Curious

note: I started this post a week ago and am going to try to finish it now. But I'm racing the clock, or rather, the baby--will he wake up before I finish?

 

JT is interacting more and more with his world. As you can see, his eyes are like saucers as he studies everything around him. He's very patient as we haul him around town on all kinds of adventures--to the annual city-wide worship, to the hardware store, to the market--and he's happy as long as he gets to see what's going on.

We had a great time with Russell's parents but it was much too short, as such visits always are. I'm happy to say that though Jackson was spoiled for two weeks straight, the damage doesn't seem irreparable and he's adjusting back to our quieter life.

I don't know how quiet life is going to be for the next couple of months, though. Our first Sunday in the new building will be June 22 so everyone is working feverishly to make it happen. Before then we have a campaign from Highland Church of Christ in Abilene coming for just over a week and the arrival of our intern, Heather. But wait--there's more! Right after we move in, a campaign from Auburn will arrive to spend six weeks teaching English, like last year.

The sign was moved from the old building to the new one yesterday and we drove by last night to have a look. It was kind of surreal but, at the same time, it looked "right" there.

An interesting thing about our new location (as if there wasn't already a million interesting things about it): Our old place was a former church and was located on Rua Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit Street). The new one is a former strip club and is on Rua Iemanjá, named after the goddess of the sea. A name is just a name and a questionable past can be overcome but it makes me wonder what adventures this location will hold for us!

Two casts is too much fun

Yes, I have proven everyone right about gringoes and futebol. I have had both feet casted and x-rayed in the past six months. Thankfully, my current injury was only ligaments and not broken bones. My doorman said that I should take up baseball!

What I really wanted to say is that my son is awesome. His mom is an even bigger hero than she was before, and I cannot imagine how many paid staff it would take to do her job. My mom and dad have been so sweet and understanding of our commitment to raise Jackson in Brasil, and I will never be able to say how grateful I am for that.

There are many friends and family members that are kinda down right now; please pray for them and all the loved ones on your prayerlist. I know that we all have lots of things to do, but it is only possible if we ask God to do the heavy lifting. We begin our renovation on the new location tomorrow; I have never been more electrified and freaked out at the same time! We need some mountains to move, first with our incredible members, and then with the new friends we are making in the neighborhood of Boca do Rio (the mouth of the river). We pray for comfort from God to come while we work and create a new place for people to be transformed.
Thanks, and keep the homefires burning.

The New Building--BEFORE

Well, it's official. The contract is signed and we should be getting the keys soon. Now the remodeling begins. We've got just over a month to get it ready. I've been saying for a while how excited I am to tell you about this building so I thought I'd show you why:

Here it is from the front. Not bad; plenty of room for our sign.

 

And this is what you see when you look out the front windows. The dirt is from a major construction project at the mall just down the way.

 

This is the view looking left...

 

...and looking right. So we're giving up our building that was PRACTICALLY on the ocean road for one that is directly on it. Oh, the sacrifices.

But, you might be saying now, what about the actual building?

Like I said, we need to do some renovating.

This is what you see when you first walk in. A little primer is definitely in order.


But that's not the half of it, as this next picture reveals. There are some rather conspicuous...um..."architectural elements" left from the previous owners.


Yes, that's what you think it is. And if you put two and two together, you can figure out what this place was.

It's a little gross and it's going to take a whole lot of bleach and primer to get it to how we want it to be. But what a story! Our church building will be a wonderful object lesson about redemption and sanctification, about how we were once full of bad things but now have been made holy. I love it.

We didn't just choose it because it makes a good story. It's also a wonderful facility in a great location.

I'll try to keep you updated on the renovation progress. As I've said, it's going to be a HUGE job and we don't have that much time to do it! Please keep us in your prayers as we figure out all the logistics of the move and the renovations. Pray that this building that was once Satan's tool can be transformed into a powerful tool for the Lord. Pray that the new neighborhood will be open to our arrival and that we will attract many new people. Pray that our members will have an easy transition into the new building and location. And finally, please give God thanks for making it all work out! 

Small Group

 

 

It may be hard to believe but oohing and aahing over Jackson isn't the only thing that we're up to these days. One of the highlights of the past month was the start of a new small group. The group is held in the home of Cassi (one of our members) and Manoel. It's also the home (for now) of Kelly and Gladson, their siblings-in-law. (Russ performed their wedding ceremony about a year and a half ago.) We're really excited to be making inroads into their neighborhood. Each week we've had a different mix of friends and neighbors, some who have visited ICOS before and some not. Russ and I have also learned the hard way not to eat too big a supper before we go because there's always a ton of food afterward. Cassi and Kelly combined are the size of a pencil but love to make everyone else eat. And eat. And eat.

We love the feel of this group because it's a really young group. Almost everyone is our age or younger so it's a lot of fun. No one but us has kids yet so Jackson gets passed around for "practice" (he's such a patient guy!).

Please keep this group in your prayers as we try to get it off the ground! It's a huge neighborhood so it will be a million years before we exhaust its potential! Pray also for Cassi's husband, Manoel. Church has been a part of his life at times but he has seen churches do a lot of stuff that he doesn't agree with so his heart is a little hard toward church. But he faithfully attends our study so we hope to change his mind about what church is.

My Boys

 

Isn't he delicious?

I guess I'm referring to both of them!

Anyway, I'm sharing this picture with you because I haven't posted in a few days and I feel guilty. I'm working on a couple of "real" posts but things are kind of chaotic right now. We have the normal pre-visitor chaos and the baby chaos but it's all compounded by a new soccer injury. Someone (who shall remain nameless for fear of embarassing the father of my child) sprained his ankle this weekend. Crutches were not a part of the plan this week but we'll get by. I just have to keep telling myself that we have reinforcements arriving on Sunday!

*************************

While I was writing this we found out that our financing came through on the new church building! Hopefully the contract will be finalized soon and then I can tell you all about it. Trust me--the wait will have been worth it!

Hmm...

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities - Collage - Morph


What do YOU think?

My First Mug Shot

 

Okay, not really. It's his passport picture. We're trying to get all his documentation done so we'll be ready for furlough in the fall. We were going to do it a couple of weeks ago but then we were all sick. And then last week, we spent all week "fine-tuning" the team with Jerry and Gail Heiderich, counselors who, among other things, help make teams better. (That's the easy way to explain what they do. I might also describe it as mediating tough conversations, helping us get everything on the table and teaching us how to love each other more.)

We're soooo close to having a new church building. We're just waiting for all the financial stuff to go through. Once it does, I'll fill you in on the details. Keep praying that everything goes smoothly. My parents' church in Winnipeg is also in transition and preparing to move out of their building (a MUCH bigger move than ours!). It's weird to think that they won't be in the building I grew up in and got married in anymore but I know the move will be a blessing for them.

Russell's parents are coming in two weeks. I'm looking forward to the time with them even though I know it's not *me* they're coming here to see. I will gladly take backseat to Jackson in exchange for a little babysitting!

Not to Complain or Anything

I'm starting to get a little squirrely. JT is finally almost over his infection though I did keep him home from church yesterday. I'm just glad that there is an end in sight to the schedule of antibiotics and nebulizer treatments. My heart goes out to parents with chronically ill children for whom round-the-clock treatments are a fact of life. I haven't even been doing this for one week and am absolutely worn out. I'm just glad it's helped the kid.

But now Russ is sick, too. I think it's just a bad cold or maybe whatever JT has but it's meant that I'm trying to keep the two of them as far apart as possible. Neither one of them is too happy with me as a result but I just want Jackson to finish getting better. So I'm essentially playing the role of single mom to JT and nurse to Russ. Again, I don't know how people do it full time! Fortunately, the dog has been content to snuggle with Russ all day or I'd be having to contend with him, too. (He can be a little high maitenance at times!)

I have a vague memory of The Outside World of which I have had glimpses when we've left the apartment for doctor's appointments but it feels like it's been forever. I'm sure in a day or two both my boys will be better and we can get out of the house for a little bit. And I really can't complain about it because 1. This really is just temporary 2. So many people in the world have Real Problems 3. Even though I'm stuck taking care of them, my boys are two of the most wonderful guys I know.

And because I seem to have to include a picture of him in every post, here's your daily dose of JT:

 

More of the Kids

I still don't have anniversary pictures but my hands have been literally full this week with a sick little boy. Nothing too serious but he's been pretty miserable fighting "the crud", as the Quireys have always described their sinus issues. The antibiotics are doing their job and he's feeling much better but we've got another night or two of very little sleep ahead of us.

Anyway, I stole these pictures from the Maberys' blog and wanted to share them with you. We took them Monday when we all got together for a time of prayer and thanksgiving for the success of the anniversary service.

Looking at this first picture makes me grateful for the husbands on the team! We've defintely got our hands full now!

 

Now that we have two little babies, these three are the "big kids" of the team.

 

Finally, here are the two babies. They're growing like weeds!

 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

 

We took a minute before the anniversary service to take a new team picture, our first since the babies were born. It's amazing to think about how much has changed in the past year. Now every family has a kid, which brings a new dynamic to our team times. And this picture will be out-of-date before we know it with Heather coming in June (can't wait to get you here, girl!) and a new Sass baby coming in August.

There'll be more pics from Sunday as soon as I can get my hands on them. I had my hands full with JT and wasn't able to take any of my own.

Way to Go

I guess it's your fault. Some of you anyway. I asked you to pray about our anniversary service and you evidently did.

And so we ran out of food.

We had over 150 people in worship this morning and a few more show up for lunch. It was insane and wonderful at the same time.

The room was filled with a mix of our members, members from other congregations, friends, neighbors, co-workers, English students, realtors, language teachers and all kinds of other contacts. Together we thanked God for the family He has brought together. The singing was just awesome as all the voices blended in praise. And yes, we did run out of food but I consider having almost 50% more people than anticipated a wonderful problem to have!

We're still not sure where will be meeting a couple of months from now but it's obvious that some of you have been praying about that, too. We found a new possible location this week and it is quite promising. I'll wait until we've made a decision to tell you about it (and trust me--I'm dying to tell you about it!) but I ask that you keep praying about it! Your prayers seem to be making a big difference!

Sunday's Child

 

So tomorrow our little boy will be six weeks old. It's hard to believe he's the same kid we brought home from the hospital. It's been a wonderful six weeks, with some ups and downs naturally, but we're slowly figuring out how to be parents and JT is figuring out how to be a person. He's got quite the little personality which is why most of my pictures of him are when he's sleeping--when he's awake, his expression is constantly changing and it's hard to get a good picture of him. (Plus I like to look at the sleeping pictures and think about the quiet times!)

We've been asked what it is that we call him. Sometimes we call him Jackson, sometimes JT. We called him JT throughout the pregnancy and I kind of like it. It doesn't work in Portuguese, though, so at church and pretty much everywhere but home he's Jackson. A couple of our members have started calling him JT in Portuguese. That doesn't sound like it makes much sense but with the Portuguese alphabet his name becomes Jota Té (tay). So pretty much you can call him what you prefer except for Jackie. We're not really into that one.

In non-baby related news, our church's two year anniversary service is next Sunday. Please be praying for all the people who we've invited. Also, we're deep in the search for a new building to rent. Staying in our current building is a financial impossiblity. Please keep our search in your prayers. We're trying to find somewhere that will give us room to grow and places like that are pretty hard to come by (at least for the price we want!). So remember our search and negotiations with owners and all that stuff in your prayers!

Hard Work

Thanks to you all for being patient with me while my focus is on Jackson and not, oh say, blogging. I promise I'll be back at some point. He'll be five weeks old tomorrow so every day we get a little closer to the time that parenthood is a little less intense. (No, I'm not naive enough to think that parenthood will ever be simple or easy but, from what I hear, this period is definitely the toughest. Until the teens, of course.)

That said, tonight I am absolutely amazed at how humbling parenting is. In the long run, it's not necessarily a bad thing but it's hard in the meantime. It seems to be chipping away at so many of the ugly parts of me. I can't be a control freak and be a mommy of a newborn. I can't be a perfectionist. I can't rely on my own abilities.

The biggest hit seems to be that old pride problem. I want so desperately to have a perfect child, a child that other people will look at and say, "Wow, they're doing a great job!" I want everything I attempt to be successful--after all, generally in life I succeed at most everything I try. I want (and I wince as I type this but I'm just going to be honest here) to be able to look down my nose at people with screaming babies, with misbehaving babies, with anything but perfect babies.

And that's just not going to happen.

Instead, I fret and cry and pull my hair out and make mistakes and obsessively Google solutions and some days just feel like quitting.

But I hear that's all quite normal. So in the in between times, I'm trying to remind myself that like so many other unpleasant things I have endured for Jackson's sake, this is good for him. It's making me into a better mommy and a better person.

Now I just have to remind myself to read this post in the tough times.

A Couple of Stolen Moments!

I feel like I've accomplished very little in the past month. Then again, I feel like I've been working constantly. Jackson will be one month old on Monday. I can't believe we've already been parents for a whole month!

The past month was full of the normal new baby stuff--dirty diapers, late night feedings and a sweet snuggly boy--and a few other things. My mom and dad came and spent a couple of weeks with us. They were a huge help as we got the hang of our new jobs. They'd only been here for a couple of days when Russ got rear-ended while taking Dad to the mall. Our car is still in the shop (two weeks later!). Our insurance company provided a (very small) rental car for us for the first week and we've rented another car to get us through until Monday, when hopefully our car will be done. Russ and my dad weren't seriously hurt--it was nothing that a couple of massages at the beach couldn't fix!

This week has been full of adventure. Mom and Dad left on Tuesday. Wednesday morning I woke up to the news that Jennifer was in labor and shortly after heard that our newest teammate, Samuel Josiah Porter, had been born. Then Wednesday afternoon, a new mission team that is in training with Continent of Great Cities arrived. They're on their survey trip and are here to check out our work and pick our brains. I hope we've been able to share a little wisdom with then. At the very least, they're getting to spend some time at the beach, so their stop in Salvador won't have been a total waste!

Lately, for obvious reasons, it's been hard for me to get online and reply to emails and blog. But I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who has emailed or sent stuff or shown their love in any of a million different ways. Every day I tell Jackson how much he is loved by so many people that have never met him. I can't wait to bring him on furlough this fall and introduce him to his giant extended family!

We've All Been Napping!

Sleeping in the Sun, originally uploaded by russandval.

We're still stuck in the crazy cycle that is life with a newborn. JT is a wonderful baby and sleeps like a champ. That's not to say that we're not exhausted, even with the super help of Grandma and Grandpa Turner. But life is good and we absolutely love our sweet little boy. I thank God for him daily.

I'm SLOWLY trying to catch up with online life. I've put some pictures on Flickr if you want to see more (just click on the above picture to get there).

Perfection

 

Introducing
Jackson Turner Quirey
born Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 5:31 p.m. (Salvador time)

We can't believe he's ours.

(Much, much more later)

A Couple of Weeks Later

Oops! I'm not meaning to leave you guys hanging. There's just not much to report. I'm still very pregnant. The due date is this week and the doctor said it could literally be any time now. So we're just hanging out, waiting for this kid to show up. Hopefully he comes before my parents do next weekend. It's given us a little more time to get things ready for his (and Mom and Dad's) arrival but now I'm running out of things to do (short of reorganizing closets and such, but I refuse to nest to that extent!) We'll let you know when there's news!

I can't believe that it's February. I know that this means that now some of you will be checking our blog obsessively looking for baby news. (I know because I do the same thing with other pregnant friends' blogs!) The due date is officially Feb. 22 so don't get too antsy yet. We're eager for this kid to get here but we would rather he wait until at least next Thursday to come because Carnaval has started. The hospital is right on the edge of one of the biggest parade routes so getting there would be quite a challenge.

Carnaval has a well-deserved reputation (though Salvador's celebration looks very different than the pictures you've probably seen from Rio) but for us it's a quiet time. All the festivities happen far from our neighborhood so all we notice is how empty everything is. (If we lived in a different part of town we'd feel otherwise.) The streets are empty. The restaurants and malls are quiet. They say the population of the city grows by one million during this week but everyone stays further in town. If you're participating in Carnaval, you generally head out around 4 or 5 in the afternoon and stay out until 6 or 7 in the morning. Then you head home or to a nearby friends' house and crash until it's time to go back out again. That's assuming you sleep that much--many people don't.

But we'll be at home. We can watch the bands on TV (except for Sunday night when we'll be having a team Super Bowl party). There's an areawide church retreat this weekend but we're opting to skip it. For some reason sleeping on the floor (or even an air mattress) is not high on my list right now. Instead, I'll pass Carnaval washing teeny little clothes and finishing getting things ready for the baby's arrival.

Goodbye, Old Friend

Skippy and Val, originally uploaded by russandval.

I found out last night that our family dog, Skippy, passed away yesterday. Skippy was more than a pet--she was truly a member of the family, as anyone who knew her could attest. She lived a long life--almost twenty years--and was quite possibly the sweetest dog I have ever known. As we grew up and went away to school, the biggest fights at holiday times would be over who got to sleep with Skip. When my high school did the musical Annie, Skippy played Sandy and seemed to love all the attention. It's going to be strange the next time we visit my parents and I don't get to see my girl!

So I'm a little bummed today. And quite bored. I've been on my back with a monster head cold for the better part of a week. My voice has returned somewhat, though even Russ doesn't know it's me when I answer the phone! (Hey, at least I can answer the phone now--for a couple of days there I couldn't talk at all!)

The rest of the team gets home from furlough in a couple of hours! We can't wait!

How Can I Be Mad?

 

Oh, Sam.

We left you unattended for a long time today.

It was only natural for you to find something to do to entertain yourself.

And I'm quite impressed that while we were at church, you were thinking about Jesus, too!

So really, how can I be mad at you? The sight of you with stickers from head to toe was too much.

But, Samson, for future reference, Jesus' place is in our hearts and not our paws.

Imminent

Imminent.

That's the word that seems to always be on my mind these days. Theoretically we still have a month, but we know there's no guarantee. And as we get closer we complete things and think, "I guess it'll be a while until I get to do that again!" That means I alternate between two strategies. At times I say, "Great! That's in the can--one less thing to do!" and I relax. Other times I say, "I'm running out of time! What can I fit in before the baby comes?" and fill up the free time that was just created with something new.

That was the case today. I got a call just over a week ago about a Sunday School Teacher training day hosted by one of the other congregations. They wanted us to know about this great day coming up and oh, by the way, could I please be one of the speakers? So that's what I did today. It was a great day, an excellent opportunity to build relationships with the other sisters, but at eight months pregnant, I found it a little long and a little hot. (I texted Russ at one point with an update: Things are going well but were better before the power (and fans!) went out.)

Now it's back to checking things off the list. Next week I teach my last ladies class for a while (on submission--eek!). And next Sunday afternoon the rest of the team gets back from furlough which means I will be giving Alicia all her responsiblities back. Then, I guess, we'll just sit around and wait.

Seems rather unlikely.

Diapers Have Been Purchased

Yes, the unthinkable has happened. I thought my birthday made me feel different, or the first time we had an ultrasound and there was definately a person in there. But THIS tops all of the other weird feelings, hands down. We watched Lamaze dvds and washed baby mitts and did many other useful things (I still have to build a changing table; it will come to pass) and yet the diapers seemed much more important that those other things. At first I thought "so begins the worst 3 years of my life" then quickly changed WORST to TOUGHEST. But enough with the belly ache; we are doin great!

I don't know why I ever worry. My fears never come true. It's almost like there's someone making sure it all works out. Hmm...

I was worried about this morning. Russ and I were the only teammates in town so church was entirely up to us. It was pretty intimidating (and lonely) being the only ones around. And today was the day of a big government exam so we knew we'd be missing members. It almost seemed like it would have been better to cancel.

But I'm not the one in control.

We had a guest speaker from another congregation who did a fabulous job. And all the songs that Russ had chosen, the children's time I had prepared, the communion talk--everything!--perfectly tied into the lesson. To top it off, we had what is considered in these quiet summer months a good crowd. It ended up being a wonderful day. I can't believe I was ever worried about it.

Oops!

I just looked at the date of my last post. Sorry! My latest excuse is that we had our friends, the Bonneys, from Mayfair visiting us. Russ and I couldn't go to the missionary conference this year since one of us is great with child but it worked out perfectly because it was the best week for the Bonneys to come. We were so busy with them that we barely thought about what we were missing. (Okay, maybe I thought about it a little...) It was such a blessing to get to spend time with Jeff, Natalie, Phillip and Kyle. (And we never complain when we have to take people to the beach!) I thank God for all the friends He's given us that seem more like family.

Happy New Year!

Oops! I just looked and discovered that I haven't posted in a while. I'd love to say that it's because life has be just too frantic but it's more that we've been enjoying the relative quiet of this time of year. (Though only having two team families in town does mean there's some extra work to be done!) We had a nice Christmas, though it was a little strange because it was the first time Russ and I had ever been completely alone. We handled it okay, I guess (well, he did anyway but I'm hormonal so I've got an excuse!).

We spent yesterday (New Year's Eve day--is there a word for that?) at the beach. A family that has been coming to church lately invited us and the Porters to the beach house they rented just north of town. We spent the day swimming, sitting in the sun and eating. John and Evelyn Willis (from Abilene) are visiting the Porters right now so they came with us, too. It meant we also spent the day translating back and forth, but no one seemed to mind. After a day in the sun, we didn't feel much like going out so we stayed in last night and watched an Everest marathon on the Discovery channel while we waited for all the fireworks to end.

John and Evelyn are celebrating their 52nd anniversary later this month so today we had a get-together with some of the couples from church. They shared what they had learned about marriage with us. It was quite the multicultural (and multilingual) gathering because one of the couples is a Brazilian woman (who is from the far south of Brazil which may as well be another country!) and an man from El Salvador (who really doesn't speak much Portuguese but lived in North America for several years so has great English). So we switched between English, Portuguese and Spanish. In the end I think everyone made themselves understood and were able to learn a great deal from John and Evelyn. It's nice when we have older people around to share wisdom with us--our congregation is young and made up of relatively new Christians so times like today are quite special!

This morning I had the realization that it's now January. It's January and we're having a baby in February. Wow. Just for kicks, we've set up an online baby pool. You can access it here.

Oh Dear

We just got a call from one of our English students who said that he saw me on the news yesterday morning. Oh dear. I was secretly assuming (and hoping) that the clip had ended up on the cutting room floor. When I was a teenager I desperately wanted to be interviewed for the news. It figures that it would finally happen when I'm hot and sweaty and speaking something other than English!

Christmas in Bahia

Sorry for the quality--we were pretty far from the stage and there were LOTS of people around us.

Ahhh...

Russ and I just took a couple of days off to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary. Being so close to Christmas, our anniversary often gets neglected but we decided to take full advantage of the last of our B.K. (Before Kid) anniversaries. When we just have a short time, we often like to just take a getaway across town and explore different neighborhoods. Thanks to an AMAZING online deal (less than 25% of the regular price), we were able to stay at an AMAZING hotel in the Pelourinho that is a converted convent. We spent three relaxing days lounging by the pool, eating great food and getting to check out some spots in the Pelourinho that we don't usually get to see. (Normally when we're down there we've got visitors in tow so we go with things we know they'll like instead of trying new restaurants or museums.) On Thursday night we went to watch the city Christmas celebration with a choir made up of kids from all over the city. It was a lot of fun and I was even interviewed for the local news! I'll try to post a clip of the performance for you.

Thoughts

Aren't you glad we're not who we were?

I've spent the afternoon deep in thought. I won't go into it all here, but it was triggered by the word that a former classmate had passed away. He was definitely not someone I was close to--in fact we got into it on several occasions. And the guy I disagreed with so bitterly a decade ago was the guy that was frozen in my mind. But as I thought about it, I realized that he probably hadn't been that guy in a long time. After all, I'm not the same person I was ten years ago. And thank God for that.

It made me think about all of you who read this blog. Some of you know OC Val. Some know Val the church secretary. Some know Val the missionary. Some just know Russell's wife, Val. And a select few of you remember Val the child or Val the teenager. More than likely, how you think of me and my personality depends on when you met me.

I look at all those mes and I realize who I've been. I've been short-tempered, quick-tongued, downright mean at times, lazy, gossipy, the list could go on. (Please resist the urge to comment with other adjectives!) Sometimes I still am those Vals.

But with each me I've been, there's been a progression. Technically I'd have to say that they haven't been individual personas but one person on a continuum. Every day I lose more and more of the old me and become more and more of who I'm supposed to be. (Not without setbacks, but we can safely call it a general trend.)

We're getting ready to start a series at church about being "Under Construction". I don't know if our members realize that we missionaries are on the same journey that they are. We fight to be who we need to be. And sometimes, it's only when we take the time to look back that we realize that we're actually succeeding. I'm no longer who I once was. God has transformed me; not just once but over and over again turning me into someone who looks like His child.

I'm a little curious. When I look at how much my life has changed--how much I've changed--I wonder what I'll look like at the end of my journey. I hope that regardless of when you came to know me, the Val you think of, the Val you'll remember, is the one that wasn't content to be who she is right now. I'm glad I've changed and can't wait to be transformed even more!

A Special Message

Happy Birthday, Russell Awesome!

I'm so glad to have you in my life. You are an excellent partner in life, in ministry and in crime. We've seen the world together and are still dreaming of where to go next. You are going to be an incredible dad to our little boy. I thank God for you, baby!

Christmas BBQ

Christmas BBQ, originally uploaded by russandval.

With Christmas comes our annual church barbecue. Here are a few pictures from the day. I'll label them later. Sleep comes first.

Genius

Dogs (and an assortment of other animals) can be trained to do a number of things. Some are working dogs, like my parents' dog/child, Carmen, who has been taking sheepherding classes. Others can perform amazing feats, like water jumping. The most interesting to me are the ones who help their handicapped owners, whether they are blind, deaf or paralyzed.

Which brings me to Samson. Yorkies are not known for their trainability. Any of you who have met Sam or heard our stories about him will know that we're content if he doesn't pee on our bed and doesn't drag out our dirty underwear when we have company. We've learned to settle. Oh, sure, we're working on a few tricks, like "sit", "give me kisses" and "get back there with that, you stupid dog!" but we have accepted his limitations.

So imagine my delight when I discovered Sam's special gift. He, like assistance dogs, can make up for his owner's shortcomings. This morning I was making cookies. I don't have a timer--I don't know why, I guess I just always forget to buy one--and remembering when to take things out of the oven is a bit of a challenge for me. And since I've been pregnant, it's hard to even remember that I have things IN the oven! So this morning I put in a batch of cookies and then Sam and I went to hang out with Russ in the computer room with the door closed to keep in the nice air conditioning. After a few minutes I got up and opened the door, thinking of something I was going to do around the house. Sam saw the open door and bolted out of the room and headed straight to the oven, where he stood until I arrived. When I checked in on the cookies, they were perfectly done.

There you have it--I have a Baking Assistance Dog. I don't think that qualifies Sam to get on airplanes free or come to the mall with me but it's useful nonetheless. He's proved his usefulness so I guess we'll keep him a little longer, even if he did make Randy and me chase him up and down the stairs yesterday, peeing all the way.

English Class Christmas Party

English Class Christmas Party, originally uploaded by russandval.

Since I finally posted about the conference, I can get on with current events. Yesterday we had our English class Christmas party. We had a great turnout this year--almost 40! It marked the end of our English classes for the next little while. Hopefully we'll be able to start up again in April--it'll all depend on the kiddo. In the meantime, we invited all the students to the church picnic this Sunday. Hopefully we can keep them coming to church things during our extended break.

In other news, I went to my first Brazilian Tupperware party the other night with the other girls from the team. The demonstrator asked if we were familiar with the products and we just laughed and started pointing out all the stuff we had grown up with. It was a fun evening though and we got to hang out with some of our regular visitors.

Tonight I made taco soup for dinner. It's amazing how some foods warm your body and your soul at the same time!

The Women's Conference

Today is the first of many catch-up days for me. Some people on the team have very regular weekly schedules but mine is more project-based. I love it that way but every so often, I end up with "the perfect storm" and hit a patch where I look three weeks into the future for days that I can sleep in. Being six months pregnant has been an interesting added dimension since I can't guarantee that I will feel up to working on a particular day or that I will have the energy to do so. But as of yesterday, I really just have one more event on the horizon--the Christmas picnic--and my responsibilities for that are relatively few. So today I get to tackle the things that have been on the back burner for a couple of weeks--updating the blog, cleaning the apartment, etc. And so I begin with the women's conference:

 

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. It was a great day. I don't have a final count because there were some late in the day arrivals but we had at least 160 women. Then there were about 20 kids and our three tireless childcare workers (Russ, Randy and Tennyson). Honestly, I think it would be possible to host such a conference and have very little planned and just let the women fellowship but, of course, I couldn't let that happen!

 

Our theme for the day was "Connecting with God". Most of the material we used was based on the monthly series about spiritual disciplines that we've been doing with our own women. They suggested that it would be worth sharing with the other sisters in the city so we happily obliged. Mary spoke about meditation, Jennifer spoke on prayer and I spoke on fasting.

 

In the afternoon we had workshops. The workshops are generally of lighter stuff than the sessions. One of our members taught about makeup, another talked about (and gave!) massages and one of our regular visitors gave a workshop on healthy eating. With all of that fun stuff going on, I was surprised that many people came to my workshop about Bible study as a spiritual discipline. It was material that Alicia had originally presented and we decided to offer it as one of the workshops (thus rounding out Richard Foster's four internal disciplines).

I'm still getting great feedback about the day. We did a lot of new things, like breakout groups, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. Even though it was so much work and it took two days for my ankles to get back to their normal size, it was a lot of fun to plan and put on. I do have to admit, though, that I was quite relieved when another congregation was chosen to host next year. It was fun, but not THAT fun!

Here are a few more images from the day:

1. Jaci (the Portuguese teacher) during individual prayer time 2. The popular massage workshop 3. Jessenita meditating on the Word 4. The favors everyone took home (candles) 5. Mary, me and Jenn at the end of the day 6. Tennyson even endured a "manicure" in the name of childcare

We had a great albeit short visit with the Quireys. We were also able to put to rest any fears that our son wouldn't have anything to wear when he showed up--the Blackwell gang had a shower for us a couple of weeks ago and sent the Quireys off with FULL suitcases.

This week is almost over and I really need it to have a couple more days. The English class Christmas party is this Sunday and I have a lot of baking to do before then. There are so many yummy treats that I'd love to share with my students. Russ and I are definitely looking forward to having our summer break from English class. We absolutely love teaching it but it gets tiring and we'll definitely enjoy the extra flexibility in our schedules for the next little while.

I promise I'm going to post about the women's conference soon. Actually, I wrote a long post about it and it got messed up when I tried to publish it. I was so frustrated I had to walk away for a while.

Where Have I Been?

Why haven't I posted for a few days? Well, let's see...

First there was this:

 

and the days of recovery that followed.


Then, we were hours away from the Quireys' arrival when a visa snafu delayed their plans. Rather than lose the money we had already paid and since there was nothing that could be done on our end, we waited here:

 

for a couple of days.


On Wednesday morning, we stopped at the airpot on our way back from the beach and picked them up. So yesterday, we got to enjoy this:

 

with our family and teammates.

(I promise a real post about everything soon.)

I got the post up first!

Val is deservedly resting her feet after an incredible 48 hours of work, ending with a successful womens city-wide converence hosted by none other than the ICOS church. There were close to 200 participants and their children; we cooked for them, kept them cool, and cleaned up after the day was over. It was by far the best event that I have been involved with (all I did was run errands and play red rover with kids). There were little ones and teens laughing, moms and grandmas praying and many people singing and learning how to be leaders in their neighborhoods. Pray that we both will recover before family arrives on Saturday. I have an amazing woman, and soon we will have an amazing baby to share my life with because of her! And now I am finished...

Friday Shall Be the New Day of Rest

Tomorrow is our areawide women's conference. Most of my waking hours for the past couple of weeks have been dedicated to it. I'm really excited about it, though. We're expecting about two hundred women. Today we took Verônica shopping for the food(oh the blessing/curse of owning a car!). She (and several dear sweet sisters) are making Bahian food for everyone. This involved getting up at 6:00 this morning to go to the big food market downtown. It was an incredible amount of food. Scratch that--it was a believable amount of food for the number of people. The unbelievable part was the amount of okra we bought. Yes, my southern friends, we eat okra here. It's a part of a couple of traditional dishes. But Brazilian okra puts yours to shame: it's about eight inches long. And we bought TWO THOUSAND okra. (Okras? Okri?)

As I write, the last of my handouts are printing. My lessons are done, the "to bring" piles are huge, and the "to do" list has shrunk. There is no more "to do"--at this point it's either done or it's not going to happen. I know there will be bumps tomorrow--things people think weren't done adequately, things people think are missing, things that really are missing due to my baby brain--but it should be a great day. And at this time tomorrow night I will be back home, in my little bed, resting up for my in-laws visit. (Truthfully, I will be resting up so I can CLEAN for my in-laws visit!)

Please pray for our conference tomorrow. Pray that the words we speak will be understood and will make an impact on the hearers. Pray that we can keep our stress levels to a minimum and sit back and enjoy the day (I'm not kidding about the sitting part--I've discovered that pregnant Val doesn't do well if she's on her feet all day!). Pray that this event brings sisters from all the other congregations closer together. Pray that I can keep that goal in my mind--it's really the point of the whole thing, but it's easy to get distracted by all the details.

The Great Catch

Last week on our retreat we all decided to go down to the beach. The guys' plans for bodyboarding were put on hold because the locals were out fishing. We all watched while they put out the net and then Russ and Randy helped bring it and the fish in. It made us think of all the fishermen in the Bible and we wondered how much (or little) fishing had changed since Jesus' time.

 

 

It was so interesting that I stayed out waaaay longer than I planned to and ended up with horribly sunburned feet. But it was definitely worth it!

Retreat!

The Fam, originally uploaded by russandval.

We spent the first half of this week on a team retreat. We've had the retreat at the same house for three years running. It's about 45 minutes out of town in a nice beach town. The beach is one of my favorites and the weather is always perfect.

This year was quite different than years past. There were much fewer of us--no Parkers, of course, and the Sasses are on furlough--so it was just us, the Maberys and the Porters. We were all in desperate need of some R & R.

Unfortunately we couldn't stay out there forever and yesterday afternoon Russ and I came back into town so we could make it to English class and today we resumed our normal frantic schedule. The women's conference is only a week away so it consumes a great deal of my time. Once it's done I'll have two days to get my house ready for the Quireys' arrival.

But then, we're headed back to the beach for a couple of days of family time. I'm already counting down!

p.s. We took Samson with us so he could spend a couple of days "being a dog"--barking at anything that moves, running around outside and wrestling with Nalah, the Maberys' dog. I don't think he's forgiven us for bringing him home.