Recent Little Missy Pictures

Being happy!

Playing intently.

Goofing off.

With Daddy.

With Mommy.

Being a "silly goose".

Ready to go!

Running!

New Passport

Today we went to the Federal Police to pick up Elisa's new Brazilian passport. It is pretty cool that she has duel citizenship. She has both an American and Brazilian passports and birth certificates. After 2 years the Brazilian passport expired, which makes sense. Her infant picture is so cute in the first passport, but you can't really recognize her in the picture today. The new passport has her in her little pigtails. Really cute, but it was a challenge to get the picture just right.

It is neat to me that our little girl has already needed a passport and will have been on 5 international flights (Brazil to US to Brazil) before her 3rd birthday. We already have a world traveler on our hands!

First Dentist Visit

Today was a big day for little Elisa. She went to the dentist for the first time!

We prepped her for about two weeks with questions like, "Elisa, did you know that Mommy is going to go see a lady who will clean her teeth? This lady is really nice and is our friend. She will clean your teeth too!" We talked it up mainly while brushing her teeth in the evening before bed time.

So, this morning we all got up and got ready for our 10am appointment. Dr. Claudia was great with Elisa! She is a pediatric dentist, but happens to be the best we could find. Jennifer and I have been going to her to get our teeth taken care of for most of our time in Brazil. Her office is full of toys, coloring books and stuffed animals and puppets that have huge teeth. While we (the parents) visited with Dr. Claudia, Elisa checked out the office and got acquainted with the toys and such.

Waiting for our turn.

Elisa is playing dentist with a pig that has huge teeth!

Around 11 o'clock Jennifer got in the chair to have her teeth cleaned. This gave Elisa the opportunity to check things out and see that there wasn't anything to be afraid of. When Jennifer finished it was Elisa's turn.

Jennifer laid down in the chair with her, but she still started freaking out. She cooperated for the entire cleaning, but cried a lot. We did end up having a break in the crying that lasted about 2 minutes. She really got the hang of letting the sucker deal get all the water and spit out of her mouth.


By the time it was all over she was a real pro! She has been practicing opening her mouth and showing her teeth. The picture below is a great one of her doing this while sporting her new toothbrush!

Check out my clean teeth and my new Barbie toothbrush!

Although it was a little rough, she had a great first dentist visit and we are really proud. Later on in the day Elisa said about Dr. Claudia, "Nice lady!" To end the day we took her to the store and bought Tutti Frutti flavored Sponge Bob Square Pants toothpaste. What can I say - it was her choice!

Play-Time

Elisa loves to play! She has quite the imagination when it comes to her toys. For her birthday this year she was given a Little People doll house. She loves to play with it. When the doll house is out we hear a lot of "MOMMY! DADDY! DOLL HOUSE PLAY!!"

Just today she had the little family that comes with the doll house sitting in chairs at a little table having a meal together. She calls the mommy doll "mommy" the daddy doll "daddy" and the baby "baby Elisa". It is a lot of fun to watch her pretend at this age. I am confident that the fun will continue!

Playing with her doll house...


Play-time with her box of rice...

Dodói (Ouchy)

Elisa hurt her little toe on her right foot pretty good today. Fact is... she dropped a brick on it! We have a decorated brick that we use as a doorstop for Elisa's room. While Jennifer was preparing Elisa's bath Elisa was up to no good (she is two, ya know!). Anyway, Jenn saw that Elisa was walking around with the brick and she went after her to intercept it. Before Jennifer could catch up to Elisa there was a thud and a loud scream/cry. The brick hit the little toe and the area between it and the toe next to it. Jennifer called me and I raced home to possibly take Elisa to the Emergency Room.

Before I got home Elisa was done crying. She was able to tell me all about the brick "jumping" and her "dodói" ("ouchy" in Portuguese) on her little toe "right there". We ended up taking her to a really good clinic and had x-rays taken. There is no break, but she did get her little foot wrapped. She screamed a lot during the x-ray and while she was with the doc. She isn't a big fan of medical staff.

I have to say that Elisa was a trooper through the whole thing. She doesn't really cry due to pain, just when she gets scared, so it is hard to know how much it hurts. She is getting around and acting like the only thing slowing her down is the bandage. Anyway, it made the day a little out of the ordinary. Here are a couple of pictures of the banged up Elisa and the culprit.

I think that it is interesting how it is her toe that is hurt, but her foot is wrapped. I don't know...

The infamous brick.

Father's Day in Brazil

Today was Father's Day in Brazil. This was by far the best of the 3 Father's Days that I have celebrated as a daddy. As Elisa gets a little older her ability to interact becomes deeper and a lot more fun. She knew that it was a special day for me. She made me some sugar cookies and put them in a tin can that she had decorated for a present. It was really sweet (no pun intended). We went out to the Salgado's for house church this morning a celebrated Father's Day with home-made cinnamon rolls that Jennifer whipped up last night. They were awesome. Then my sweet girls took me out to lunch at the Outback Steakhouse (Father's Day tradition). After lunch I went out to the Chácara for a graduation celebration that was an amazing experience. I really enjoyed my time with my family and friends today. It was a Father's Day I won't soon forget.

Here are some pictures of me and Elisa enjoying our time at the Outback Steakhouse today:

What a silly little girl!

Giving Daddy sugars.

Watching US Men's Basketball destroy China!

Lhaumar's Birthday

One of the many things that we love about Brazil is the birthday parties. Brazilians know how to celebrate! In fact, you could say that 9 out of 10 parties are so overboard you would expect a dignitary to be present!

However, it isn't always possible for people to have outlandish or even simple parties. Our really good friends, Claudio (Claude) and Rute (Ruth), have never been in a position to have a party for their youngest daughter, Lhaumar (Lau-Mar). This year, however, in their fairly new house, Claudio and Rute threw a party for their little girl!

On Wednesday of this week Lhaumar turned 9 years old. She was so excited to be having a party. We picked Claudio up from work and headed over to their house for the festivities. We have been able to go to several birthday parties over the last few years, but this one really ranks up there as being extra special.

Elisa loves this family and really had a great time playing and eating goodies. Our family is really blessed to have friends like Claudio and Rute and their girls. We hope they are able to have many more reasons to celebrate in the years to come and that they are able to throw many more shindigs like they did earlier this week.

Rute and Claudio welcoming their guests!

Sascha, Elisa, Jennifer & Lhaumar at the party.

Lhaumar with our friend Jenny.

Elisa eating some of Rute's chocolate cake. Good stuff!

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!