and the journey comes to an end...

So I'm back in Georgia for good for now. I went back to Brazil the end of October through November. I had a wonderful time staying with Rafa's family for 3 weeks and having my parents visit the last 2 weeks.

Here's some pictures of my time in Brazil before my parents got there. I got to spend a lot of time with Rafa and her family, the Second Baptist church in Morretes, and visiting the children's home where I was helping before.

This is how you ride a bike in Brazil! 

I love them! We were at a concert for Davi Sacer

more people I love and miss dearly

Ok and now a little about my time in Brazil once my parents arrived. I was beyond excited for my parents to come to Brazil! We started out our trip in Foz where we saw the Iguaçu Falls(some amazing waterfalls on the border of Brazil and Argentina) It was amazing!! Pictures can't do it justice but I'll post a few here.

After our time in Foz we spent a few days in Curitiba, a city that will forever be close to my heart. That's where I took my very first mission trip to Brazil!

And finally we spent the last few days in Morretes where I spent 6 months of my life. My dad got to do a photoshoot for my friend Rafa :)

My parents with Rafa, her mom, grandmother, and cousin :)

Anddd I got to bring my Brazilian dog Blackie home with me! It was super complicated but we made it!! YAY

Well, I've been back for over a month now. I jumped right back into working at the YMCA with the after school program. It has been going pretty well. I'm now waiting to hear back from UGA on whether I got into the Masters in Social Work Program. (I really hope I do!) For now my journeys to Brazil have been brought to an end but Brazil will forever be a huge part of my life. I hope that I will be able to visit and keep in touch with the people there for the rest of my life.

I wanted to thank everyone again who supported me in this journey whether it was financially or through prayer for me as I was gone. Everything was not at all as it was planned to be in the beginning but God had other plans.... and I thank you all who supported me through this time. I could not have done it without you!

Brittany

Ok here's a long overdue update.
Sorry it has taken me so long. Things got super busy when I got back to GA. I started working a summer camp at a YMCA and still have 2 more weeks left.
Things with Brazil have changed a lot(like always) but God is in control. I'm going back to Brazil in October and staying until the end of November. The missionary family who I was living with is moving back to the states and possibly relocating to another country at some point. When I go back to Brazil, I am going to go stay a few weeks with my Brazilian friend Rafa's family, and then my parents are coming to visit for the last two weeks! I am so excited that they will get to visit. I have always wanted them to get to go to Brazil because it has always been so close to my heart since I went there in 2007. I am also really excited about getting the opportunity to live with a Brazilian family for 3 weeks. I spent a lot of time with them before, but this will be an even deeper learning experience.
So, that's the update for now. I know God has a plan and a reason for why things have changed with Brazil many, many times. I really appreciate all the prayers as I have been trying to discern what it is that God wants me to do.

KONY 2012

If you haven't watched this already... take some time and watch this!

life back in Morretes

I got back to Brazil on January 20th after spending a little over a month at home. It was so great to spend the holidays in the states, but I was excited to get back to Brazil as well. I can't believe it's almost time for me to leave again.

We've spent some time at the children's home, helping the mom's around the house, teaching English classes to the children, and helping with a yard sale.  I've experienced a few different cultural events since I've been back- including two different birthday parties and a Brazilian concert. Birthday parties in Brazil always include lots of food which of course I love :) I'm still spending a lot of time with Rafa (one of my good friends here) and her family. They help me a lot with Portuguese and learning about the culture. I've also spent more time with some the of youth from the Baptist church. It's been great hanging out and getting to know them better.

playing volleyball with the Baptist church

people from the church 

beautiful view in Morretes, Brazil

my bike (I always wanted a bike with a basket) 

the river down the road from our house

Fernandinho's concert in Paranagua

Last week, I visited one of my old Portuguese professors from UGA. She lives in a beautiful city called Florianópolis (about 5 hours from Morretes). I had a lot of fun staying with her family and getting to see some of the city.

the beautiful city

surfing class... so much fun :)

In about a week and a half, I'll be heading back to the states. I still don't have any news about my visa documents that I've been waiting on. I'm not sure if I'll get them in time to apply for a new visa or not. So, I don't know what's going to happen with that or when I can come back. All I can do is pray because it's not in my hands. And I ask all of you to please be praying about that too. I want to follow what the Lord wants me to do, whether He has more for me here or if there's something else He has in store for me.
Again, thank you for all your support and prayers. I honestly could not be here without you guys.

holidays in the states

My time in GA has flown by. I have one more week before I head back to Morretes, Brazil. I've really enjoyed spending time with my friends and family here. I've spent a lot of time in Athens... since that's really where I spent my last four years while at UGA. I've missed Athens soo much. It's been great catching up with everyone. So many of my friends have moved on, starting jobs and internships in other cities and states. It's crazy how much can change in one semester.

Last week, I went to Passion 2012 in Atlanta. It was amazing! It was so great to be in the Dome with 44,000 other people worshipping our God. There were some great speakers and awesome worship. The whole focus of the week was to bring awareness of sex trafficking. We raised over 3 million dollars to help free girls who have been forced into this type of slavery!! God is so great! He is going to use that money to rescue so many innocent girls and to help them start a new life. I pray that He would continue to bring awareness around the world about sex trafficking, that He would allow those girls to feel Freedom in Him, and that He would bring an end to this slavery!

Update on Brazil: My plans for Brazil have changed about 5 times since I left for Brazil last August. I was planning to come back right now and apply for a new visa that would allow me to stay in Brazil until August 2012... but I guess God has other plans in mind. If it were up to me, I would have already applied... but it's not in my hands. I've been waiting on some paperwork from Brazil to get here before I can apply for my visa. I just found out a couple days ago that there's no way I'll get those papers before I head back to Brazil next week. So, I'm going back to Brazil on January 18th and will return in the middle March because I only have two months left on my current visa. Then, hopefully, I'll have everything to be able to apply for my new visa in March. I know it will all work out how it's supposed to. God has been showing me that His hand is in all of this even though it's been really crazy.

The downside is that it takes between 3-6 months to process this type of visa, so I could end up waiting in GA for months. I'm trying to keep in mind that God knows what He's doing and that He has a reason for switching up the plans on me.
The upside is that I'll get to be in two of my best friends' weddings, Ashton Allen's on March 17th and Haley Ridgeway's on May 12th :) I cannot wait to spend their big days with them!! So, that's definitely an exciting part of all this craziness.


Please be praying for guidance and patience as I try to discern what it is God is doing with all this. Please pray for me, Steve, and Shannon as we plan out classes and activities for the children in the children's home. Also, pray for the people in the church and the city of Morretes that they would all come to know Christ and experience His grace.

As always, thanks for the prayers and support. I wouldn't be able to do this without you :)

more about my life in Brazil

I've been in Morretes for over two months now. It's been a lot harder for me to adjust to life in this city. I'm still learning the culture and adjusting to small town life. We've gone exploring around Morretes which is always fun. One day, we went on a 3 hour bike ride just looking around for cool rivers and waterfalls. Here's a few pictures from this adventure.

Steve, Shannon, and the kids :)

 me, Caleb, and Naomi

 waterfall

I'm still meeting with Rafa to study Portuguese and to help her with English. That has been such a blessing. I've been picking up on so much more Portuguese from spending time with her and her family... even though there are so many days when I feel like I know nothing.

 Paola, me, and Rafa

 

mattress sliding in Rafa's house

me in downtown Morretes

train tracks going over the river

I just went back to Curitiba on Friday and stayed with my friend Heloisa's family. It was so great to see them again. While I was in Curitiba, I went to see a cool show downtown with orphans singing. There was an orphan in every window of a huge bank singing.. so cool.

HSBC bank (before the kids came out)

me and Heloisa

So, things are going great. Yes, it's been challenging in so many ways, but God has constantly filled me with a peace about being here. These past few weeks, I've seen that God's at work even when I don't realize it. He's called me here to love on His people and to jump into life with them.

I go back to the states in one week. I'll be home for about 5 weeks and then coming back here in January. I can't believe how fast these 4 months have flown by. I'm really excited to see everyone and to spend Christmas and New Years at home (although it would be pretty awesome to experience those holidays in Brazil).

Thank you all so much for all your prayers while I've been here!
See you all VERY soon :)

Getting settled in Morretes

Wow I've already been in Morretes for a month. Sorry I haven't written on here in a while. It has been a crazy journey here. Here's just a couple of the obstacles we faced as we arrived.
    After getting all of our stuff moved in, we realized our house was infested with carrapatos (in English we call them TICKS) Literally, thousands of ticks covered the outside of the house. It was crazy. Steve said he thought the outside of the house was just really dirty... until he realized that all the "dirt" was moving!
So, that has been a challenge since we first got here. Luckily, we found out that these ticks aren't like our ticks back home. These ones are a specific kind of tick that carries a couple diseases for dogs. Poor Blackie was covered in them the first few days. I picked about 80 off of him the first day and another 50 the next couple days. (He sleeps in my bed so I've been checking him every day.) Steve has treated the walls and grass to kill the ticks, so it's so much better but we haven't conquered them all yet.
   Our next obstacle has been with our water. The people who lived in the house before us abandoned the house and didnt pay the last couple water bills. We thought this all got resolved until one day we woke up and the water was turned off. Luckily we got it back on that night but Steve had to pay the charges that the previous renter didn't pay. It doesnt really make sense but that's how they do things here... If we wanted water, we had to pay his fines. Thankfully we have water now but it hasn't been running the same since before it got turned off that day. We've had a lot of problems with the pressure and trying to get warm water.

    Enough with that stuff... everything hasn't been all bad. It has been a huge adjustment for me to move here but things are going good. The city is way different than Curitiba. Curitiba is a huge city with about 2 million people living there. Morretes is really tiny and there's not a lot to do... but it's gorgeous. It's in a valley surrounded by mountains and a big river running through the middle of the city. Here's a couple pictures of the river in the downtown area so you can see what I'm talking about.

    We've spent some time at AMAS(the children's home) playing with the kids and helping with some English classes. I've also met a sixteen year old girl named Rafa who wants to learn English. We've started to meet twice a week. She is helping me Portuguese and I'm helping her with English. It has been great spending time with her and her family. I feel like I've learned so much already from her.

me and Rafa

 the kids found a massive snail in our yard. Naomi said it was "Hu-normous!"

 the kids singing at church for Dia das Crianças (Children's Day)

me and Blackie :) gotta love him

We also just got back from a couple days in São Paulo to get baby Jordan's American passport. We went to an aquarium and Starbucks :)

 Naomi and Caleb at the aquarium

in front of Starbucks

goodies sent from my parents for me, Blackie, and the kids :) Caleb wanted in the pic but I couldn't get him to stop playing with the silly putty they sent

Ok and a random story...
So I normally try to spread my money in different places so I'm not keeping it all together. I had just taken out money from the bank the day before so I decided it would be good to split it up. I opened my purse and ALL of my cash was gone! I kinda freaked out and said, "Steve... ALL of my cash in GONE!" Steve, Shannon, and I were already trying to think of all the places we had gone the past couple days and how it may have been stolen, but we couldn't think of a logical explanation. Then it dawned on me that the kids had just been playing in my room and my purse was on my bed. I thought, there's no way they took it out but I might as well check. Shannon looked outside, and the kids were out there playing with all my money!
I felt relieved even though it wasn't good that we have some little thieves in our our house... haha. I'm really glad that's where my money really was though.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. I'll try and update soon as we start getting busier in Morretes and helping out with the kids at AMAS.