The month of December in pictures!

Well, to quote Robert Burns,

 "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft a-gley,"

I had the best intentions to update our blog and here I am many weeks later, finally able to get to it! Life has been busy and I simply just have not had the energy for much other than the "need to do".  It has been just about three months since we landed in Portugal.  For me it seems to have gone by fairly quickly.  We are not quite "settled" yet and don't have that "I'm at home" feeling yet but we know that just takes time.  

This post will be mainly pictures of our month of December.  So here goes!

 Judah on a tire swing at a park in a nearby town.

 Another shot of them at the park.

 Sea Lion show at the zoo in Lisbon.

 Dolphin show at the zoo.  Elijah actually got to pet a dolphin!  I was a nervous wreck pretty much the entire time as that tank is super deep and the kids were right next to the water!!!

Making our salt dough for our Jesse Tree advent activity.

 Kneading away.  :)

 Cutting the pictures that would go on the ornaments.

 Rolling the dough and cutting out the ornaments.

Painting the ornaments! 

 Our Christmas tree.  :)

Elijah and Judah's class.  Here they were lined up ready to sing us some songs.  :) 

 The boys' class and teacher, Dulce.

 Desserts for the party.  Can you tell which ones I made?  ;)  The sugar cookies of course!

 Shot of the party.  This is the classroom where they have class, obviously rearranged for the party.

Judah enjoying a roll. 

 Outside their school.

Elijah at the top of the rope ladder.

 

 In a tree.  :)

In a nearby town, Obidos, at the Christmas festival. 

By a tree decorated with painted shoes, with Kinley and Miah. 

Fun "long beards" decorated this little store. 

 The kiddos admiring a nativity scene down below.

 Gorgeousness.  Just one of the many little paths around the castle.

Just pretty. 

 Fun knight planters.

 Judah found a fun path up and around some stone stairs.

Waiting for our tickets to get into the Christmas Village. 

A fun carousel ride! 

Again. 

View of the main part of the castle. 

 Christmas village with castle in background.

Ice skating! 

The boys had a blast! 

 First time seeing these little seal type things for small kids. What a great idea.

 Castle view at night.

 Again.

A section of the Christmas Village where they had food vendors. 

Jump house fun! 

 Fun toadstools!

 The best picture ever!

 Our elf son.  :)

 Luke and Scott tried to take as many pictures with all the different characters they could.  

Cotton candy! 

 Another castle view.

Snow! 

Well, it was fake snow but that didn't stop them from enjoying it! 

In one of the shops they were displaying a Christmas cake decorating exhibition of sorts! So fun!  There were lots of beautiful entries and skillfully created cakes!  I don't know what the rules were so I'm not sure if these were all edible (I think not as we saw some styrofoam on some) or what but they were still really cool!

Our boxes came in!!!! 

 I have mixing bowls!!!  Oh, the joy!  :)

 Our Christmas morning reading.

 Tearing into a present Christmas morning.

 Loved what he got!  A magnetic dry erase board just his size.

Elijah excited about the present his Pop, Grandma, Aunt Ty and us split to get the boys: a Wii! 

Started playing right away! 

 A Christmas morning visit from "Santa" and his helper elf.  ;)

 We had Christmas dinner at the Robinson's house and one of the guests brought a homemade Pecan Pie!!!  It was delicious!!!

 Christmas day family pic.

Can't do family pics with out some silliness thrown in! 

Well, there ya have our month of December!  Despite not feeling at home or quite settled yet, God has been faithful to provide some fun in the midst of all the crazy.  

Our house is coming along slowly.  I will post pics of it as soon as there are some worth posting!  :)  I am thankful though for what we have and know that my desire to have a cozy home we can invite people to will come to fruition all in God's timing. 

Hope to post sooner next time!!!

Blessings, 

Janice :)

Glimpses of Joy

These past couple of days I've been noticing a little change going on within me.  And I'm thrilled!  Now, its a small change, but change nonetheless.  I've found my mood lightening a bit and have sensed/felt glimpses of joy!  Can I get a hearty "hallelujah!"?

So, this is a pretty big deal as I have been in quite a rough spot since we arrived in Portugal.  It has just been hard.  Plain hard.  We left a life of transition and landed in another one, but this time in a foreign country in which we don't know the language, don't have our friends and family here with us, and don't have the resources that we are used to having.  On top of all that, the house in which we were so excited to get into was/is cold and unfurnished.  Our downstairs neighbor smokes and as we all know, smoke rises.  Our bathroom got this horrible "chemical" smell that we could not figure out.  And did I mention I am 7 months pregnant?  ;) The list goes on.  Hard.  It has been hard.  

So, its been hard on me and my spirit.  BUT, God has been faithful.  My times with Him have been rich.  He was been with me, giving me words of encouragement and grace for each day.  Helping me to get through my days with hope for better to come.  

And one day, recently, I woke up, went about my day and noticed those "down" feelings weren't quite as heavy anymore.  I was experiencing a bit of joy in the midst of hard times.  You see, not much has changed externally.  We still live in a mostly unfurnished house, it is still cold (but not as much--**more on this in a minute!!!), we still don't know the language nor have our family and friends with us YET I've felt glimpses of joy.  Where did they come from?  Prayers.  Yup.  Your prayers, my prayers.  Tears.  God is so faithful.  

"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:16).

I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)

"The LORD is close to the brokenhearted 

   and saves those who are crushed in spirit." (Psalm 34:18)

 "I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; 
   he heard my cry for mercy. " (Psalm 116:1)

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.  

They are new every morning;

great is (His) your faithfulness. (Lam. 3:22)

You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11)

**Our team leaders lent us a couple of space heaters and our land lord brought us two more heaters and taught us how to use them.  What a HUGE blessing! I never knew how much my mood was being affected by the sheer simple fact that I was cold!  I just have never experienced that before.  I turn on the space heater in the bathroom and a smile comes to my face.  Really!  I feel stress melting off me and I can relax a bit.  I am thankful.

So, thank you to all who pray.  Pray for me, my family and others who are in need.  God is hearing and answering, and I am so very thankful.  Please continue!

I see glimpses of joy and get excited at what's to come.  :)

Warmest blessings,

Janice

So, what's the deal with our attachment to "stuff"?

Well, I've been thinking about this question quite a bit these past few weeks.  Now, don't worry, I promise to write up a post with pics of our "house in recent progress" here soon.  Bear with me though now as I process "out loud" a bit via this post.

I know that as Americans (is it just us?), for whatever reason, we love "stuff".  I remember back when we first started our journey of moving overseas two and a half years ago and doing multiple phases of "purging" our stuff.  We had lots of stuff.  Some of high value (maybe not monetarily but in other ways) and tons of low value.   I was amazed at how many times we "went through" our stuff and either gave away or sold the things we didn't need--so many times!

Of course, I know that our situation is was not the norm, most people don't get rid of almost all their possessions but I do know people go through seasons of cleaning out their houses, getting rid of stuff they don't use anymore and just overall, simplifying.  And it is a great feeling to be free from gobs of clutter and have an organized home, I've been there.

But, that is not what I am talking about necessarily.  I'm thinking along even more basic lines.  Again, I know this is not most people's "norm" but bear with me here.  I'm thinking about living with just your basic needs met and not much more.  We recently moved into our house here (its been about a week now) and  it has been super hard not having "stuff"! And I'm talking your basics here, couches, tables, chairs, furniture in general.  Not to mention the things that give a house its "homey" touch, decor and such.  We have beds--Praise God!  Borrowed linens--so thankful for our teammates.  And we have a fridge, stove, microwave, and a small kitchen table--SO thankful to be able to cook meals for my family!

But, what is it in me that desires those things? Couches, tables, lamps, rugs, decorations.  (I even found myself desiring the familiar "junk drawer" the other day!)  Is it because that is what I am used to?  All my life I've had all those things.  The people around me had those things.  But then the thought comes to mind that even with what "little" I do have right now, I have more than so many other people in this world.  And I think, truly, I have all I need: shelter, food, family.  Am I satisfied with that?  Shouldn't I be?  Honestly?  No, I'm not.   I feel bad saying that but deep down inside I long for a home I can call a "home."  One with furniture and all the  cozy, warm things that fill it.

God promises to supply us with all we need.  He has done that for me and I am ever so grateful.  I am thankful too though, that he is a lavish God who loves to give good gifts to His children (Matt. 7:11).

 And so, I land on that--being ever so aware and thankful that He has provided for my needs yet also expectant for the way He will provide for my desire to have a home I can call a "home."  What ever that turns out to look like.  He likes to give good gifts to His children.  :)

Thanks for letting me process.
Janice :)

Some house-in-progress pics!

Hi, everyone!  We've been here now for almost two weeks and progress has been made!  Not by leaps and bounds or anything but in keeping with a positive attitude, progress nonetheless!  :)  So, we are still not in our house yet but are hoping to by this weekend.  We shall see!

Here are some pictures of our house for your viewing pleasure.  ;)

Judah showing the new wall color.  Our living room yet to be painted the new wild green and my favorite room in the house so far, our spacious kitchen with cabinets we were able to pick out and our landlord paid for!  (It was an absolutely empty room before hand.)

A kind of random hallway; it leads to a half bath at the end to the right. Long narrow bathroom.  Our new stove.  We had NO idea it didn't have a knob to set an exact temp in the oven when we bought it.  Apparently, its only settings are "grill" (kind of like our broil but on the topmost rack), little flame and big flame!!!  Ha!  We are going to buy an oven thermometer and see if it will work for us.

Luke building a buffet the Robinson's are letting us use.  Eventually it will move to the dining room end of living room.  Elijah enjoying his legos in his new room!  

Our room with our new bed spray painted a dark brown and an armoire we are borrowing from the Robinson's to store our clothes until we can purchase our own.  Picture of the "lovely" floral tile in our bathroom.  ;)

Our "laundry room" part of the bathroom.  Need to get an electrical outlet installed in order to get the washing machine working.  Praise God the Robinson's old one is still functional!  We're hoping to get a dryer sometime and put it next to the washer, build a wall to separate the laundry area from the toilet and put up a counter and cabinets above to complete the space.  Luke atop a ladder helping Scott puncture a hole through the concrete wall in order to install a vent for the stove.

Elijah helping Luke install the slats the mattress sits on.  No box springs in this country.  Our roof from inside the attic: they are clay shingles!  That's it!  I was so incredibly surprised that there was nothing else there and that they apparently keep the rain out.  The are interlocking-ish (the lay on top of each other) but still, so curious.

Me by our new stove and showing that I like the green we chose for our living room.  :)  It is a bit wild but I'm thinking its going to look fab once we furnish the place.

View from our back patio.  The part to the right of the fence, with the swings and a good bit of the land behind the little play area are all for our enjoyment--what a blessing!  We apparently have two orange trees, a fig tree, a couple of plum trees and an unknown fruit tree.  And a view of our huge back patio.

The boys enjoying the swings for a bit as I go around taking pictures. :)

Well, more pics to come as the Lord provides for more!  Pray for the funding to buy couches, tables/chairs and everything else we need to make this a home!  

Blessings,
Janice :)

Second Leg and Arrival

Well, we arrive at Heathrow around noonish and figured we'd find our gate and then get something to eat.  We soon discover that our gate is hidden this maze they call an airport.  We walked for what seemed like forever, up and down multiple escalators (big pain as Judah is still not sure about those moving stairs!), through a few eating areas, did I mention it was REALLY crowded, too?  Yes, super, crowded.  Anyway, we start entering an older, less impressive section of the airport and eventually find our gate in what must be the ugly step-sister gate of all gates!  We were there an hour before boarding began but the area was totally empty.  Felt a bit strange.

There was one little deli shop near our area but it didn't have anything we wanted so we walked all the way back through the maze to one of the main eating areas and bought ourselves some sandwiches and drinks.  Heading back through the maze was really when my bad mood hit!  I think I was just extremely tired and didn't like having to walk so much and through so many people, with two, at this point, very energetic little boys all just to get a bite to eat which ended up being edible but that was it.  Plus, I was super bummed to have lost the cardigan that I had just bought a couple of days before.  I realized it after I went through the security check in Heathrow.  It is somewhere in that airport--maybe someone found it and is being  blessed by it--oh well!

Well, we make it back to the gate as the boarding time began.  They take our boarding passes and we wait in a little area for the buses to be ready to take us to our plane.  We board the plane, I fall asleep almost immediately--praise God for Luke, he was my hero for taking care of the boys on that flight!


Arrival
We land in Lisbon after our 2 1/2 hour flight, go through customs with no problems, locate our luggage and trunks fairly easily and start taking loads outside where our teammates where waiting.  I didn't get to see them until our last load (someone had to stay with our stuff and the boys while the loads were being taken outside) but when I finally make it out our reception was lovely; Jenni and her girls were jumping up in down as we all made it outside--so fun!


Here is a picture of us just outside the doors of the Lisbon airport:

Of course, I'm looking horribly HUGE as I always do during my pregnancies!  Totally worth it, of course, just not so pleasant!  I always look forward to loosing all my baby weight after giving birth.  :)


Well, a forty-five minute drive and we arrive at our house to drop off our trunks and take a look at our "new" home!  It is cute, little older home just a minutes drive from The Haven.  Since we didn't have any appliances (no fridge, stove or anything) or any furniture for that matter, we had planned on staying at The Haven for a week or so until we were able to make those purchases.


After looking at our house for a few minutes, we head over to Vineyard side of The Haven.  On the door was this adorable picture the little girls of our team leaders had drawn:

What a fun little welcome sign!


How we've been doing
We've been here now for four full days and are feeling great!  The first few nights were a little rough with the boys dealing with jet lag but last night (and I think the night before) they slept through the night with no problems, Praise God!

Yesterday, we went to an appliance store and purchased a fridge and stove for the kitchen--YEA!!  Today I look forward purchasing our beds!  I imagine that we will be able to move into our house by Friday.  We don't have any furniture other than beds at this point but we trust God will provide for those things in his time.

Next up will be a post with pics of our house!  The view from our back patio is really amazing.  :)

Blessings to you all!  I will be back on in a day or two!
Janice:)

Excitement, planes, delays, roaches and bedbugs...

Well, we made it!  I am currently sitting on a super comfy couch at The Vineyard side of The Haven (the duplex where our missionary families stay during their time of refreshment here. The other side is aptly called The Orchard.)  What a blessing this place is!  It is wonderful to get a taste of what we offer to our incoming families.

Soooooooooo, excitement, planes, delays, roaches and bedbugs.
To be completely honest, we had a very grace-filled trip.  The stories I'm about to share might sound rough to some but we really never felt stressed (ok maybe one time but that wasn't on our first leg!) and had a pretty nice trip when all was said and done.

Well, the title of this post really mostly pertains to our first let of our overseas journey.  

Everything went as planned: we got to the airport on time, checked in our luggage with no hassle or surprises, said goodbye to the grandparents, got through security with ease (my hair gel that I had forgotten to put in a check-in even made it!), made it to the gate in plenty of time to let the boys get some energy out, all was well. :)

Time came to board the plane and with excitement we headed to the front of the line thanks to having little ones.  The picture above is of the boys enjoying our wait time while the rest of the passengers came on board.  Brittish Airways has little kid packs so the boys opened theirs quickly to discover a fun little activity book, pen, playing cards and I can't remember what else!  We were thankful.  :)  

The one bummer thing was that the AC was not on.  Apparently, the back AC only comes on when the engines are on.  So, we sat hot waiting.  Weeeeeeeeeeellllll, we sat, and we sat and we sat, sat, sat sat.  And because of the heat we weren't happy about that! ;)  ( Dr. Seus inspired--thanks for bearing with me.)  ;)  We ended up waiting on board for about two hours--so not fun, but oddly enough the boys did great.  There was a little girl in the seat in front and they'd played with her a bit, we played cards, took potty breaks, and waited as best we could.  At some point during that time, we hear reason of our delay: there is some sort of "little red bug" infestation in the rear cabin and so far they haven't been able to get rid of them.  Hmmm....I start laughing.  Little red bugs?  And they don't know what they are?  On a plane? SO random!  Well, eventually, they discover that these "little red bugs" are, can you believe it, ROACHES.  Yes, apparently an infestation of them.  How they were just contained to a few seats in the back and it was an "infestation" I have no idea.  

So, about two hours later they have the rear section of the plane de-board the plane (we were just five rows in front of this so called "infestation"!) to 1) be able to remedy the situation (they had all these very official looking guys come onboard trying to figure out what exactly these bugs were and exactly where they were) and 2) to give some relief from the heat for us, by now, very sweaty passengers.

SO, we de-board.  Judah exclaims, "that was so much fun," as if that was it, we got on the plane sat a while and got off, done.  :)  Not quite.  We then begin our second waiting phase at the gate--much cooler and lots more room for play.  And play our boys did.  Here are some silly pics of that wait time:

At some point during our second wait ( I think, it could have been during our on board waiting but I just can't remember) we find out that it wasn't just roaches but BEDBUGS were found in six of the back seats as well!  Ha!  Really, not sure what I have to say about that but I felt bad for the gobs of complaints that had been and were going to be logged against BA.  Not too good for publicity to have roaches AND bedbugs on board!

Well, about an hour and a half  or so later we are able to re-board the plane.  The six bedbug infested seats were removed and the frames were covered in black bags.  It was about 10pm when we finally took off.  A four hour delay!  We were SO thankful for our long layover in London, we didn't have to stress about the delay at all, we knew we would still have plenty of time.

Emergency in Row 49

Judah fell asleep pretty quickly after re-boarding (he was wiped out!) but Elijah didn't fall asleep until 1:30 that morning!  He was kept awake by Kung Fu Panda 2.  I tried to sleep here and there but not much of that was to be had by me.   At one point, I had fallen asleep to wake up minutes later to a cry for help across the aisle from me.  I quickly look over and this little Vietnamese woman's husband was splayed out on her lap with a dazed look on his face.  I call out to an attendant no where to be seen and another passenger goes out to find one.

Well, they come and after quite some time and lots of attendants huddling around this man trying to see if he was ok (his wife spoke no English and he wasn't talking), giving him oxygen, propping his feet up and trying to cool him off with wet paper towels, they conclude he simply had some sort of minor heat stroke.  He eventually started talking and was able to sit up and drink water.  And I'm not kidding, that really did happen.  Seriously!

So many firsts on this flight for me!  I'm just glad he was ok and we weren't going to have to make an emergency landing somewhere!

Well, I tried to sleep after that big event but just couldn't get comfortable.  Eventually, breakfast was served, cleaned up and we were landing in London!  Four hours later than expected but thankful to have made it thus far.  The boys slept pretty much most of the way--what a blessing!

I will write about our less exciting second leg and very exciting arrival in my next post tomorrow.  I am fairly tired and need to get to bed!  

Blessings to you, 

Janice