The Little Things

I've told you all a lot about the strange and the difficult here in Brazil, but it hasn't all been strange and difficult. There have been quite a few exciting things.

• In our marriage, we have shopped for furniture one time, and I don't know if you could call it "shopping".  It was a "let's just run in here and see if they have anything in their discount room", and we walked away with a used couch and love seat. Moving here, we did not bring any furniture with us, so for the first time in our marriage, we were able to go actual furniture shopping. The kind of furniture shopping where you get to go and pick whatever you want... in your budget of course. So that was a big thing to me. A shopping spree that you don't have to feel guilty about because you literally have to shop! What's not to love??

• My three year old with a very expensive favorite food, steak, get's to have that favorite food quite often actually. Steak is not expensive here, and when you have a group of people over for dinner, it is common to do what is called a churrasco. A churrasco is when you grill a bunch of meat including steak. So, my three year old gets her steak pretty often here. 

A churrasco we had for labor day. 

• Learning another language means that whether we are in Brazil or in America, we are going to know a language that most of the people around us don't know. Which means we can have a private conversation without being in private. We all have that "honey, I'm ready to leave look" that the honey doesn't always catch, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to just say "let's go" without the fear of offending someone?? Now I will be able to. It's the little things. 😏

• In Brazil, not much is withheld from children. You don't tell them no, you don't take things away from them. If they come up for their fifth piece of cake at the church fellowship, you give it to them. That's just how it is. While I am not for that, it does have it's perks. For instance, there are checkout lines at every store that are for mothers with young children. There are also playgrounds at nearly every restaurant, including nice ones. So, you can go on a date and still have something for your kids to do.  Also, at a shopping center there is usually a place where you can "rent" a stroller.. for free. They also have a whole area for mother's with babies. There is a place to nurse, changing table, and even a place to give your baby a bath. These are not your typical restroom areas either, it almost looks like a nursery in someone's home. So, there are perks. 
  
• Playing at a restaurant playground

• Lastly, being in Brazil we have been able to see God work in ways like never before. In getting our house, He worked out details that only He could fix. He also worked out for us to go to a language school near another missionary, so that we are not alone and we have someone we know to care for our kids. One of my biggest fears was that we would have to go to language school and put our kids in a daycare with people who we didn't know and who didn't speak any English. I know kids are resilient, but that would have been incredibly scary for both them and myself. It's been amazing to see God work out details before we even ask sometimes. 

Some of these may not seem big to you, but they're blessings in our eyes. Everyone has those little blessings that wouldn't mean anything to anyone else. What's yours?