3 weeks in

One of the things that I thought I would be prepared for as we were beginning to put our house together was that things go at a different pace than Izabel and I were used to. In my previous months living in Brazil I had seen it first hand and it's also something that I've heard from many different people. Knowing that, however doesn't make it easier to handle delays when they come.

We have had an advantage of having a car available to us on the day that we arrived. Because Shelly Fuehrer was on vacation in the States we were able to use her car to go around and run errands that we needed to do. With Shelly's car we have been able to make a couple trips to a nearby beach town, Mongagua, where Izabel's sister lives to spend time with her and her husband. We have been able to drive to Santos to visit the Federal Police so I can register myself as a permanent resident and we've been able to go to Praia Grande and do some shopping for our house. I was a little uneasy about driving down here but now that I have done it quite a bit I actually enjoy it. As Aaron Brakefield said, "you just do what needs to be done" while driving.

We've had some frustrations while getting our house ready.

Our kitchen cabinets already being put to work.

• Our Brita water pitcher was cracked in transit from the U.S. to here. We bought a water filter at the mall in Praia Grande so we could finally have drinkable water at our house. When we bought it we were told that someone would come and install it for free, we just had to call the number for the installers in Cubatao. When Izabel called, she was told that they don't have authorization to install the water filters in Cubatao. After talking to many different people and losing her patience after being given many different numbers to call we aren't sure someone will come by to install the water filter.
• Speaking of installers, we bought a kitchen table and cabinets before Christmas and they were delivered as promised on Dec. 29th. We were told that they would be installed on Jan 2nd or 3rd in what would be a two day installation. On Jan 2nd, Izabel called the store to find out what time they would be installed and was told that the earliest they will be installed is Jan 8th with no explanation. I encouraged Izabel to call back and remind them they told us the 2nd or 3rd and how much money we spent at their store and we were told that their three installers quit at the end of December and they need to hire new guys.
• We went to the Federal Police as instructed in the visa I received to register myself as having arrived in Brazil. The first time, we arrived 7 minutes after they stopped helping foreigners for the day. The second time, the lady handed us a paper that listed everything that we needed to bring with us, copies of documents, passport style pictures.... After gathering all of those things Izabel and I went the next day thinking we had everything we needed only to be told that we were supposed to have scheduled an appointment, which is now scheduled for Jan. 7th.
• To receive our Brazilian copies of Samantha's birth certificate and our marriage license we needed to go to the official records office in Cubatao (Izabel's ID card here in Brazil still has her maiden name). They required a more recently issued copy of Izabel's birth certificate in order to give us the Brazilian wedding license. The one Izabel has was issued at the end of 2011.
• The people that lived in the house before us did not take very good care of the place, making it a good home for small critters. We are currently waging a war on these critters and at this point it's hard to tell who is winning. We've spent some money buying things that will hopefully get rid of them but we keep seeing others come from other places. This means we need to keep a constant eye on Samantha while she is playing.

Despite all those we have had some success.

• Our couches and bedroom set were delivered and installed. We now have the ability to have guests over and not make them sit on the floor.
• A lot of the things we brought from the U.S. were made to go into a 110 volt outlet. All of the outlets here in Brazil run on 220 volts, meaning that unless we want to burn our our appliances we need to get converters. I couldn't figure out why my coffee maker kept shutting off while brewing coffee until I realized that it took twice as many watts to brew coffee as our voltage converter could handle. We finally found a converter that can handle 1010 watts which will be enough for my coffee maker (Finally!!!!) and will hopefully be enough for our blender.
• We had a merry Christmas (even though I've never had to wait so long into Christmas to open my presents) and we hope that you did as well. It was 107 degrees here and we went to the beach along with many other people. For the first time ever, Izabel said that I had good taste while choosing a clothing item for her.
• Thankfully Samantha has begun to gain weight. We bought a scale and 10 days after Samantha's Dr.s appointment she had gained half a pound and is still gaining. I plan on keeping everyone updated on her weight gains for her next 23 years.

I don't know why the pictures are so hard to place in the area that I want. I've not had that problem before.

Thank you all for your interest in the ministry here in Brazil. Feel free to contacts us if you have other questions.