For Such a Short Month...

For such a short month, we have sure had all sorts of happenings...

Two weeks ago I made five birthday cakes in one week.

Three huge sheet cakes for our nephew's FIRST BIRTHDAY!

We celebrated baby Isaac at Camp California with a marvelous day in the sun.

Noah and I with one of our favorite Silva cousins, Ana

Sun, pool, tons of friends and family and BBQ...doesn't get much better!

The daddy and his girl.  These two could spend days on end in the pool if given the chance!  Chloe was the first in in the morning and the last out late afternoon.

My boy much perfers to just hang out close to his uncle W and the meat!!!  He ate all day long!

My only close up of the birthday boy.  Poor child.  Did not so much enjoy his birthday as we all did.  He had a rough day.

My sister in law did a fantastic job with the decorations. 

Her mother made this cake with fondet which was absolutely darling but the intensely HOT day did a number on it.

My children enjoying their wonderful BBQ lunch.

And a sweet tea party for two for my beloved friend, Juliana on Wednesday of that week, celebrating her special day.

I made my first naked cake ever.  A tiny, four layered Lemon Cake.

And my final and fifth cake of the week was not remembered in pictures but it was another huge sheet cake for my brother in law's special day on Saturday.  I was pleased all the cakes turned out well.  Isaac's cakes were the all time favorite chocolate cake with homemade "doce de leite" filling and chocolate icing topped with chocolate shavings.  Juliana's was a box lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting topped with fresh lemon slices and green leaves.  Wellington's was the all time favorite chocolate cake with chocolate filling and frosting topped with chocolate shavings.

Another happening this month:  More stitches for Noah boy

This time he managed a cut on his forehead needing five stitches!

Now healing nicely

Wearing daddy's socks and shoes!

A very special, very unexpected visitor from California:

A few days ago a long time friend that we had met here in Brazil in 2001 messaged me on FB, asking me if I would be willing to host a friend of hers who was coming to Sao Paulo for three short days. Sandy was coming to visit a friend of hers but this friend had to work the first two days she would be here.  I said we would be glad to and what followed was just a very unexpected, sweet, much needed BLESSING from above!  Not only did she bring two big, full suitcases of treasures just "to bless us with" but she brought all kinds of encouragement and truth and love as she just entered our lives for two days and loved on us.  Thank you, Sandy!  Only God knows how you encouraged and  inspired me during our short hours together.

She asked for our "want list" and brought literally EVERYTHING I mentioned!  The other suitcase was full of shoes for the man, clothes for the children and i and lots of art and craft supplies for the children!  Wow!

Our Saturday outing to downtown Sao Paulo

A crazy fun Museum Everson and I did not even know existed!

Enjoying lunch at the "Mercadao" a huge, indoor market that has all kinds of wonderful booths of fruits, nuts, meats, vegetables, spices, seasonings, etc to see and taste!  Here Chloe is eating her "pastel de queijo" a huge pocket of dough filled with cheese and deep fat fried.

The rest of us had huge sandwiches filled with either pork or pastrami.

Chloe's birthday gift from Sandy: a mask that she saw at the market and fell in love with!

Sandy and I in front of my new job place (thanks Sandy for this picture I took from your FB!).  She accompanied me to work on Friday and shared her story with my students.  It was a privilege to have her in class.

The other big happening was starting my new job (pictured above).  Almost one month into it, there have already been big changes as we didn't have enough students for first year.  But God is good and the changes/transitions have been worked out to everyone's liking.  The biggest change for me is I will continue to teach four classes a week but in only two afternoons, giving me Wednesdays at home.  No one is complaining about that!

Thursday we spent the day at a funeral.  Everson's uncle Eliaquim went HOME on Wednesday evening after spending a week in a coma due to a stroke.  I will write an entire post someday soon about Brazilian funerals because they are so drastically different than American ones but for now, I will just say that we shall miss Tio Eliaquim very very much.

In Loving Memory of Tio Eliaquim

The final (and ongoing) happening is that my love is in the hospital once again.  I took him yesterday to get meds to control his SCA pain (Sickle Cell Anemia) and we found out his pneumonia (he was at the hospital on Thursday evening and given antibiotics to fight the pneumonia) had spread in spite of almost 48 hours of strong antibiotics.  Because of the fact he lives chronically compromised because of the SCA, he was hospitalized in order to be given even stronger antibiotics.  We are hopeful he will be released today or tomorrow.

While I am hoping that March will bring a few less "happenings" we know that God is good, His mercies are new every morning and His grace will be sufficient!  Thank you for those who stand with us in prayer and encouragement during our challening times and rejoice with us in our joys.  Please keep us in prayer this week.  I will update as I can.

                                                                               Because He is good,
                                                                                                 Jama