Sunday, March 23, 2014

A Year in Curitiba

In January we packed our car with our things and Mario made the long drive down to Curitiba with Lucas smashed into his car seat in the back! They took two days to get there, but had a good father-son time during the drive.
Danny and I came by plance 3 days later.
 
 It was not an easy adaptation from living on a big farm to a small closed in apartment...
 It’s good that the boys have each other. Here they are in their new room!



 This is the Curitiba, YWAM base where Mario is doing his study of the Bible, reason why we came to Curitiba for this year. The base also has an elementary school and preschool where Lucas is studying.



(Base cafeteria)

Mario’s studies have been very intense. It is an inductive study and he is required to read each book at least 5 times and do 5 different types of research to turn in about each book. He has already studied 10 book of the Bible since the end of January. 


 This is what his Bible looks like...I am so proud of him. He had been doing really well on all his reading and research. He has been pushing himself to do the most he can during the week so that we have time on the weekends to hang out with the kids and go to church.
We praise God because we have found a wonderful church that we can be part of this year. Lucas is enjoying his Sunday school very much. Here are the kids being prayed for before being sent of to their Sunday school classes.
We are lucky to have a great school on the base for Lucas. He has a wonderful gift for Wooing people. People may not remember my name, but they never forget his! Everywhere I go, at the base or in the apartment condo he greets everyone that goes by (boys with a hand slap then fist punch and girls with a kiss on the hand!).
 First day of school..
 Thumbs of for his new teacher!
 This is Abdiel his new best friend from Zimbabwe. He is actually almost 2 years older than him, but that doesn’t intimidate Lucas from leading his friend on their silly and sometimes dangerous adventures.


I am also decided to take a leap of faith and volunteer at Lucas school. I am teaching Christian Education classes to 1-4 grades every Friday. Another staff lady named Denise is helping look after Danny while I teach.
I keep forgetting to take pictures, but here is one I got of my first grade class.

Unfortunatly school here is only from 1-5pm so it can get pretty boring for Lucas in the apartment. We are making an effort to pay for extra curricular activities for Lucas. Every Tuesday Lucas has swimming lessons (which my mother-in-law is helping pay for) and Wednesday is Music lessons. It’s been very good to get out of the house and burn some of that energy which Lucas has an over-supply of!


Lucas’first day at Music school
 and here he is at home...
 Danny is also doing great. Surprisingly he seemed to be more affected by our move than Lucas and it took him several weeks to adapt. Just this last month 3 bottom teeth came out at once and now he has another one coming out on the top. (sorry, you can’t really see in the picture)
 He is a funny little guy with all sorts of expressions!

 He’s also got the crawling down and it looks like it won’t be long before we see his first steps!
Lucas is a wonderful big brother!

Before Mario began his studies we had some wonderful times as family in our sight-seeing adventures around Curitiba...
 This is Curitiba’s famous “Botanical Garden”

 I also have to mention our other son Jonas who is with us here in Curitiba doing his DTS (Discipleship Training School). We are so proud of how far this young man has come! He is doing very well in his studies and has made friends with all his classmates.


 I think this picture shows a little bit of his silly side...the ipad in his hand was a gift from another class mate who said he felt like God has asking him to give it up to Jonas. That just goes to show how God is restoring everything that was taken away from this boy in his past. What amazes me about Jonas is that he is always happy and grateful, I don’t see bitterness or anger in his heart and I think that is why God “set this boy aside” for a special purpose!

Another bonus about being in Curitiba this year is that I get to revisit and get to know some of my relatives that live here. A few weeks ago we went to visit my cousin René and his wife. They also have 2 sons about the same ages as our two boys.
Here is Lucas with his cousin (and new friend) Oliver.
 And to finish off here are just some fun pictures of our family...