Many blessings.

Brace yourselves folks, this is going to be a LONG post! It is going to be long not because I just drank a cup of coffee but because I have amazing news. Wonderful news. News that makes me want to get up and do a cartwheel (had I not attempted to play soccer with other women two days in a row I might just attempt to do it!). Ok, perhaps it won't be near as exciting for anyone reading my blog as it is for me but that doesn't even matter...I'm just so excited for myself:-)

Before I tell you this fabulous news I must confess that I have been living in luxury for over a week now with a toilet seat! A friend stopped by who had just bought the cheap ol' regular round kind to see if it would work and sure enough it did. Hallelujah. I thank the Lord every time I get up in the middle of the night and have the pleasure of sitting down. I will never (ok, I probably will) take toilet seats for granted.

So onto my great news! We got two things today. Two wonderful things. I will list the not-as-spectacular thing first and then get onto the really great "thing" we acquired today.

So first, we got internet! After 13 phone calls and lots of haggling on the phone my dear husband was finally able to convince somebody with the internet company that we've signed up for internet access every day for two weeks. Two days later we now have dsl at home (hence the LONG post tonight as I can do it in the comfort of my present home). I don't even want to know how many hours Jonathan had to invest in phone conversations to make it happen but I am so glad he did! (I'm sure that if I were still here by myself we would just learn to live without internet).

Ok, the moment you've all been waiting for (at least the moment I've been waiting for!)........





Drum roll please.....




We bought a house! YES! We OWN a house! Three days ago we had no idea this was coming and the Lord has just placed this beautiful (and i mean beautiful) home into our laps. I don't even know where to begin except to tell you....we bought a house!

This house has been for sale for a while from a wonderful couple that is retiring to the States (he was Jonathan's art teacher). We even looked at this house in April when we were here with Kimmy for the week (to find a house to rent) yet we wrote it off as a possibility for us since we weren't even considering buying a house at that time and it seemed way out of our range financially (they actually had two houses together they wanted to sell but now they've separated them so that the cost is cut in half). They are even giving us a great deal since we can give them a dollar transfer, they want the house to be used in the ministry and also I'm sure they'd like to just bless us (they told us today they're so happy we'll be the ones moving into the home they've put so much heart and soul into). We were offered a few loans from supporters which ended up being just enough to put a big down-payment on the house and then pay the rest off in monthly payments.

The past 6 months has been a roller coaster for me emotionally. We were sure that the Lord wanted us to get financing for a house in the States that we could rent out while here in Brazil. Three houses I had my heart set on at different times but all three fell through (the last one fell through at the last step of financing and just a few weeks before we returned here!). Then we had the other house in this town that we thought for sure would be the "one". Three days ago I was finding contentment in staying in this rented house 'til the Lord said otherwise. Now I am beside myself to think that He is placing a house so much better than all of the houses we have already looked at! If you stuck all 5 of them in front of me I would most definitely choose this one. And wow, how awesome will it be to call something our home. We can do what we want with it and at the same time not be throwing money away on rent. Jonathan is a little nervous at this big step since it's such a big chunk of money (should I say our supporter's money) yet we both have a peace about it. An incredible peace about it. We really hope that this house will be used to bless many others besides just ourselves.

I'm only going to insert a few pictures here since I'll have fun spreading them out in different posts (and maybe after we move in so that you can see how the house looks with our stuff). But a few bonuses about the house include a separate one room/one bathroom guest facility. You can all come visit us and have your own little "casinha"! Another bonus is the pool...at first I didn't consider it a huge benefit but now I realize how fun Karis will have and how many opportunities we will have to bless others with it.

So here is a front view of the house (the pool is off to the right)

The main part of the house has 2 bedrooms/2 baths yet there is a separate room (off of a little court-yard area) that we plan to use as an office, etc. The room is big enough that we could use it as a guest room as well, if we wanted to. The house is oozing with charm (stole that description from a friend). I can't wait to show it off later!

Today after we took a walk-through of the house to make sure we really did sense a peace about it I spent some time painting some odds and ends pieces of furniture (to hide the dings). I was dreaming about the house, of course, but heard Karis say "mommy, come find me". I looked to the side and this is what I saw!

I said "oh, Karis, where did you go?"

"I'm under my hands" she replied. She did this a few more times throughout the day (covering her eyes with her hands). It is too funny. She used to do this before we moved but I thought she had grown out of it. Sometime I'll have to post a video we took of her today doing the same thing on her slide...

Anywho, the plans now are to move to our new, adorable, out-of-this-world home that I totally don't deserve beginning September 8th. If we can get totally moved in by the 15th then we won't have to pay another months rent here! That should be easy as our house is now organized and we've downsized from lots of junk we've held onto for a while.

I'm off to dream about the house...