This past weekend our family did it’s first ever 5K together. Let me tell you, this was a big deal for me. When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s and later, osteopenia, both doctors advised me not to run. Since I figured I didn’t want to run anyway, this was one piece of doctor’s advice I took to heart. My incredibly disciplined husband though LOVES running and while we were in Texas encouraged me to buy some running shoes and to try to start running when I got back to Portugal. He told me his dream is to one day do a 5K and then more as a couple and/or family. Ha ha I thought. Me?! What I realized though is that I had been living in fear of running, using crohn’s as a handicap/excuse to not do it. So, putting excuses aside and facing my fears and desiring to please my husband, I signed us up for “the happiest 5K on the planet”. Why not, right?! It promises to be happy So, just a week ago Mg started taking me on his runs with him and encouraging me to run (power walk) 5 kilometers. And honestly, it feels good! In hindsight, I really didn’t need to do much training before this 5K because it really was more for fun. There really wasn’t any way to run, it was more of a glorified walk with 13,000 other people! (Besides, I knew I was good when we showed up for the run and other people were sitting getting their drink and/or smoke on before the “run”.) None the less, our family had a BLAST getting dirty together! And I have every intention of keeping on running and seeing what other runs we can sign up for in the future.
Excited kiddos before the race. And then a family shot…
Then a family shot about a quarter of the way in…with our pretty city behind us and a little more color on our clothes
And then our family after we crossed the finish line. We did it and are all smiles still!!
And then afterwards we rewarded ourselves with ice-cream of course.
Here are some more pictures of the fun we had during the race…including doing it with our friends Kim and Luis, throwing our packets of color on each other, seeing a few other friends along the way, etc.
I just love this picture of Lily after the race…she looks really rough but we all had such a great time!
I know I’m going backwards again, but I never got to brag on the fact that Michael and I have been married for 10 years now. We celebrated this momentous occasion back in December while we were still in Texas. We had every intention of taking a big trip but it just didn’t work out. Instead, what we got were two small trips down memory lane…which can only take place in College Station, Texas of course. One weekend we took the kids…to try to start the brainwashing and show off where mom and dad fell in love.
We drove them past my old apartment and Mg’s old houses (where SO many memories were made), but the kids weren’t impressed
But they were impressed with the campus (as were we with all the changes…wow!)
And they were impressed with dinner. This was another one of my old jobs that Henry declared cool
The next weekend that we passed through town, we left the kids behind (with grandma supervision of course).
We went back to our wedding reception/honeymoon spot. This place is so beautiful and peaceful. We sat in some rockers on the porch overlooking this little chapel and just reflected on ALL the adventures we’ve been on these past 10 years…most of which we never expected back on our wedding day, but man has God been undeniably good! Then, we tried to recreate our most famous wedding picture…all with a camera on a rocking chair and a self timer…so, work with us here…
I love this man so much. He was making me laugh just as hard here as he was on our wedding day. That’s a pretty good indication of how wonderful things are…we’re still best friends and making each other laugh even after 10 years of marriage Then, we retreated back to our favorite cabin EVER.
Yes, this is “Mexico”…our absolutely favorite little retreat. Looks shabby (which is one reason I love it…I’m a sucker for character) but it is SO awesome on the inside!
The next day was just a day of fun. We headed out to breakfast at our favorite coffee shop…I mean, come on, who wouldn’t love a place with peppermint donuts and a batman logo on your coffee?!
Then, we found where we had our rehearsal dinner. It is a pretty little restaurant inside an old warehouse turned charming shopping boutique.
And since we had already ventured into Bryan, we figured we might as well hit up one of my favorite old restaurants for lunch. Chicken Oil
Yum-o! We just had such a relaxing weekend. We went to see a movie (which are SO cheap in C.S.), ate at several of our other favorite joints, walked through the park where we shared our first real kiss, etc. It might not have been an exotic week away to celebrate but it was special none the less. Besides, we are confident that we will have more opportunities to celebrate anniversaries. And besides, I’m not sure where else we could have gone in this world that we’d pass this sign on our way out the door everyday. ”Love never fails”….oh how true!
I am So grateful to God that He has seen us through these past 10 years. I am so thankful for my husband who really puts love into practice. I’m so humbled to know that as long as we have love, our marriage will never fail.
We just hosted our amazing photo team for the second time. To say that we LOVE having them here is an understatement. They are amazing servants. They love us and love our city so well! It was SUCH a joy for me to watch as almost 50 Portuguese families came together to have their pictures made. They relished in being loved in this way and a few of our Portuguese friends even said goodbye to our Texas friends by saying, “see you next year!” I love that this is something they’re looking forward to again! I wish I could share all the beautiful pictures with you, but I can’t. It’s just a memory I have to treasure in my heart…seeing them get all dressed up and hugging and kissing and smiling! I loved it. I can show off our families pictures to you though. I am constantly amazed at how pretty and fun my family is…God has indeed been good to me!
During Spring Break our sweet eldest “made 9 years” as we would say in Portuguese. Henry is our extremely extroverted people person…so I think all he cared about was inviting as many people as possible. We invited his whole class and then whatever basketball teammates were at practice two days before the party In all I think there were nearly 20 kids here. Can I just first show you what happened the DAY BEFORE the party?!
Our long awaited for crate finally arrived! But then the house looked something like this…
yeah…and that’s not even the half of it. It was a mad scramble to try and get everything unpacked and put away in less than 24 hours Plus, the whole time I had been thinking that only 5 of Henry’s friends would come to his party but all day long people kept calling to rsvp and I was starting to panic!
But, by the next night we had the place somewhat organized (with lots of boxes hiding in closets) and were so glad our new table had arrived in time to accommodate everyone. Here they are designing mustaches for a craft and game. Hip-hip hooray for being able to fit 20 kids comfortably around our table!
And yes, you heard me right. They were designing mustaches. Not sure WHY they are all the rage in the U.S. right now…but it’s taking off here as well. The kids thought it was hilarious!
And then we played a game of “pin the mustache on the man”.
My original plan had been to let all the kids create their own pizzas, but as more and more rsvp’s came in, my wise husband gently told me that I needed to give up that plan. So instead, we ordered pizzas and rented a movie. We quickly put all our new furniture to the test…the 20 kids with pizza test Luckily it survived. I thought they were all SO cute piled in our living room (I felt like it was a glimpse into our fairly near future…when they are teenagers and overtaking our living room )
I have to say…my American self had ALL these great intentions of going all out with the mustache theme. I had great ideas for party favors (the glasses with the big noses and mustaches…or the Wooly Willy’s…you know, the guy where you use the magnet to give him either facial hair or hair on his head, etc. ) But alas, I didn’t have much available here to work the mustache theme, but then again, it’s kind of nice living here. I have to let go of uptight American me and go with the more laid back Portuguese me It should be all about the kids anyway. I mean, sure, they were impressed with the cups (that I designed myself ) but they were more impressed with the milkshakes inside them!
Thanks to Pinterest, we found a great idea for the cake. It didn’t turn out quite as pretty as hoped (everything was homemade…it never looks as pretty as store bought) but the kids got a kick out of it anyway! As long as we had a cake to stick some candles in and for them to sing “Parabens!” to sweet Henry!
I think it was a really fun night for everyone. The most important thing for me was that it was a fun night for our boy! I think it made him feel good that so many friends showed up and made comments about how it was the best party ever (even without the awesome party favors?! ) We hope Henry knows how loved he is! He really is a wonderful boy…a great representation of God’s grace to me because I am definitely undeserving of such a cool kid!
Here are the pictures from our Easter party! I don’t think I was thinking too clearly when I invited ALL of the kids’ classmates (over 60 kids) and then some to the party. Thankfully, not all 70 children showed up, but 25 did…and I think those that came had a great time! We couldn’t have pulled it off though without the help of several of our friends here in town who helped us plan and organize and cook and clean and selflessly love on all the kids during the party. A BIG thank you to those people! Also, to all of our friends in the States who helped us collect Easter supplies. Thanks to you we had decorations, Easter egg dye, over 200 plastic Easter eggs to hide, prizes to give away…and lots of food! Thank you! What a team effort…and as Michael and I were discussing…a beautiful picture of how the church can (and should) function as we all work together!
The party went a little something like this: color upon arrival, play a game of pin the nose on the Easter bunny, decorate and eat egg sugar cookies, dye Easter eggs, listen to the story of the Resurrection, snack on some traditional American goodies and HUNT Hopefully the pictures in and of themselves will serve as a big thank you to those of you who took part…just to see the joy on all the kids’ faces!
Oh my! Aren’t they just precious?! We are so thankful that we get to love on all these children. And as you’ll read below, the sunshine was a God send!
We decided on a quiet Easter and celebrated at home with just our little family. After talking a little bit about Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we strayed onto how “cool” Jesus was. We started talking about all the amazing things He did while He was on Earth and then came up with the idea for each of the kids to find one of their favorite stories about Jesus and share it with us. Lily’s story in particular really hit home for me. Here she is with the play-dough picture she made to share her story…
And then she read Mark 4:35-41
“On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side’. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’ “
Didn’t she do a great job making Jesus asleep in the back of the boat with the storm raging overhead?!
We asked her why she liked this story and she simply said, “because Jesus controls the weather”. While I realize this story has nothing to do with Easter, I believe it was divinely picked because just the day before Jesus had LITERALLY calmed the storm for us. I am fairly certain it rained every day in March and thus made for quite a depressing month. I myself was falling prey to the melancholy mood it creates and started to doubt that we could have a pretty day for our Easter party. I asked friends to pray but really held out little hope that we would actually be able to go outside for our Easter egg hunt. But then, the miraculous happened. The sun came out. The rain stayed at bay. Our party came. Our friends that KNEW we had asked people to pray commented on how God had obviously heard. People arrived smiling because of the sunshine. We went on our Easter egg hunt. It was GLORIOUS outside. Everyone had a great time. And then the next day rolled around and the clouds let loose their heavy loads…all the rain stored up from the day before!
As Lily read this story I became convicted when she read out Jesus’ rebuke to his disciples. “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” Ouch. I really had been afraid all week. I felt for certain the rain would put a damper on our party plans. My faith had apparently grown weak But, I am SO thankful that God uses moments like these. In His great love for me, He didn’t let my faith stay weak. He actually took this opportunity to bolster it! I can say without a shadow of doubt that it was because of the prayers of faithful friends and the AMAZING God I serve…who as Lily says, “is in control of the weather”, that the sun poked through that day…at exactly the hour I needed it to! And I don’t think it was just my faith that was boosted that day. I think we were able to encourage our children (and this is where we can tie this story into Easter…in that, because He rose again, He is indeed still alive and able to be the one in control of the weather). We were also able to share with lots of our Portuguese friends that we had been praying. I think they saw this prayer answered and that in and of it self brings glory back to God! I think even our friends back in the States that had been praying specifically for our party and the weather were encouraged in their faith.
Thankful for this Easter lesson of 2013. It was a timely reminder that He is risen! He is risen indeed! Only a living God could be so personable in each of our lives!
That is what the lady at the café told me after my children placed their order the other day. What does that mean, you ask? She simply said, “they are Portuguese”. Now, she’s not blind (or deaf…she has heard me speak Portuguese with my “cute” American accent)…she knows they are not really Portuguese, but she means it as a compliment. She means that they have adjusted well. That they speak the language beautifully. That they are good “Portuguese” children in their selection of pastries.
It’s funny the little things that can cause one to become so reflective. As she walked away a little smile spread across my face and I thought to myself, “sim, são.” (Yes, they are.) And yet as I write this, tears threaten to come spilling out of my eyes.
A fellow expat here in Europe shared a blog post today that I think has all of us raising TCK’s (third culture kids) in tears. I don’t know the lady that wrote the blog entry (she lives somewhere in Africa…I haven’t had the privilege of visiting there yet), but she BEAUTIFULLY wrote about how I would dare say most of us moms feel raising children outside of our home country. If you’d care to look, it’s at… http://www.djiboutijones.com/2013/03/1-things-i-want-to-tell-my-third-culture-kids/ . Yep…I just went back over to re-read it and I’m crying again. I can echo SO much of what she wrote.
To address the “you are the coolest kids on the planet“…I think that’s what I was thinking that day in the café. I have bi-lingual children that have each uniquely adapted to life here, as evidenced just from the pastries they choose.
I really don’t understand my sweet Lily’s pastry of choice, but it’s pretty predictable that she will always choose a “palmier”, a giant, flaky cookie of sorts.
Then there’s my Henry who goes for the most international pastry. You can almost always find a chocolate croissant any where you go.
And then there’s my Cal-Cal who is the most Portuguese of the bunch. He goes for the beloved Portuguese “pastel de nata” (my personal fav too!)
(Gosh, this poor pastry looks pretty gross, but it is DELICIOUS!)
What makes my kids even cooler to me is that yes, they love their Portuguese pastries but they also have learned the appreciation of a good ol’ American donut! They are so adaptable to both countries. My kids haven’t gotten to jump into any volcanoes yet (though I know they wouldn’t hesitate!), but they always amaze me at just how good they are at navigating their way around new cities. I fully trust that if we were in Germany and we handed Henry a map of the metro and asked him to get us from point a to point b, he could do it…even if there were 20 different lines! I love that Lily has worked up courage to go up to waiters and ask for whatever it is she needs and doesn’t have to hide behind us anymore…even if it’s in Italian! I love that Calvin throws out his Portuguese hand gestures and gets on to his big brother and sister if they didn’t look both ways before clambering into the “zebra crossing” (yes, he uses the British word/pronunciation for a “crosswalk” and I LOVE it!)
To the, “I know it’s hard“…this is like rubbing salt in my wound right now. It was hard uprooting them from Portugal and going back to the U.S. for six months and then just recently returning to Portugal. I remember dropping them off on their first day of Portuguese school and hurting for them as they didn’t know the language. I remember being back in the U.S. and having Lily complain about never being able to finish her lunch (only 30 minutes there…an hour and a half here ) and having Henry constantly mispronouncing the word “copy” or “copying” and us always having to correct him so he wouldn’t get laughed at. I remember when he came home and told us about how at school they hold their hand over their heart, look at the corner of the classroom and say something but he didn’t know what. We finally figured out that our sweet boy didn’t know about the Pledge of Allegiance (I felt terrible for not teaching him…I honestly thought we weren’t allowed to say it in schools anymore). And I know how humbling or embarrassing it must be when they have to return their homework to school here and confess that they (and their parents) didn’t understand. Watching your kids go through these things really hurts.
While we’ve still got the salt out, I mean, don’t get me started on number 4…”I’m sorry for the things this life has taken from you.” Our kids have already had to say way too many goodbyes. They all left behind a sweet friend in the U.S. They probably won’t see their only cousin for at least another year and a half. And I’m pretty sure my mom doesn’t realize that it does indeed hurt me to raise my kids so far from their grandparents, but it does. We live in a culture where grandparents are REALLY involved in the grandkids’ lives, so it does hurt when we go to school programs and it’s just us. And I TOTALLY get the mom with an accent thing. Even today I had to ask a friend to look over a party invitation I’m trying to make. He laughed at one line because though it was grammatically correct, I wrote it in a bossy tone (who knew…it would have been a polite way to say it in English), so he thought it was funny. I said, “well, I’m not trying to be funny (I’m tired of always being funny), I want it to simply make sense, so please tell me the most Portuguese way to say it.”
But…let’s leave the salt and dwell on the fact that, “I am thrilled for the things this life has given you.” Ahhhh….I could camp out here all day. And really, that’s a great place to be. I think the positive things God has given them through the life experience of living abroad FAR outweigh the hard things. We get to spend WAY more time as a family than probably 90% of Americans. I don’t think any of us would know what to do if daddy had a 9-5 job! They have also traveled and seen more things than probably, oh, at least 75% of Americans…and they are only 8,7 and 5! Calvin has only been on American soil for a little over a year and a half of his life and probably seen more of America than most other people. They have shared a dinner table with Americans, Portuguese, Iranians, Angolans, Brazilians, British, Japanese, Australians and many others. They get to see ministry lived out, including all the challenges and the joys that come from that. They are strong and adaptable. They have a good sense of adventure. They know how to be funny (on purpose) in two different cultures…this is a huge feat as it’s hard to grasp two different types of humor! They rarely complain…they have learned to be content. They enjoy simple things in life. And the list could go on and on and on!
To my amazing American/Portuguese children I simply want to say, “I love you. I know that God has a purpose for each of you and is using your time growing up in Portugal to help fulfill that purpose in your lives. I am excited to keep watching all the amazing things He does in and through you guys.”
Yes…another post from a long, long time ago. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…
We took a family day trip to climb Enchanted Rock and then stopped back off in Fredericksburg for lunch, a leisurely stroll and some shopping. It was basically the perfect combo to appease Mg and I’s very different personalities. We were outdoors and hiking for him, then eating and shopping for me Looking back, I wasn’t too smart…I took my BIG camera with us on our hike (lots of extra weight = no good) and turns out it was on the wrong setting most the time so the cute pictures I took on the way up (while we still had energy) didn’t come out. The following pictures are from once we reached the top and worked our way back down…you know, when everyone was red in the face and didn’t feel like smiling anymore
But in reality, we all had a great time. I could hardly get a picture of Henry because he was always running ahead sneaking out in the bushes or hiding under some rock. Thank goodness we weren’t attacked by a snake or cactus! Mg has been picking on me for a long time saying I wasn’t a real Texan because I hadn’t climbed Enchanted Rock. He says that I’m closer to being a real Texan now…but he still has some more for me to do first…crazy New Yorker….what does he know?!
By the time we stopped in Fredericksburg, I was tired of carrying my big camera so I just brought my phone. Had no idea how picturesque it would be But, I still got some fun shots in…
I have about 15 more where those came from, but I’ll spare you. I just loved it though. It really was a wonderful blend of Germany (one of the prettiest countries I’ve ever visited) and Texas (God’s country of course). Mg had to write a short bio about himself the other day for a meeting and I love that he included the line, “I think the Texas hill country is a glimpse into Heaven”. Couldn’t agree more.
While we were in the U.S., Mg and I both got to snag some alone time with our oldest. Henry and I spent a weekend at Pine Cove with some of our old mother/son friends from Dallas. We had a blast playing games, climbing ropes courses, riding horses, having picnics…here are a few of the pictures from our fun weekend together.
I loved snagging some one on one time with my firstborn. I know that being the oldest is not easy and is often a thankless job , so I hope he reveled in the fact that he is indeed loved by me.
Then Mg had the greatest intentions of taking Henry on a little overnight camping adventure. Here are some pictures of them somewhere out in the hill country enjoying a hike/swim together…
Yeah…do you see my son WAY far away from his daddy? Now, I LOVE Texas, but as a momma, I do get nervous about snakes or scorpions or any other number of dangerous animals found there. Thankfully, all was well. The bummer for these guys though was another “danger” of Texas…the unpredictable weather. The sky was gorgeous in these pictures, but then after they set up camp a crazy storm came through and ruined their tent. They had to pack it all up and go back to Mama Sue’s house in San Antonio for warm showers, dry clothes and settle for camping out on a couch :/ I know it was still a cool memory for Henry…to go have some man time with his daddy.
He is a great kid. Here are two things I just love about him lately (though there are many more…these are just my current favorites):
1. His obsession with Nat Geo Wild. This is by far his favorite t.v. channel and he could watch it non stop if we’d let him. I love when we wake up in the morning to find that he has already poured his younger brother and himself a bowl of cereal and they are sitting watching a show on cheetahs…and Calvin has this stunned look on his face and his hand (with spoon) frozen in mid-air as he watches a cheetah devour another animal. While it doesn’t phase Henry to eat and watch mother nature at it’s finest, we have to remind him that the rest of us have weaker stomachs…especially right when we wake up
2. He has also really taken to reading Shel Silverstein. He is so cute with his little book light in bed…and I love hearing his little chuckles as he reads a funny poem. He also likes to come and share his favorites with us…he’s got pretty good taste this kid
His birthday is right around the corner and I’m trying to think of something fun to do. He’s such a sociable little guy and I know he’s missed his Portuguese friends so he’s excited to do something fun with them. I can’t believe he’s about to be nine already! Hopefully, we can find some fun ways to have alone time with him on this side of the ocean as well. He’s growing so fast!
(This is a “real time” post and not a reflection back on Texas)
Recently Mg and I had to write our goals for the year (for our company). One night we crawled into bed and just started talking about what we feel our goals should reflect and we both lean heavily on community. We had the BEST time just nick-naming some of the people in our neighborhood and laughing over Mg’s perfect impersonation of our upstairs neighbor, but mostly, we loved reflecting on the goodness of God in giving us relationships with so many people. We remember the first six months we were in Coimbra and it seemed not a soul spoke to us. Now, we almost always run into someone we at least recognize and can say hello to wherever we go! I honestly believe that the way we can best love on our Portuguese friends is to be a PART of their community and to somehow help BETTER their community. That is one of our main goals. The thing for me though, it’s not a goal because I am trying to meet some quota for work…it’s become a goal because I genuinely care about our neighbors. If I may…several songs have been running through my head during this process and I thought they might help shed some light. Remember this theme song…
Don’t judge because it takes place in a bar I remember this was the favorite show of my youth minister growing up. And admit it…you were probably singing along. This song is so great. It’s true that we all long for a place where we’re known and where people are genuinely glad to see us. I know that was one of the hardest things about moving here for me…I wondered if I’d ever feel like I belonged! Now, we are grateful for that sense of belonging and what we hope to offer people in return is an open door policy to our home…where we definitely don’t have beer on tap, but we always have coffee on hand. We hope our friends know that any time they step into our home we’ll “know their name and be glad they came…”
I’m not sure what happened since the “Cheers” days, but I feel like communal living has been on the decline around the world. And it shows. I think it’s made for a lot of isolated and sad people. I think more and more people back in the states are starting to realize the importance of bringing back community though. Remember me saying I loved reading Jen Hatmaker’s books? Here is a quote of her’s I love:
The key to introducing Jesus is relationships. Real people, living real life, in real relationships. People want to know: do you love them or if they are just a project. -Jen Hatmaker
Jen and her family have invited neighbors to Texas hold-em poker nights, family potlucks, etc. Hanging out with genuine, fun people is contagious. They’ve seen people come to know the Lord through them being real and fun with them. I feel I’ve stumbled across several blogs and stories lately where people have stressed the importance of sharing a dinner table with others. Several people who would never step foot inside a church building became Christians by sharing meals with believers. And this makes perfect sense if we look at the book of Acts. That is how the church got started, by simply living life together, by sharing meals and I can only imagine, game nights There were no buildings to go too, just families that opened up their homes. That is what we hope to do here…see peoples lives changed while they sit around our dinner table. We’re thrilled just when we know a little girl comes over and receives a type of “royal treatment” that she’s not used to. When students come over and say, “wow, I really hope when I get married and have kids it looks like you guys’ family”. When our friends come and help themselves to drinks and coffee (meaning, they’ve been here enough to know where things are and be comfortable enough to help themselves). When people come here and de-stress by getting into a game of “just dance” and when they just smile…we feel like that’s a great day! Another song that’s been floating around my head is 525,600 minutes from the musical RENT. Before Mg and I had kids (you know…that first year of our marriage), we went to NYC and landed front row seats to see this musical. It might be a little too risky for many, but I left crying because what I took away from it was that people just want to be unconditionally loved. I got chills sitting front row when they lined the front of the stage and sang this…
Love. The song says the best way to measure your year is by who and how you loved. If you loved well, then it was a good year. I couldn’t agree more. Isn’t that Jesus’ greatest commandment to us anyway? He desires that we love God and love our neighbors. He encourages us throughout the New Testament to love…love our enemies, love our spouses, love Him, love our neighbors, love… I laugh when in the song it mentions counting your year by cups of coffee. Man…that would be a fun challenge to do in this culture. It’s too late for this year…we’ve already lost track. Just today I’ve already had two and am scheduled for a third in a couple hours. The fun part for me would be counting how many cups of coffee we drank while sitting with a friend. For me, that’d be two of my three today. That’s love. Especially in Portugal. Sitting and having a café with people here expresses love to them. So for me…if we drank over a thousand cups of coffee in a year…that’d be a great year…full of love for our neighbors! Speaking of neighbors, here is the last song that’s been stuck in my head for a while…
Ha. I never realized how many times that poor man had to sing that song until I tried searching for it. There are a LOT of versions…it’s hilarious to see the old clothes and there was one where he was even flirting with one of the puppets…kind of creepy, but funny none the less. I apologize for the long blog today, but I’ve really been contemplating community and it’s something I’m very passionate about currently. If you’ll remember WAY at the beginning of this entry I was saying that Mg and I have really studied the people in our community. Hopefully we’re not creepers (like the sesame street guy was in some of the videos ) but here are a few of the people we’ve noticed in our community…
1. the guy that drives all over town in his wheelchair (on a death mission?!)
2. “sunshine”…the cranky waiter at one of our favorite cafés
3. the mustache lady who sells chestnuts…Mg is a loyal customer
4. the man who is really speaking Spanish, not Portuguese
5. the “slow cashier” at our grocery store (we’re really thrown for a loop when we see her outside her work clothes)
6. the poor guy with elephantiasis of the neck…who Mg believes has slimmed down since we’ve been gone
7. the guy that always sits and eats his lunch in the rotunda outside the hospital (an employee just wanting some fresh air?)
8. the grandpa that always picks his granddaughter up at the same time as we get Lily…we see him everywhere
9. the adorable, handicapped waiter at one of my favorite cafés…I know he can’t write our order down so I always do it for him
10. many of our local postmen…we get to know them thanks to my mom and her packages
These are just a sampling of the people we have gotten to “know” just from constantly trying to be out in our community. They also recognize us and probably refer to us as the crazy American family with three kids. Who knows, but I’ll take it if that means we’ve found our place here in Coimbra. These are just people we recognize, but we’ve also worked REALLY hard to actually get to know families from our kids’ schools, their teachers, families from basketball, students, our neighbors, the lady at the bank, etc. I used to have to keep a list of everyone’s names because there are so many that are similar it was hard to keep up! I’ve finally learned to keep up with everyone’s names though. Why? Because they are worth knowing. I love them all enough to learn their name.
I’m not really sure how to end this post, or even if it really went anywhere, but I guess just know that I am excited about our community here in Coimbra. No doubt it is something that we all long for in our basic human nature. In this post alone I shared examples of how it is ingrained in both the church and the secular world (the three songs). So, I don’t know…what do you think? I would love to hear what you all think about the value of community.
So, just a week ago Mg started taking me on his runs with him and encouraging me to run (power walk) 5 kilometers. And honestly, it feels good! In hindsight, I really didn’t need to do much training before this 5K because it really was more for fun. There really wasn’t any way to run, it was more of a glorified walk with 13,000 other people! (Besides, I knew I was good when we showed up for the run and other people were sitting getting their drink and/or smoke on before the “run”.) None the less, our family had a BLAST getting dirty together! And I have every intention of keeping on running and seeing what other runs we can sign up for in the future.
Excited kiddos before the race. And then a family shot…
but we all had such a great time!
But, I am SO thankful that God uses moments like these. In His great love for me, He didn’t let my faith stay weak. He actually took this opportunity to bolster it! I can say without a shadow of doubt that it was because of the prayers of faithful friends and the AMAZING God I serve…who as Lily says, “is in control of the weather”, that the sun poked through that day…at exactly the hour I needed it to! And I don’t think it was just my faith that was boosted that day. I think we were able to encourage our children (and this is where we can tie this story into Easter…in that, because He rose again, He is indeed still alive and able to be the one in control of the weather). We were also able to share with lots of our Portuguese friends that we had been praying. I think they saw this prayer answered and that in and of it self brings glory back to God! I think even our friends back in the States that had been praying specifically for our party and the weather were encouraged in their faith.
