, this is going to be a crazy long post...

I have been wanting to do this post for several days... my new friend, (who is on her way to Portugal) Cristi tagged me last week and was so excited! I love getting out our ornaments every year. It is like a visit from an old friend. Every year we get new ornaments it has been a tradition since I was a little girl. So there are lots of memories. It makes the tree so beautiful to me, it is just a mess of memories:)

These are some of my favorites of the girl's ornaments... they are sweet, pink and girlie.

We got Sahara's and Bria's in 2002 when Bria was a baby and my sister found this one for Tirza for her first Christmas.

Of course, a crown for the princess...

Tirza is SO into the Christmas tree this year. She helped me decorate until every last ornament and light were on the tree. AND, I found this lovely grouping of ornaments at the back of the tree. It looks like she didn't like my "spread them out" style and redid some of the ornaments:)

I love these too... my sister got them in India for us. We have green stars and red moons too.

Most of my favs are from Kenya. This one is made out of banana leaves.

And, of course, the family ornament:) Mark's brother and sister in law got us this one. Seriously, so cute!

These little chai mugs just might be my very favorite. My Mom found these for us the year that Mark and I got engaged. They look exactly like the chai mugs that we used in Kenya, everyday. Every year when I get them out they make me smile, so many memories!

This one is very special to me... It made it debut to our tree just last year. It was given to our family by some very special friends. This year it was a wonderful reminder of how God blessed us with some amazing friends in TN.

I hope you have stayed with me to the end cause here is where the Christmas magic really begins:)

Today, hours after the mail was delivered, we got a package... it was huge and fun and special... AND we found this little red box amongst the other goodies.... guess what it is!?!

A new ornament from our friends!!!! I can not tell you how excited I am, it quickly went up on the tree! It is extra special because we haven't found any new ornaments yet this year. I looked around for something uniquely Portuguese and found NADA. So, sigh of relief, I don't have to write 2008 on a boring green ball so we have a new ornament for this year. Thank you friends!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope your Christmas is blessed and full of Love!

The Christmas Flower

Thursday was the girls last day of school before the Christmas break. So there was lots of celebrating going on at school. Tirza got to go on a field trip... the the metro! The took all the 3, 4 and 5 year olds to ride the Metro de Natal. And Santa was waiting at the end of the line so Tirza got to see Santa:) Sahara and Bria had a gift exchange in with their classes and all the kids exchanged sweet little gifts. But the gift exchange is NOT where Sahara got her pretty flower.

Mark and I went to the school to give the teachers a small gift and to hand out cookies to all the other teachers and helpers. It was a lot of fun, they seemed really surprised and we got lots of kisses.

A little boy, Tomas, that Sahara had been passing notes with in class (yes, we talked to her about that...) handed her a bag as he was leaving. In the bag was this pretty flower and a note, in English, that said, "Hope you like this flower, Merry Christmas... Love and Kisses, Tomas

Very sweet and no, I am not alarmed by the love and kisses part because it is a very normal way here to say goodbye and to end a letter. Normally you greet someone and say goodbye with bejinhos (little kisses).

Feliz Natal and Bejinhos to you all!

Our Language Class

From left to right: Fatima (teacher), Mark, Hannah, Rui (teacher), Fiona (other student) and Monica (teacher)

This is at International House, our language school- we have been blessed with 3 wonderful teachers and another student in our class. For the past couple of months we have had this set up and Mark and I have learned so much! Things are going to change a little for us after January as far as language school goes. We are a little sad about the change but thankful for the time we had at IH.
Pray for us as we figure out all the details of changing schools. Right now it looks like Mark will be taking class at the University of Lisbon. We still haven't found a place for me to study (we need at place that isn't too expensive, meets the requirements, has classes at the right time and is easy to get to) so we are busy trying to figure that out.
Continue to pray for our language learning too. We are enjoying the process but really wish we could speed things up:) Really when we evaluate how much we have learned we are doing great. We are starting to be able to have longer conversations, feel more comfortable practising what we are learning and are also able to understand a lot of what is being said to us and around us. But we have a long way to go and we are committed to learning this beautiful language!

Public School

Our language teacher, Rui, also teaches in the afternoons at a public school that happens to be really close to our house. So he invited us to come today to see a small program at the school. We were excited to get to see what the school was like so off we went this afternoon.
(This isn't really the point of this post but I just have to include the little adventure we took finding the school... Mark drove right to what we thought was the school, parked and we went in and asked for professor Rui, just like we had been told. They asked us which Rui- another side note is that in Portugal there is a list of names that you have to chose from when you have a baby- and the boys list especially is small so there are a lot of people with the same name.- so we said Rui Tiago Fillipe. They said, "oh, Rui Reale." Well no, but this is all happening in Portuguese so although we think we know what they and we are saying it is a little foggy. So they say he is out to lunch, and to sit and wait for a minute, and so we sit. And one Rui returns from lunch- nope not the right guy. Another 10 minutes and the other Rui returns, nope still not the right one. Hmm so now I ask again if this is the public school in Lumiar. Yep, and for all grades. Oppps, no just for older kids. Okay, so we are in the wrong place so we ask where the other school is- they don't know. So we leave and finally we get a hold of our Rui. He guides us in, exactly behind the school we were at- how they don't know where it is I will never understand.)
Whew, back to the main story--- We find our Rui and go into the school to see the program. It is in their gym/multi purpose room, that doesn't have working electricity. It is chaos, total and complete chaos. Kids talking yelling, standing on chairs, leaving the room- not at all paying attention to the kids on stage trying to salsa dance. Friends, this is just 1-4th graders with one little class of 3,4 and 5 year olds. The kids were doing whatever they wanted while a couple kind teachers were doing their best to maintain some sort of order. I asked Rui is this was for parents too and he said, "NO" the school does like to have parents there- because its so out of control. Most of the teachers were not paying attention and some were outside talking, while a few tried to help the kids do the show and settle down.
After the show they had presents for the kids. Sounds nice huh!? Well the problem is that we asked where the presents came from and we were told that the government gives money to the school and the schools get to choose where it is spent. They thought it would be fun to give every kid a present. Hmmm, but the electricity isn't working in some of the school buildings and the playgrounds are bare, and and and...
We visited a couple of the classrooms, they were nice sized and the ones we saw were organized and well kept. But we talked with one of the teachers, the 1st grade teacher, and he was telling us about his class. He has 24 kids, not a bad size... BUT he has 4 kids with special needs. FOUR! One of them is autistic, one only has one leg, one has a colostomy bag and stints, and I didn't catch the last ones issue. And the teacher doesn't have any helpers- just him! He has a couple children with serious speech problems and parents that refuse to help.
Now I am very aware that there are places all over the world with educational difficulties much bigger than this, places where there isn't education available. But I live in Western Europe, in a very modern city and where this school is located is just across the street from a really nice area of town. It blew my mind and broke my heart! It was a cultural experience, to say the least, and it was a reminder that there is a lot of work to do here in our neighborhood.
As we were in the school, I started thinking of ways we could help- do something, anything... but the truth is that although we may find some small way to help out... what they really need is the Gospel. It's the only thing that will change the cycles that make issue like this so heartbreaking and real all over our world. The task in daunting, so many people... but I will pray to have the opportunity to shine light into the darkness... one person at a time!

Honk

The road in front of our apartment building is really narrow. When two cars going opposite directions meet they usually have to fold in their mirrors to be able to pass each other. So you can imagine my surprise when I looked out the window and saw this huge bus coming down the road! It stopped and loaded up some kids from an afterschool daycare that is in the bottom of our building and then attempted to take the corner. The bus obviously couldn't get around all the cars so he just honked and honked and then honked some more, after about 20 minutes of honking enough people had moved their cars and he maneuvered the bus around the corner. I was impressed... I didn't think it was possible. But I was so entertained by the honking that I got a video so everyone could experience it with us:)!

What a difference a year makes...

This time last year we were in Richmond, Virginia for our "candidate conference." It was a huge step in our process of getting to Lisboa. We had several interviews, medical exams, lots of informational sessions and even some time to research our country. We were so excited to be there and very nervous as well. At the end of the week we got the "green light" to continue in the process.

We made some amazing friends that instantly became life-long friendships. They are now scattered all over the world and we miss them like crazy! It feels like we have been friends for way longer than a year... doesn't it guys!?! Oh, the stories... the Andrews waiting for us at the airport for hours, the Bredbenners pronouncing Massachusetts, the loud Apples to Apples game... oh the list could go on and on!

My sister, Letha, kept the girls back in TN for us. It was the longest I had been away from the girls, ever. But they did great and we snuck back in from the airport just in time to see Sahara and Bria be angels in the Northbrook Christmas program.

And now, here we are... in Lisbon, learning the language, meeting people, making new friends! It is hard to believe that we have gone from there to here in just a year.

Rainbows and Teachers

This is looking out the living room window of our apartment. A rainbow over the city of Lisboa! An awesome reminder... we know that God was here before us, that He has a plan for the beautiful people of this city and that we are in for an exciting journey!

And the excitement begins... Language School! Our classes have just gotten better and better the last couple of weeks. If you have been following the blog you may remember that we had a teacher that, uhmm, just wasn't working out so well... He's gone now, and we have 3 wonderful teachers now. Just yesterday one of our teachers was telling us how much we have progressed in the last few weeks, Yeah!!!

This guy is Rui, one of our teachers, and the lady is Fiona, she is in our class too. Rui is a great teacher and is wide open, we have had some great conversations with him lately, And, yes, totally in Portuguese. This last week we brought in our favorite verses from the Bible and shared them and another day we talked about the 10 Commandments.

Now that's another rainbow if you ask me!

Thanksgiving- just a little late

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Yes, I am a little slow getting Thanksgiving pictures up... but better late than never, right!?!

We celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving with most of our team. We did the traditional meal, turkey, stuffing, every other kind of food you can think of... even sweet potatoes! The sweet potatoes here are really light yellow, not bright orange like in TN, but they tasted good.

On Thanksgiving day we all had school, just like any other day. So after a lunch of pizza, which Mark and I love:) We decided to spent the evening downtown. It is one of our favorite parts of Lisbon and right now it is all decorated for Natal (Christmas). It is beautiful, lights everywhere! There is even a Nutcracker area to walk around and take pictures. The girls loved it. So after walking around and getting cold enough that it wasn't fun anymore... We headed towards home and ate out at our favorite cafe. Frango suppremo and chamucas!

Putting up the tree

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Last week we decided to start celebrating the season. So we went and bought a tree... not exactly the way we were used to doing it in Jackson. No horse rides or cutting down our own tree but we did pick it out and put it together ourselves:) And we had a fun time decorating the tree together. The big girls enjoyed seeing the ornaments with their names on it and then they found the Christmas music and they were done. Tirza, however, was all about decorating... she helped me until every single ornament was on the tree and every last decoration had found a place to be displayed. I think she has only broken three ornaments so far and all were glass ball that had no sentimental value so we're good.

We are excited to see and be a part of the Natal (Christmas) season here in Portugal. They already have lights and decorations everywhere. Our street even had lights and the downtown area is amazing with all the lights and decorations. I love it!

(Now I know you all think I skipped Thanksgiving... I didn't we had a nice dinner with friends last Saturday and I will post pictures soon. Our language teachers have been kicking our tails at school and I have been coming home so worn out that I am behind in posting. So soon...)

We just can't stay away...

One of our favorite places to visit... the Belem tower. We love going to Belem and we really love taking new people. It is right on the river and the whole area of town is just beautiful!
This is our friend, Craig, this was the end of his vision trip to Lisbon... so we thought we would show him a couple of our favorite places.

We just realized that Belem means Bethlehem, how cool is that!?!

Sete Rios

Last week the fellowship we have been going to celebrated their 10th anniversary. The kids helped with part of the program, they told a story and then sang. Sahara was excited to join in the fun. She sang every word perfectly! She may not be talking to much in Portuguese yet but she sure will sing! If you know Sahara you know that sound about right:) Tirza was sitting with us but when she saw the kids lining up to sing she couldn't miss out so she ran up front and stood with Sahara. The video is kind of dark and I am not sure you can even see Tirza but you can hear the cute song.

Afterwards there was a huge meal, HUGE! It was great, we tried all sort of new stuff. And we spent several hours practising our Portuguese. Everyone was very patient and helpful. We went home with full tummies and tired brains:)

100 lbs. of FUN!

Last week my friend, Lori, sent us 100lbs of goodies and her husband:) Okay really her husband came on a vision trip from their church and she loaded his suitcases up with stuff for us.

She sent things that are hard to get here or really expensive for us to buy here. I have never had so much fun unpacking!

Fruit snacks galore, spice mixes, real deodorant... surprises for the girls:)Peanut butter, vanilla hot chocolate, halloween candy, shoes for the girls, toothbrushes...
Goldfish!!!!!!!
Tirza and I are immensely enjoying the goldfish crackers. And she got the Whole Wheat kind that I like... Lori, we love ya:)

The Clayton kids send the girls each a new LilKins Webkin... if you know anything about Webkins you know what a blast this was for the girls to come home too!

Meet our new friends... Sahara's puppy,Lydia!

Tirza's little ball of fluff, Sparkles!!!

And Bria's sweet kitty, Glitter:)

Thanks so much Clayton Circus... we love you guys and appreciate your support and encouragement more than you know!!!

Last weekend we spent a fun Saturday at the Oceanarium. Lisbon has an amazing Oceanarium, there is a HUGE center tank and then area for each of the world's oceans. It actually is all one giant tank and the areas are kept separate by the water temperature. So the right fish stay in the right ocean because of the temperature, just like in nature. Very impressive!

After we were done there we spent some time discovering the area around the Oceanarium. It is a beautiful area, right on the river. There are lots of things to see, places to walk and even fountains that shoot up water, the girls loved that. It is where they held Expo 98 so there is a neat area with all the flags of the countries that participated.

Lemons and a prayer

I have 2 little funny stories for you...
1st one is brought to you by Mark and Learning a New Language Blunder R US. Actually he has 2 entries in that department:)
Church on Sunday... pastor asks Mark if he would pray... of course he said it in Portuguese and then added that Mark could pray in English. Mark only caught the word "Pode" which means you can or can you? He replied to the pastor, "Pode, Pode" or "you can, you can." The pastor said a few more things and then told Mark to go ahead. Mark sat, and he stared, and he sat... making no indication that he was aware he had been asked to pray. I, started getting nervous... so I started poking him and whispering, "Stand up and pray, stand up and pray!!!!" He listened to me and slowly stood up, cleared his throat (making me again nervous that he thought he had to pray in Portuguese) and then finally offered a very heartfelt prayer. He later admitted that he had no caught any part of the pastor asking him to pray, lucky for him that his sweet wife had his back:)
His second entry was on the phone making reservation for dinner. He did well, using almost all Portuguese the whole conversation. At the very end they asked for our phone number and he successfully got all the way through, until the very last number. -----when he said, "tres, tres... duche." Now on his behalf, duche is not as bad of a word to mistake here as it would be in the States, it just means shower here. And he was trying to say dois... and he knows dois. It just seemed that duche maybe fit better into his rhythm... I don't really know. But I do know that I laughed, and hard for a good 10 minutes!
And lastly, the lemons. I know you are all anxiously waiting to hear how those fit into this post. Well it seems we have begun the "sneaking things home in your backpack" phase of life. And for us, and our sweet little Sahara, it begins with lemons. And we found out about these contraband lemons because while no one is watching she has been dissecting them in her bathroom. Making lemonade you ask, nope just tearing them apart. And she just can't figure out how I keep knowing when she is doing it. Hmmm, does she really not smell herself?!? Oh, you can't help but crack up... and it does make the bathroom smell lemony fresh:)

Nova Mesa

We are so excited about our new table! We had been looking everywhere for a dining room table and chairs. But we just couldn't find anything we really loved for a price we were willing to pay. Then I remember seeing a little carpentry shop on a little street we had driven down after getting gas one day. We had no idea what to expect but thought that it would be a fun cultural experience... so off we went. We found the shop and through pictures and pointing and even a little language:) we explained what we wanted.

For for not much more than we would have spent anywhere else we have a handmade, mahogany dinning set. We love it! It turned out better than I imagined.
The shop that made it for us was a father/son business and they were very proud of their work. They said if anything ever goes wrong with it just to let them know and they would fix it. They didn't have us finish paying them until I had seen the finished product and approved of it. The dad wanted me to know that the chairs were very solid and safe for the kids. So he picked one of the chairs up and threw it on the ground! I had a mini- heart attack, but he proved his point... nice sturdy chairs:)
We had our first "dinner company" last night, the table and chairs performed wonderfully!
So, whose next!?

Trick or Treat

There isn't much in the way of Halloween here... they do celebrate All Saint's Day but it isn't a big thing, mostly just a day off. Lucky for us it is one of the little guys on our team has a birthday the day before, so they had a birthday/halloween party. It was a blast! And we had 3 little princesses, of course:)
Here is our Island Princess with one of the Wicked Witches that showed up at the party. It was okay she turned out to nice except that she ate all the food and especially the candy:)

Christmas time Belle

Little Cinderella with her new magic wand.

Happy Halloween and All Saint's Day everyone!