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.
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