Nádya's Birthday

Nádya did not want a celebration of her birthday. She told me that she had eaten enough cake for the month.

We had a semi-surprise celebration anyway. Her mom (who makes the cakes for our celebrations) put this cake together in the afternoon after Nádya went back to work. I had an English Class to teach so I was not there when Nádya got home from work.

It was a fun little party.

The rest of the photos are in our January Birthday Celebrations 2008 album (They are in the last three rows.).

Karl Winegardner's Birthday Party

From January Birthday Celebrations 2008

Karl had a great birthday. There is not a lot to say about it in terms of what the party was like. It included family, and a friend who visited. But it was fun. The cake was great (Of course it was, my mother-in-law made it!), and having family members around was the highlight.

The pictures in this post link to the album, which has many more pictures of the evening. You may have seen them, though, if you looked at all the pictures in the album from the last post about Phil's party.

Phil Steller's Birthday Party

From January Birthday Celebrations 2008

Phil and Denilze Steller came to Teresina to visit her parents for Christmas, and New Year's. I just so happens that Phil's birthday is in between the two. They were elsewhere at the time, so they invited some friends and family to celebrate a couple days late.

We had a great time visiting with them, as well as some other friends we have not seen in a while.

It just so happened that there were three other people there that also had birthdays within a two-week period. Yours truly was among them. Here we are together, but unfortunately I don't have a chance at remembering the other two people's names. (If someone knows, leave a comment, and I will update the post.)

The Big Birthday

As I mentioned in my last entry, Patrick came. He had a birthday, and we celebrated by going to a restaurant and having pizza.
Of course, pizza here is different than in the US, so we introduced him to two new (to him) “flavors” of pizza. First we had chicken and catupiry (a creamy type of cheese) pizza, and finished up with a banana and cinnamon pizza. The second was exceptional in my mind, but both were good.

Afterward we had ice cream (!!). It was a very enjoyable evening.

Here are the photos from the evening. They include notes about some of what happened, as well.

I have gotten a few questions in the past weeks from people who have missed an entry, or two. If this was you, its great that you asked me, but I thought I would give a couple of tips on how this blog (and many others) works:

A blog is a web page that is meant to be updated frequently. So, the newest material is on top–if you want older entries, you have to go to another page. There are two ways to get to other pages; the first is to click on the entry title under “Previous Entries.”

The second way to find old entries is to find the “Archives” menu on the right, and click on a month. All the entries from that month will show on one page.

Have fun exploring!

Quick Note

Just thought I would let you know that I have now updated the flikr page with more photos from Nádya's birthday.

Enjoy!

Nádya's Birthday

Yesterday was Nádya's birthday, and we had celebration quite similar to my birthday. There was cake and soda, but most importantly, there was family.
Nádya works on Saturday mornings, and her friends there had a breakfast to celebrate with her. They brought gifts as well, and the flowers below are from that occasion.

We spent the afternoon getting ready for the evening celebration. Nádya's mother made a cake, and we all cleaned the house.

Allan and Hérika came over with Yluska (they are caring for her at the moment), and the party began. Here are some of the pictures I took last night. If you are interested in more pictures, you can find them at our flikr account. At the time I am writing this, they are not up yet, but they will be within the next day or two.

Here is the situation with Nádya's visa:

I think I have mentioned before that there was a problem with the paperwork when I submitted my forms to become a lawful permanent resident here in Brasil. I am still waiting for that paperwork to finish its return trip to me. At that point I will then re-submit the documents for approval. Only once I get this approval can we attempt to apply for Nádya's visa to the US. After we apply, it will be a few months before we can actually go.

We are not sure of the timeline here, as everything is dependent on so many variables, but we are really praying that God will pave the way for us to be back by my brother's wedding in May. Please pray with us.

I will keep you updated with further developments, and I appreciate all those of you who have asked about it recently (yay you haven't forgotten me!).

An Age Passed

I am truly fortunate and privileged to be surrounded by such loving, and caring people--especially my wife. Their sacrificial love for me was humbling yesterday, as we celebrated my birthday.

My parents put a package in the mail before Christmas. Somehow, as I woke up yesterday, I had a premonition that it would arrive. It came in the afternoon, and was addressed as a birthday gift. I was very excited to open it, but decided that I would wait until Nádya got home to open it. I knew from certain clues that there would be peanut butter in there, but I had not dreamed of anything else.

I opened the bottom of the box because that is where customs opened it. “Whole wheat flour? Chocolate chips? Peanut butter (two jars!!!!)! Oatmeal?”

Once I looked at the card and letter, I understood: Chocolate chip cookies!!!!

Nádya's mom made me a huge cake, while she was making the second part of it, the electricity went out, so she had to mix it by hand. It turned out wonderfully. Nádya (I helped too) made a pizza.

I also got a Bible in Portuguese from my wife: She rocks. Nyna got me something too, but I will only tell you what it was if you twist my arm. Really hard.

Below are the pictures from the party. I think the only new people to you are Pastor Santana, his wife, and his son. It was an honor to have them here.