Not because I deserve it. Not because He owes it (whatever IT is) to me. But because of His goodness and kindness, He is Who He is and honestly, I just believe He delights in delighting His children's hearts.
And so because He knew what my heart needed and knew better than I the inner workings and struggles of my soul, He sent me someone special from "home" last week. I say "home" because as I told her during one of our hours and hours of talking, the United States really doesn't feel like home anymore. Too many years living abroad. Too much water under the bridge, so to speak. But it is where my family is, so in many ways, I think it will always have a flavor of
home.
So, to my complete surprise and delight after an online conversation, she sent me an intinerary, asking if I would be home the last week in April to receive a visitor. I chuckled and thought, "Where else would I be...really?!" And YES, I will move heaven and earth to receive someone who wants to come see me.
So, here are a few highlights of our whirlwind seven days together. I don't know if she will ever know what these hours meant to me or my little family. I can only pray God's blessings over her as she poured blessing over us.
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| Afternoon Cafezinho with special friends |
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| She even went to school with us two days. On Thursday she was our guest speaker for American Literature and gave an amazing class on the Harlem Renaissance period and introduced my students and I to Countee Cullen's poems. |
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| I asked a dear friend of mine to accompany the two of us to tour downtown SP, which quite frankly can be quite daunting to me...even after 10 years here! We had a glorious time, walking for HOURS and seeing a small portion of our megacity. |
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| A trip downtown is not really quite complete without a huge Mortadela sandwich, which even sharing with D I could hardly eat it all! |
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| We finished up our downtown experience by meeting up with my husband for a quick tour of Avenida Paulista and Arab food for dinner. If I look absolutely exhausted here, it is because I was but it was so worth it! |
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| Saturday the children, M and I enjoyed a wonderful day in a little wine town in the interior of SP state. Husband had to work which was so unfortunate, but with trusty little Waze and a fantastic navagator, we managed to find our way around. |
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| This picture was actually later that night, but she really wanted corn ice cream so we did what we needed to do to find it for her!!! |
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| The highlight of our day for the children was finding a wonderful little "Fazendadinha" to eat a delightful lunch at and enjoy the mini zoo and playground for a couple hours. |
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| Seriously one of the most adorable little restaurants I have ever eaten in in Brazil. Absolutely beautiful view out the windows and delightful red checkered tablecloths. AND the food was fantastic. Can't beat that! |
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| Experiencing a Brazilian "feira"-farmers market is in our neighborhood on Sunday mornings. Pastel and Caldo de Cano (sugarcane juice) about sums it up! |
And Sunday night she flew back to her world and left our hearts feeling a bit sad and "wow, its over already?!" My children had bouts of weeping for the next two days everytime we talked about M or remembered something we did together. And yes, we did do more than just eat, even though the pictures might indicate otherwise! It was short. It was sweet. We will never forget!
Until next time,
Jama
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