A New Normal

It has been seven weeks since we first stepped off the plane in Marabá, suitcases loaded with life, hearts loaded with mixed emotions.

Since then we have begun to get accustomed to a new normal.  Sometimes that includes an iguana on your head while doing math.

Our day to day lives have developed a rhythm of work and homeschool, language lessons and getting to know the many, many children who come here to collect mangoes or fresh drinking water, play soccer or volleyball or to come to church.

We are blessed to have children who are brave, outgoing and resilient.  For the most part they have grabbed their new life by the horns and are enjoying the crazy ride.  Sometimes, however, the changes they have gone through over the last two years do show themselves in their behaviour.  After all, they are kids and we have just undergone a major life change.  We are surrounding them with love, boundaries and prayer while we ride out the ebbs and flows of adjustment.  If they cross your mind, would you consider praying for them too?

It's mango season!

As parents we question all the decisions we make in life that affect our kids, and seeing them upset is indeed unsettling, but we have to believe that the plan God has for us is also for them, for their lives.

Art and Cyndi have also moved here from Cambridge, in fact we lived on the same street for a number of years and now find ourselves neighbours again in a very different setting.  Their son David commented one day, "I wish I had grown up here".  Comments like that help put things into perspective.  That and seeing them surrounded by a group of local kids, playing and laughing, shooting mangoes out of trees, it all helps make us see the good in such a huge life change.

George and Faith 'share' a mango

The language is coming along, and as it does so do our relationships with the Brazilians.  We have begun to develop a friendship with the pastor Ivanildo and his wife Monica, using the language we have and translating apps on our iPhones we are making our way through conversations, having laughs and finding out some of the things we have in common.  It's encouraging to have this friendship develop, we know it will blossom as we gain more use of the Portuguese language.

We can definitely feel your prayers and appreciate all you have done and continue to do to help us continue here.