Wednesday 1-20-2010

Good morning... The sun is shining for the second day in a row! That is a record for this January. We did get our electricity "juiced up" as Nancy mentioned we were trying to do and God graciously has given us some warmer weather as well. We can now run a clothes dryer as well which would mean more to you if you had towels hanging outside to dry for the last 4 days and all that was happening was that they were starting to smell bad. Not sure how the Portuguese cope. We see laundry hanging out in the rain, mist, and fog for for several days. Sometimes they cover it with plastic. We would dry ours inside but without heat, it only creates a mildew aroma that does nothing for the palate.

Enough complaining..we have a working dryer!! The fact that it sits in our bedroom and we run the vent out the window is just part of being here.

Today is the first day of final exams for the HS and Nancy is complaining a bit about the unfairness of me not having as much "school" time as she. I have no exams today or Friday. I think that it is more than fair as I have to correct all these exams (she said she would not help!)

Most other things are going very well. Nancy had some medical tests that came back with great results. And did I mention that the sun is shining for the second day in a row! We are looking forward to February which really is supposed to start spring here. There are still ripe lemons on the tree outside our back door and Nina has become very good at making fresh lemonade. We are making plans for a weekend trip to Switzerland in March to keep our visas current. We have a visitor from the states coming for a few days in Feb. Wish more of you would do that!

Peace be yours this day

Mike

January 12, 2010

Winter in Portugal is wet and cold! Of course everyone is saying this is the coldest and wettest they can remember...just our luck. But at least we feel like "real" missionaries now, as we huddle in our apartment each evening. We did sometimes feel a little guilty calling ourselves missionaries when the weather was so beautiful and we were sight seeing at some of the loveliest beaches in Europe.

The homes here are made of concrete and tile...great for hot weather...not great for cold damp weather. Of course the problem is worse because there is no central heat in most of the homes. We have five space heaters in our apartment but we can only turn on two at a time because the electricity blows out with more than that. We have asked our landlord to let us get more "juice" coming into the house...a simple procedure...but he is old school Portugese and doesn't see any reason for it.

This morning I noticed mold was growing on one wall of our small bathroom, I thought mold needed warm damp air to grow..who knew! I don't mean to complain...but really I'm looking forward to some warm weather again. I've been wearing my long johns to school this week and they feel pretty good. I couldn't quite understand why Mike suggested we bring them. Now I know why. At least our school has central heat...a real plus for going to work each morning.

We have all gotten back into a routine after our whirl-wind travels in December. It was great last weekend to spend a morning cleaning the kitchen...Mike calls it my theraputic cleaning... in the afternoon I finished a book and then took a nap. I think we all needed some R and R.

I will try to get back to a regular routine of blogging. We have some fun trips planned in the coming months so stay tuned.
N

Kati and birth mother --- Kati meets Flavius (bro) --- Kati's birth family

January 8, 2010

Happy New Year

well, a bit late for sure but we mean it anyway.

We have been "away" for a while and most of you are aware that we went bact to the States for Nancy's Dad's funeral. It was a God honoring service that reflected well his life. We enjoyed a quick visit with all our kids and then zipped back to Portugal. 3 days later we were back at the airport headed for a life -impacted visit to Romania. We were able to meet and spend some time with Kati's birth family who live in abject poverty with little hope for a better future unless there is major intervention. We are looking to God for wisdom as to how best to make a small difference. Culture change and economic development etc. are beyond our scope but maybe we can change the circumstances of one or two...just like the Starfish parable. The trip included some very positive times of interaction with Kati's brother at a mall and time with new friends, Jon and Eca, who were wonderful hosts for us. They are the parents of Cornel and Eunice who we met here in Portugal at the church we are attending. Eunice travelled with us and was an essential and wonderful guide/translator for the trip as well as a surprise to her parents who did not know that she was coming with us. Kati seems to have been positively impacted by the events in Romania although you who know her, know that it takes a while to find out what really is going on in her head. Nina is just a blessing consistently. We are thankful for safe and convenient travel and few problems on the road. We only got lost a little while once on the way from Budapest to Arad and the air travel portion of the trip went very well.

Anyway, Nancy has written a wonderful heartfelt summary of the trip and we have lots of pictures if you want more info, just ask at nancy-dubois@hotmail.com

Today is a holiday here and there is no school and the sun is shining (after several bleak days of foggy cold rain) and we scudlled plans for sightseeing trip for a day just catching our breath. Nancy is busy cleaning house with Kati. Nina is babysitting some friends and I am trying to stay out of the way.

I will add a couple of pictures to this post and promise to return to a more faithful schedule soon

Mike