Critters

It has been a couple of days so I better update any who are reading this. Rebekah said I wasn't suppose to write about critters... but I am the man of the family and since it is the most interesting thing going I will let you know about the critters. But before that I will update you on the... parasites... they are not the critters I will talk about later. We took the kids to a doctor to see if they had any. He speaks English and is a very pleasant man. He didn't check for any parasites he just gave us some tablets to treat the children. Some people say that many parents treat their children once a year for parasites... just preventative measures. So that's what we did. We don't know if they have them or not and that suits me just fine. Ignorance is bliss in this case. Since I have last updated we have gone to the zoo on Wednesday and to the Hotel on Thursday. The kids enjoyed the zoo and I think were most interested in the 2 bears. One bear lifted up a sliding door and went inside. The other bigger bear was trying to figure out how to open it. We said the bears had a disagreement and one wouldn't let the other one in the house. I don't know if one was a male and the other a female but it looked like and good squabble was going on. After the zoo we went to have pictures taken of the kids for their documents... passports, visas, etc. Back at Betania we have enjoyed visits during our supper with Kevin and Karla. Kevin grew up in northern Brazil. His father is British and his mother is American. He has triple citizenship. In northern Brazil they grow the fruit Acai... pronounced ah-sigh-ee. It is a highly nutritional food that is sold in the US. My mom buys the juice... but it is diluted with other juices as most people wouldn't like the taste. Anyway it is suppose to make you live forever... my term for the highly expensive supplements that people buy. We talked about seeing if it was possible to bring it to the US and not charge the high prices. I went on the internet and found there are acai products all over the place. If you take any of them... you are paying too much. The stuff is cheap in northern Brazil. Now to the critters. When we were to the Hotel earlier this week, Monica mentioned we should have the children checked for parasites and what she called "animals in you hair." To Americans that means lice. But here they say it is different than lice since they are dark and not white or light colored. Call it what you want but Rebekah and I thought it would be good to find out. We brought some lice treatment just in case. What I will tell you next is so you can see the servant hearts of the Brazilian people here. After lunch and a swim in the pool, Monica came in and said to shampoo the kids hair and line them up for treatment. She had bought the supplies and had her people ready to take care of us. Each of us had someone to administer the treatment to us. Well the only good news is Rebekah and Wellington didn't have any... ugh that means I had "animals in my hair". Actually only a few. The reason... the others use my brush... but no more. I threw it away and use my fingers now on my hair now. The people were willing to get their hands "dirty" (with crawling things) on people they don't even know. They did it willingly with a cheerful spirit. I don't know about you, but that would be very, very hard for me to do. Rebekah said washing someones feet is one thing but to de-lice someones hair is another thing. What kind of a lesson can I draw from this. I have so far to go to fill the shoes of the people here. Of course the ultimate servant example to us is Christ. He got His hands "dirty" (He didn't sin) by leaving heaven to come as a servant. Healing, praying, feeding, forgiving, dying. The people here say they are at the bottom of helping with our adoption. They feel it is so little and not much. I try to explain that I prayed for help and they are the answer to my prayers. They say they do it for God. It struck me how easy it is to be self-centered. I thank them for helping us... they don't do it primarily for us...they do it for God. THEY UNDERSTAND it better than I do!!! We shouldn't do things for others, we should do them for GOD... as HE directs us. There is much for me to learn from this past week it is hard to write about it all at once. One more thing on the critters. When we got back to Betania, we found our rooms had all the linens completely changed and I guess the room treated. The lady (Linda) in charge of housekeeping had gone home. She came back and personally made sure our rooms were ready for us. What more can I say. I started this update yesterday (Fri) and will explain and update maybe later tonight.