Last night was great!! We all slept. All that coffee didn't keep me from sleep. Ah!! Great coffee anytime of the day. I did learn something about Brazilian coffee. They don't send the best coffee to the US. They don't even keep in Brazil. They sell it to Europe, especially Italy gets the best beans. The lower quality stuff gets sent to the US. Rebekah is not much of a coffee drinker but she has it for 1 - 2 meals a day now. She liked it 2 years ago when we visited a coffee plantation near Londrina, Brazil. Enough of that stuff. Gabe is doing better today. Less coughing but wasn't back to full energy yet... that's not all bad. His appetite is not what it was the first few days but I'm sure it will be back. It was a complete gray sky day here and I don't think it got much more than 60 degrees. I believe there are many people hear who think I'm the crazy American not wearing a coat. I was in my short sleeve t-shirt all day. There are many people who wear scarfs all day even in the office. We met a Brazilian who said the weather forecast for next Tues called for 0 degree Celsius. I can handle that as I bought a jacket from Walmart.... but.... they don't have any furnaces here or in many places around here. I haven't found any duct work or thermostats or roof top HVAC systems. In the summer it doesn't get much above 85 degrees here. Remember we are further south in Brazil. So next week I may freeze... stay tuned. Today we took a walk "off campus" with the kids for the first time. We went to a grocery store and bought some laundry soap. We broke down out of desperation as we haven't done laundry since we got here. Rebekah washed enough clothes for tomorrow. You can tell what rooms we are staying in... the ones with pants, shirts, underwear, etc hanging out the louvered and sliding windows. Problem is they probably won't be dry by morning. Rebekah asked what we should do... I told her it was a good thing she brought her hair dryer.... not a good answer. Yesterday was difficult on the children as they were thrown off schedule... not that we have a tight one, but everything was different. Today was smoother by far. PTL! We have been here for a week now so things are settling into a routine. Tomorrow we can use the playground as it is the weekend and no school children will be around. We are learning the personalities of the children more each day so that helps. Today I caught one of the girls saying a sentence using both Portuguese and English... that's a start. Communication has been hard but we are learning more and they are understanding more English... that is except for one phrase I use and they still don't respond.... "hey guys". They don't look up or respond. They just keep doing whatever they have been doing. I then have to remember to call them by name. It isn't that great... they all have a name. We all have a name and God knows us and calls us by name. One part of our trip I have been dreading, hating, etc. After our stay here in Curitiba, we fly to Rio to get US visas for the kids. That means staying close to the US Consulate to avoid high cost of taxi rides. Which means staying in the center of town. Since we will be ready to take the overnight flight on July 3rd, we would arrive in the US on July 4th... the ticket prices skyrocketed. So we booked flights for July 6th. That is 5 days in Rio instead of 3. And we are on our own there. Limiar is not able to have anyone there to assit. Now you know why I dread, complain, hate the thought of it. So in my mind there is nothing that I can do... just suck it up and do what you have to do. Well God has other plans. Here at Lar Betania, we met a couple. Luis is a pastor from Curitiba but has been pastoring in Rio for a short time. He is here for a few days to have some follow up medical test performed. He doesn't speak much English but I had an interpreter ask if he knew of a hotel close to the US Consulate. A little while later he came to us and said he and his wife spoke and he wants all of us to stay with his family. And he will drive us where we have to go. You have got to be kidding me!! You want 6 practical strangers to invade your small place for 5 - 6 days. Of course my personality says that we would be a lot of trouble and hassle and I don't want people to be bothered by our needs. Rebekah later scolded me and said let people give you something if God has laid it on their heart. So it looks like we have a place to stay. Why didn't I pray about it? Did I think I would be bother to God with a selfish issue? Sometimes you have to go thru "un-fun" stuff and maybe sometimes we wouldn't have to if we just prayed about it. God cares about ALL the things in our lives. When will I ever learn to bring everything to Him. Do we have an awesome God?? He knows me... my weaknesses... and even when I don't ask, He is there providing and ministering to me despite my complaining and lack of faith.