Herberth's Wedding

Herberth is the son of the kids' Brazilian Grandma (aka: Vovó). Vovó and family have been like family to us and we even had to move from our first house because Vovó wanted to spoil Michael even more than his real grandmas spoil him. We needed to move far enough away so that she wouldn't hear him cry! She can't stand to see/hear the kids crying for any reason at all! Anyway, Herberth found a very nice girl while living and working in Belo Horizonte and the day came for them to get married on April 21st. Steve and I were "witnesses" (something like bride's maid and groomsman but you don't have to stand up front...you get to sit in the front row instead!) and Michael and Maira were both in the wedding. Herberth is like a brother to Steve and I, and the kids couldn't love Herberth more even if we were blood-related.

This is Vovó and her stunning grandchildren! (If I don't say so myself!)

Ain't he handsome?! Michael was so excited that his clothes were just like Uncle Herberth's clothes!

Herberth's Wedding continued

We had an agreement before the wedding...if the kids did everything just right, they would get a present when the wedding was over. So, this is not an approved method according to Growing Kid's God's Way or the Nanny, but I wanted a guarantee! I promise this is not a method I use in day-to-day parenting! Actually, I wasn't worried at all about Michael, but Maira told me she was embarrassed weeks ahead of time. She was responsible for taking the rings down the isle right in the middle of the ceremony and she had to do this all by herself! I was very worried!

Michael as he is about to walk down the isle....he's not worried a bit!
I was so nervous during most of the ceremony as I wondered if Maira would really bring the rings down the isle! She had to stay out in the lobby for most of the ceremony and I couldn't be with her. What a relief to see her walking down the isle and actually smiling once she got a look at Uncle Herberth! And she didn't run! As she was being helped onto the bench after giving the rings to the pastor, she said, "I did it!". I think she was just as pleasantly surprised as I was!

Here she is giving the rings to the pastor.
So here is Herberth and Carla...just in case anyone was interested in seeing them! Ha, ha, ha!

More Wedding Pictures

There are pictures of the road trip after these wedding pictures if you have seen enough wedding pictures!




Herberth loves to bike, so Carla had this specially made for their cake!

Road Trip Brazilian Style!

On our way to the wedding, we took the long way, hoping for better roads. It ended up taking us over 13 hours to get to Belo Horizonte on Thursday and then another 3 hours to the small town where the wedding was held. Along the way, there were places were the road was being worked on, so we would suddenly find ourselves stuck in a long line of cars, waiting for our turn. Because Brazilians are so skilled at making the best of a situation, as soon as the cars were stopped, guys seemed to come out of nowhere to sell jewelry, cashew nuts, drinks, and popsicles to distract us and make our a wait a bit more pleasant. Of course a bathroom would of been nice too!

Here's the groom buying some cashew nuts for the long drive ahead! I am happy to say that we delivered the groom safe and sound to his wedding!

On the way back, we decided to try an alternate route that enabled us to get home in just over 12 hours instead of 16 hours. Parts of the roads were in terrible conditions though. It looks like these two trucks are going to hit, but the one in front of us is stopped while the one coming at us avoids the holes in the road on his side! Our car suffered quite a bit and is now needing some attention and repair from hitting too many holes in the road!

This is why we say the interstates in the US are like riding on glass roads...

Happy 4th Birthday Maira!

For months Maira talked about having a mermaid party for her birthday, but 3 weeks before the party she told me she wanted a frog birthday. I waiting another week to see if she would change her mind again, but she was very sure that she wanted a frog theme. I made origami frogs with a note tied to the body saying that we were "jumpig for joy that Maira was turning 4" and inviting her friends to "jump on over" to our house for a party. Then I started to look for frogs in the 1.99 stores! I found an example of a frog cake on the internet and decided to try to make it. Maira LOVED it and it didn't taste too bad either!

Here is the party table...the little dark things in plastic sacks are frog shaped glicerine soaps that I made for everyone.
And of course I needed to paint Maira's nails green to match everything at the party!

Here are Maira and her friends wearing the frog hats that I made.

Not to worry, Maira is a non-stop talker and had lots of wind to blow out the candle, even though she had to do it from a distance! We played "pin the tongue on the frog", "toss the frog on the lily pad", and we had a frog jumping race with little plastic jumping frogs. We had lots of fun! I'm so glad she decided to have a frog birthday!

President Lula

We had some excitement here last week. We live right near a major highway (major for here anyway) and a viaduct was just built at the intersection of Anápolis. With such a symbol of progress being completed, the President of Brazil came to inaugurate it! (It helps that we are only 1 1/2 hours from the Federal District) Our first clue that something "big" was going to happen was when two military helicopters landed right in front of the Asas building. The first picture shows the kids and some neighbors running down the street to see what the helicopter was doing. As we stood around looking at the helicopters, we found out that the President was coming. Michael was thrilled and HAD to see him. I kept waiting for the secret service to show up and block off all the streets for the President's arrival, but nothing like that ever happened. We walked down the street that dead ends at back of our house and there was the President on a platform. We couldn't get closer due to the highway being blocked off with his platform and that made the street between the highway and our street extremely busy. So, Michael got to see the President, who was in walking distance from our house!

What will I do????

I now have 2 dogs, 1 fish (one died on Monday), and 3 cats. A man came by my house two weeks ago to sell manioc root and he gave me the bonus of an amandoned kitten. Steve rolled his eyes at me, but didn't make too much of a fuss about it. Well, the next night he was walking home from the hangar and heard meowing in the weeds and found another kitten that looked just like the one I had taken in. He called me from his cell phone and let me hear the meowing for a bit and then asked me what he was supposed to do with it. Well, now that I know there is a kitten needing help, what else can be done??? I told him he would have to bring it home! They have to be brothers because they look so much alike. The second one is smaller... maybe he was the runt or maybe because he was without nurishment for a longer period of time. So now we have two kittens running around and my older cat is not happy about it. The kittens are finally off the bottle and eating kitten food, so taking care of them is much easier now. Steve keeps telling the kids that we are not keeping them, but I am not sure how he is going to get them out of the house and where he is going to take them. Maybe Luna (see the next post) will need some company....

Gone Country

Our closest friends here in Anápolis are a couple named Viviane and Eneas. Well, a few weeks ago, Eneas bought this beautiful horse that he happened across. Her name is Luna (named by Eneas' daughter) and she is the best horse I have ever met. You may notice a little bulge around the middle...she will be having a colt before too long! Anyway, Eneas knows how much I enjoy horses, so he invited us to go with them to ride on Luna a bit on a Saturday morning. Luna is such a calm horse...Maira's squeals for joy didn't even make her ears twitch! Not to mention her standing perfectly still and quite as Michael made her lips flap shut! We all had a great time and now Eneas and I are talking about using Luna for therapeutic horseback riding. It is a dream of mine to work at or create a place for therapeutic horseback riding, so we are just researching options and praying about it. There are lots of obstacles, but sometimes you just need to take a few steps to see if God opens the doors.