The Jennifer Road Trip

Our friend Jenny Rich has been hanging out with us for a few weeks. It has been really great to have her around. We have all had a lot of fun with her.

I posted a couple of weeks ago that Elisa and I had some "daddy-daughter time" while Jenny and Jennifer went on a road trip together. This post is an account of their adventure together - taken from Jenny's point of view.

Oi!

After a day and a half of rest, I've finally downloaded my pictures from the trip to Gramado, Aparado da Serra (aka awesome canyon with waterfall), and Canela. We've shopped, survived a horrible rocky road (not the ice cream...), made friends with a chef, enjoyed nature, and met some really nice store owners. Overall, it was a terrific trip, and I think Jenn and I are both really thankful that we shortened and redirected the trip a bit.

Gramado: think Fredericksburg or Boerne. This really cute little town is home to many German immigrants. It's in the hills, and many Brazilians come to Gramado for vacation in the winter to experience "cold". So, even though it was 80 degrees when we were there, we still saw people dressed for winter in coats and scarves. Strange. Gramado is also home to an incredible fondue restaurant that Jenn and Sascha bring all of their guests to. We took 3 hours to eat lunch... and then they had to roll us out of the restaurant. We even outlasted 2 other tables of people that arrived after us. The picture shows the meat course. After lunch we strolled around town in the various little shops, ate a light dinner, and checked into a hotel where all of the staff knew Jenn by name and where we got a discount (she had planned a few conferences and retreats there). There are benefits to being a creature of habit.

Aparado da Serra: The next morning we leisurely ate b'fast at the hotel (lots of pao de quiejo--think cheese bread meets susie souffle meets yummy crispiness...mmmmm). Then we headed to the canyon, which was a 2 hour drive through the hills. We stopped in a tiny town with a visitor center before tackling the incredibly rough and bumpy 40 min drive to the canyons on a rocky road. When we finally got to the national park, we thanked God that we made it safely, paid our entrance fees, and were rewarded with the nicest paved road in the country of Brazil, I'm convinced. What a treat! I think Jenn's still recovering from that road.

The canyon was incredible. We walked around the canyon for most of the afternoon, and the weather couldn't have been better (see pics of canyon). On the walk, we decided to change our plans once again, and instead of driving to another canyon the next day, we decided to head back towards Gramado and stay in Canela, which is very similar. And what a good decision that was!

Pictures of the canyon

Canela: oh, Canela. How I loved Canela. Oh boy, here we go. We ate dinner at this fabulous German restaurant that is run out of a house. The family that own it was hanging out in the front yard when we got there, and said they opened in about 15 more minutes. They let us come in anyway and for a long time, we were their only customers. So that meant extra special service! The chef (his name is Norbert, yes it is) came out and talked to us on multiple occasions, and when we were stuffed with German goodness, he asked if we wanted dessert. But both of us were so full that we couldn't have fit any more in, so we said we'd come back the next day after lunch. He said they'd close around 2 or 2:30, so come before then, and we planned on around 1:30pm. Then we headed back to the hotel and I crashed by 9pm. What a good day!

Fast forward to another lovely b'fast at the hotel, then shopping around town where we met lots of nice store owners that waved bye to us as we left. We found a cute flower shop that had all sorts of dried flower arrangements, including dried lilies, hydrangeas, leaves, etc, etc, etc. We spent lots of time in there, and even went back later that day....

Fast forward again to the German restaurant after a snacky lunch. We didn't get there until 2pm b/c of some ATM difficulties and we only had 17 reais between us... which was not quite enough money for 2 apple strudels and 2 coffees.... and Norbert said that he had a stack of dishes that needed cleaning... and I just assumed that we would SPLIT one apple strudel and have water, but both Jenn and Norbert said that would not be possible at all, whatsoever, how could I even suggest such a thing! So he ended up giving us free coffee. Later on as Jenn and Norbert were swapping recipes for American chili, he asked if we had tried his brownie...why no we hadn't.... and he brought us out a sample to try. He had even drizzled the plate with chocolate and added powdered sugar (see pic of Norbert with brownie). :)

Oh what a good day. We left Canela full and happy and planned on stopping in Gramado at the ATM, but on the way we were stopped by a blitz--which is the military police in the middle of the road randomly stopping cars and checking for registration and licenses. It almost ruined the day and our car was close to being impounded... but after praying for mercy, we were able to be on our way about 30 min later...

"The Blitz"

We got home, cooked a quick dinner, and headed to a Bible study across town. We've been recovering at home ever since.

Transition Is Upon Us

Whether you keep up with our family or our work (or perhaps both) we want to make you aware of a big transition that our family is preparing for in the not-so-distant future.

It is hard to believe that our 5-year commitment to working in Brazil is almost up. We spent most of 2007 thinking and praying about where God might want us after this initial commitment. After a lot of discussion and prayer we came to feel peace in returning to the US in the second quarter of 2009. Of course, we expect that it will not be easy to leave Porto Alegre. Just imagining saying “até mais” to our many brothers and sisters of this church family makes me tear up already. We have invested a lot to be where we are and to do what we do, but we know in our hearts it is time for our family to move on.

Word travels fast, so I imagine that many who read our blogs already know of our plans. We shared with all the house churches in our church family last month. We were really blessed by the way each house church accepted our plans to leave Brazil. With less American presence there will be more shift toward Brazilian responsibility and leadership in the house churches – something we are all excited about.

One thing that I will say about our future plans is that we haven’t worked all the kinks out yet. There is still a lot of time (approximately between 8 and 10 months) for us in Brazil, so I will wait to share some of the more specific details for other posts. However, we are very excited about where we see the Lord taking us!

I wanted to express our gratitude for all the love and support that you have shown us. We shouldn’t start our transition out of some responsibilities here until sometime around November and will remain in Porto Alegre working with house churches in some capacity until March or May of next year. Once we land on US soil I expect we will spend a little bit of time with our sponsoring congregation in Colorado Springs before the next stage of our lives begins.

In the meantime, stay tuned…. we are still working hard and enjoying our time in Brazil, and will keep you posted as always on the many happenings in Porto Alegre.

Much love,

The Terrys

God's What?!

Yesterday Jennifer was reading "My Little Golden Book About God" to Elisa. There is a page that says

"God makes up grow, too, with minds and eyes to look about our wonderful world, to see its beauty, to feel its might."

A little complicated for a 2-year old, but good nonetheless. I added italics to show that Elisa picks up a lot - sometimes, though, she is a little off. After this sentence she started saying over and over "God's booty! God's booty!"

I am sure that God has a wonderful sense of humor and that He enjoyed that even more than I did!

Daddy-Daughter Time

Tuesday until Thursday of this week was Daddy-Daughter time in our house. Jennifer and our friend Jenny Rich went on a road-trip and left me and Elisa behind.

We had a lot of fun playing dolls and doing our hair! Reading "Fancy Nancy" for the umpteenth time had me putting sprinkles in a lot of Elisa's food - to accessorize of course!

Above: sprinkles in the scrambled eggs!

Below: sprinkles in the oatmeal!

We went on long walks each day - mainly to the park or to the mall (which is pretty close to our house). Thursday we were out for a 3 hour excursion in the stroller to the local Block Buster, the mall (which included a lengthly play time running around the entire place looking at the flower displays and having a little date - I ordered a little coffee and she had the cheese bread) and then to the park.

Elisa with the flower display at the mall.

She had a lot of fun swinging and running crazy at the park!

We spent a lot of time playing with Elisa's blocks. I would build and she would destroy. I can't wait to reverse the rolls on this little activity!

We watched Baby Einstein movies together. Actually, she would get a little bored after about 2 minutes and the movie would run the next 23 minutes with no one paying attention.

this is the first 2 minutes of a movie!

We played with her new Little People doll house and we finger painted (just once!). Below is a picture of Elisa playing with her Little People doll house. You may as well forget about getting any pictures of the finger painting! Check out this post for pictures of a past experience!


And we read an unbelievable amount of books. I knew that she has a lot of books, but we really got reacquainted with all of them! Lately, she has especially been a fan of the new books she received for her birthday: Fancy Nancy, Dogs, the Napping House, Ten in the Bed, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, etc. Loads of fun!

Although Elisa really missed her Momma, she had a good time with her Daddy. I think it goes without saying that her Daddy had a blast with her! Daddy looks forward to their week together in a couple of months!

Jenny!

If you have been reading our blogs over the last several weeks you know that our family has been blessed by several visitors (Jeff & Lindsey; Sheryl; Granny & Gramps). Last week our friend, Jenny Rich, made the trip to Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Jenny will be hanging out with our family until August 1st. We are so glad that she has come to spend time with us. Elisa especially is enjoying all the playtime with new friends!

Jenny has already been a great help by putting herself to work. She has spent a couple of days organizing all the materials that our church family has for the children's ministry. We are so glad for her willingness to help out.

Jennifer has enjoyed her friend's visit too. Earlier today the two Jennifer's left for a road-trip that should last 3 days and 2 nights! That means that Daddy and Elisa are left holding down the fort! Good times all around.

Stay tuned for updates on our visit with our friend, Jenny....

"My Kid Could Paint That"

Among the many wonderful gifts that Elisa received for her 2nd birthday were paints. She has really taken to it! I believe that we are starting to get the process down - and thank goodness the paints are washable! Here are some pictures of today's painting experience...

Elisa is sporting one of her daddy's shirts while she waits to get started...

Let the artistic fun begin!

Elisa is a little genius, but she had help spelling her name this time!

This is so much fun!

Clean-up time!

Granny & Gramps' Visit

Elisa's Granny and Gramps came for a visit just in time for her 2nd birthday! She had a lot of fun while they where visiting us in Porto Alegre. We ate a lot of birthday cake, played with new toys, read new books, went on an overnight road trip and played at the park! It was a very eventful visit. We will really miss Granny and Gramps, but we have some great pictures to remind us of our fun time together.