Kati's Meeting

Just a note and something for you guys to be praying about....Kati has gotten the opportunity to speak to a high school English class in a local public school. The professor wants Kati to just encourage the students about learning a new language and answer some of their questions about her life and life in the States. If she is asked why she is living here, it is our understanding that she is free to share whatever she wants about her faith. So, please be in prayer for this situation. If we are able to get the Branded group from CHC down here, this could be our foot in the door at this particular school. God is up to something down here and we just want to be obedient to every opportunity that He gives us.

One week of school down!

We have completed one whole week of school now and life is completely hectic, but in a good way. It was a wonderful week and everything worked very smoothly. I thank you for your continued prayers for us in this area. Preston really likes the DVD's, but won't admit it out loud! Our schedule that we seem to be establishing is wake up at 7:00 and get breakfast ready. Wake everyone up at 8:00, eat breakfast and then have our family Bible time. We start school at 9:00. Kati has a rhythm of her own and doesn't need me as much as she used to. Preston and I start with his Bible class and then Math. These are the two that take the most time. Once we finish with these which has been around 11:00, we take a break and get a snack with Kati, Peyton and Pierce. Then the babies go down for their nap and Preston and I try to get through language class before lunch and before the little guys wake up. We then stop for lunch and then get right back to it. We have been finishing up by 2:30 or 3:00, so things are moving along nicely. Kati is normally finished by 1:00 or so and she takes the babies so Preston and I can finish the rest of his day in quiet. We are still fine tuning things, but are very encouraged that everyone is doing so well. Thank you again for praying for us as we work through this process.

Funny Portuguese Confusion

This is Keri and I have a funny Portuguese story. When we arrived in PoA two months ago, we had wonderful missionary friends that made this house feel like our home. Larry and Marla Green worked to have our house completely set up and ready for us when we arrived. They did such a great job and we are so thankful to them. Well, Marla left me what I thought was body lotion. I didn't really pay much attention to the bottle except that it said, in Portuguese of course, intensive hydration creme. So, I didn't think anything else other than lotion. I started using it that day and it was wonderful. I felt soft and smooth and it smelled wonderful. Ok, so I've been using this stuff for 2 months now and last night I was putting it on my feet before bed and when I was done I put the bottle on my night stand. I then went and tucked kiddos into their beds and when I got back to my room, I sat on the edge of the bed and that bottle caught my eye. I saw on the back that it said, "After you wash your hair....". I thought what in the world does this stuff have to do with your hair. So, as I read more I figured out that I have been putting a hair conditioner all over my body for two months. I sat there and laughed and laughed and couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed that before now. But Paul told me that the hair on my arms is really soft!

School books have arrived!

We did not expect a delivery on Saturday, but that is what we got. The school books have arrived and we want to thank you all for praying. We are so thankful to finally be able to get started with this school year. Well, Kati has already started and is already loaded down with lots of homework. Preston said that he will wait until Monday. Monday is his birthday and he has already asked me if he could have the day off! That boy is crazy!

School books oh school books....where art thou?

Please continue to pray for our school books. It is now the end of October and we still haven't been able to start school. I am starting to feel pressure to catch up but we haven't even started yet, so that is just a little bit crazy. Kati has been working on health, PE and home economics. Preston has been working on a history curriculum also, but if the books would just get here......
Anyway, I just wanted to enlist your help in praying that they arrive soon. They shipped on September 19, so it could be any day now that they arrive or they could never show up. But we aren't giving up hope. Thanks for praying with us!

The best food ever!

It always seems that the thing I want to talk about most is food. Well, the fact of the matter is that is one of the favorite past times of this family. Last night we had the best churrasco and Paul made it. It was his first time to try it here in PoA and it was wonderful. We can't wait to try it again and expand our cuts of meat. If any of you would like to come down and have a cookout, let us know and we will be waiting on you. The picture here is the grill master at work preparing his fire.

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

Well, in Porto Alegre anyway! We finally made here here and so far, so good. We took our time driving down here and spend several days in beautiful Florianopolis. The only problem with our stay there was that the babies were awful. We even took Peyton to the doctor because he just seemed like something was wrong. Both of them screamed almost the entire time we were there, but Peyton's scream seemed a little more painful. It did turn out that he had a little bit of an ear infection, so that does explain some of it. We were not able to do anything while we were there, because they just would not stop screaming. We tried to go to the mall and walk around, which they always love, but not then. They screamed and made not just us but everyone around us miserable. They also would not sleep through the night. At least one of them would wake up at least once per night while we there. Ok, now on with the great part of this story...once we arrived here at what is to be our house for the next year or so, both babies were completely "fixed"! It was the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed. The 7 hour drive from Florianopolis to Porto Alegre was fine. The babies did great and didn't fuss too much and took naps and it was ok. Once we walked into this house, they immediately ran in and began playing with toys and acted as though they had been here before and knew exactly where they were --- "HOME". Isn't that awesome? Since we have been here, the babies have slept through the night every night and have been just great. They have been going to bed around 7:30ish and we have been able to just lay them down and they may cry a bit, but they go to sleep fairly quickly. They have been sleeping until 7:30 or 8:00 each morning and they had been waking up between 5:30 & 6:00 like clockwork. I can't tell you how amazed we are, but we are praising the Lord for sure!

We had wonderful missionary friends that prepared the house for us and made it feel like a home. In Campinas, Paul always said that our house was like a concrete cave and that is kind of what it felt like, but here it just feels warmer. As soon as we walked in the house, our first words were things like, "beautiful" & "I love it". Kati and Preston got their own rooms and Preston was so excited about not having to share a room with sister or the babies. It has just been wonderful.

The only thing that has surprised me is the little bit of what we are calling cultural stress. I just wasn't expecting to have a hard time; we were just moving from one city to another. We had already done the new country thing, so this was supposed to be no big deal, right? Well, it has been just a little bit of a big deal. The newness of such a large, confusing city has been overwhelming at times, so we would appreciate your prayers as we learn this new city. We have to learn "our route" around our neighborhood, to the store, to church and trust me when I say it is confusing. Each day and especially each week it gets a little bit better than the one before, but adjusting is difficult. It is nothing like what we went through when we first arrived in Brazil, but please remember us in your prayers. We want to be effective for the Kingdom, but when we feel like we are living in a permanent state of confusion, it is just challenging.

We are currently still waiting on the kid's home school material to arrive so we can start the 3rd and 9th grades. This will help us develop our daily routine and we need to get started, so that can be another prayer request.

Thank you to everyone that has sent emails checking on us, we love to hear from you. I have attached a few pictures of us shortly after our arrival in PoA and will post more soon.