Thanksgiving in Sao Paulo

This Thanksgiving may have been one of the most "exotic" ones we've ever had! Starting with the taxi ride, followed by two subways, then ending with our friend picking us up at the subway to take us home in his car! The food was AMAZING - as Thanksgiving should be. Of course, there are something classics that aren't possible to have overseas, but it was fabulous none the less. (I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the feast!)

My parents arrived on Wednesday night! What a amazing reason to be Thankful. They've come to be in Brazil the entire holiday season.  Just in time for Thanksgiving. For Christmas we'll be at my grandmother's house. It's been a dream of my moms for a long time for our family to gather with my extended family. This year, we get to do so!

Also another reason to be thankful is the Matthews family. We came across them online while preparing to move to Brazil. They are missionaries here in the Eastern part of Sao Paulo. Since moving here, we've developed a sweet friendship with this family. We were so grateful for the invitation to spend Thanksgiving with them.

There are hundreds of things I could list here on the thankful list, but in the interest of time, I'll end with being thankful for the camera mom and dad brought us! Enjoy the pictures!

Waiting for the train on our way to the Matthews



Yay for Mema!

Snack on the train is almost a must!

Chatting it up with Vovo!

 

Snuggles!

So thankful for these linked hands!

Dad in front of the sign for the new stadium for the world cup
2014 "Começa Aqui" (begins here)

Austin and Abigail (just a few months apart in age)

look at those eyes :)

Abigail reading to the boys - so sweet

Nothing like having a gradma around!

kids and dessert - shear bliss

Pierces and Matthews

 

Spontaneous playdate

We had a impromptu playdate with the White family after Moments for Mom. This family is quite an international family. Michelle and her husband both have Brazilian mothers. Michelle's father is from England. Her husband's father is from Belgium. They have lived in England, Africa, Belgium, and Brazil. I may be missing some places of residence for this family. Matthew, their five year old, speaks Portuguese, French, and English. They also have Sophie who is two and they are expecting another baby any day. We had a blast at their house. The boys loved playing with Matthew and Sophie. Michelle and I had sweet fellowship too. It's amazing how when you are bonded by faith in Christ, friendship comes quickly and naturally. Here are some pictures of our day!

Boys being boys! Shirts off for a stroll in the "forest"

 

Jonathan doing what he does best - running :)

Jonathan and Sophie - she's helping Jonathan's booboo feel better

Snack time :)

Saying our goodbyes - what a super fun time!

Different

I've been thinking recently about how different life is for us here in São Paulo. In many ways, Id say life is harder. But the reality is it's so very different. I've learned that there is so much value to memories, so I wanted to make note of some of these things.

 

Washing clothes

Dryers are not common here so you have to hang all of our clothes to dry. In some ways it's great because all our clothing gets special care. In other ways it's very difficult when the availability of your clean laundry depends on good weather for them to dry!

 

 

Freezer Defrost



Our freezer requires a periodic (approximately every 4 weeks) defrost. This is not an issue for every Brazilian, just those with a small fridge/freezer like what's in our current apartment. Our freezer is one of those that's a tiny compartment above the fridge. Given this, ice builds up and eventually will take over the entire space if you let it. The the defrost is required. What does this involve you ask? Taking out everything in the freezer. And standing there for 45min-1 hour with a blow dryer to melt/remove the built up ice. Here's the sink full of ice after the last defrost. Good thing for podcast that keep me entertained during the process!

 

Cleaning the floors

The way floors are cleaned here is incredibly thorough. You throw water with cleaner on your floor. Scrub the floor with a broom then use a squidgy the water into the drain. At the end you wipe the floor down with a floor rag.





These differences pictured are some of the harder things in life here. But there are some differences that are really neat. For instance, we have a bread man that comes to our building two times a day with freshly baked bread. He comes at 7am and at 5pm. Several different options of bread, hoagie rolls, french bread, sausage bread, even sweet bread with chocolate filling! I know I'll miss the pharmacies that deliver. Pharmacies are not just for meds though - I just put in an order for shampoo, conditioner, face wash, cotton balls, and lotion. All delivered to my door! Another thing I have come to love is the way Brazilians love to spend time together. People here are always in pursuit of sharing a meal. Often time we will gather early to hang out before lunch, then stay awhile after lunch, before you know it, it's time for dinner. Might as well share dinner together also! It's a joy to live life in community!

I'll close with one of my favorite differences. The "feira" (farmers market). It's a part of the culture. There are farmers markets everywhere throughout the city. They are typically weekly. This is no mesly shopping occurance. At our farmers market you can get such a variety of things. Fruits and veggies are a given. But also available are, nuts, breads, species, meat, chicken, fish, pots, pans, household goods, DVDs...I'm sure there's more! The quality of the food is incredible! The prices are fantastic. What's really neat too is that the selling the goods are always the same. They remember you and even what you typically purchase. Have I mentioned I love community?!?!? Here's a picture of our Tuesday farmers market, just a 5 minute walk from home.

Pictures by request!

Since being in Sao Paulo, it seems like every time I turn around, something breaks. My computer has been in the shop twice in the 3 months we've been here (and is still not working properly). My cell phone simply died. The glass top to our stove completely shattered. Daily a knob falls off of some cabinet in our apartment. Our kitchen sink leaks regularly. We had a hole in our stroller tire...I really could go on. Among these broken things, was our camera.  Thus the lack of pictures lately. The pictures we've been able to take have been with my itouch. This picture post is by request for Aunt Martha! These are from this past Saturday morning at the park. Aaron and I worked out, the boys played!

Learning to do the monkey bars!

Climbing trees

watching roly poly

Jonathan has a new found love for this hat. He asks to wear it ALL THE TIME. And the only way to wear it is backwards!

helping daddy with his abs!

taking care of the roly poly

Novidades de São Paulo (News from São Paulo) - by Aaron

This was actually written end of October, but I neglected to post it earlier! Sorry!

 

Greetings family and friends!

 

Most of you are about to fall back while we sprung forward last week. Our past month has presented some challenges - a series of illnesses and final exams. However, it has also been a time to deepen some of our new friendships and rejoice in God's faithful provision. I finished my first quarter at FGV and have begun a new quarter. My new classes are stimulating more ideas about future work, particularly with regards to international development/social entrepreneurship. Joyce's Bible study group is going strong, the boys are becoming great friends, and the weather continues to fluctuate wildly. We also mailed our absentee ballots this past week (Joyce's first time to vote as an American citizen!). With that brief summary, I've chosen three things to highlight from the past month...

Cidade Tiradentes

Approximately 1 million people live in the neighborhood Cidade Tiradentes here in SP. Yes, that's right, it's a neighborhood near the eastern edge of the city of SP. Since our arrival, we have become friends with a missionary family that has been planting churches in Tiradentes for the past several years. A few weeks ago, I got to tour the neighborhood and learned that it is one of the poorest and most dangerous parts of the city. It is the home of Brazil's largest organized crime group and the largest public housing development in Latin America. It is a favela (slum) in which the government built thousands of housing projects that cover the hillsides everywhere you look to replace the shacks and small homes built by the area's squatters. There are still thousands more "irregular" homes/shacks as the neighborhood continues its rapid growth. As I saw the expanse of the neighborhood, which also includes a massive juvenile detention center, my mind raced...what are the solutions for a place like this?

Nine

Nine years ago, on Oct. 19, 2003, I had the joy, privilege and responsibility of becoming Joyce's husband. When we first met, I was interviewing candidates for a pioneering mission team in Northeast Brazil. She was the ideal candidate - mature, wise, composed, spirited and fluent in Portuguese. I was reluctant to select her for the team because I felt she would be a distraction to me, but my director insisted that she had to go. Sure enough, Joyce thrived on the mission field in uncertain and even risky situations and proved to be a great asset to the team. A year and a half later, I made sure that she would always be by my side when I made her my wife. These past nine years have taken us from Florida to Brazil to Texas to New York and now back to Brazil. I am incredibly grateful for the gift of a woman with whom God has united me for these adventures and look forward to many more to come.

Could You Endure Strep Throat for Four Months?

Last week I came down with a bad case of strep throat. It was the worst illness I've had since catching dengue a decade ago. My fever lasted three days, my throat ached for a week, and I could barely talk, eat or sleep. This experience helped me appreciate the incredible struggle my dad has gone through over the past several months fighting throat cancer. I am certain that my symptoms were a mere taste of what he endured for at least four months while going through and recovering from his chemo/radiation treatments. He is a warrior who has battled through a lot of pain this year. He is on the upswing now and I am confident that he will vigorously embrace the life that God has granted him.

Psalm 119

For the past several weeks I've been starting my prayer times with a few stanzas of Psalm 119. The entire psalm is a profound declaration of the value of God's Word. The following is just a tiny, but beautiful, sample: "I long for Your salvation, Lord, and your law gives me delight. Let me live that I may praise you and may your word sustain me." (vs.174-175)

May you all be blessed with purpose and joy until we meet again. Go vote!!!

With love,

Aaron Pierce

Pierced not Poked

After having a conversation with a friend, I felt compelled to go back and read the very first post I wrote on this blog. When I learn a lesson, I want to be pierced by it, not merely poked. You see we've been praying through and processing our options for what do to come August 2013 when Aaron is done with grad school. The journey has been WILD. It's been HARD. But it's also been packed solid with lessons that I don't want to lose. I don't want to walk away from this time into a different season and leave behind what the journey has taught me. The reality is, I'm afraid, I'm not the same person I was prior to this crazy adventure. But what have I learned, what is different, what does it mean for who I am going forward? A dear friend that says you cannot live in what you used to be. If you've learned a lesson, you have to live in light of that, because that is who you now are. Hummm.... So I am asking myself, what are those lessons? I have a long way to process, but I'm beginning it here because I want something to come back to. I want it written down. I want you to read it to help hold me accountable to live in the lessons I've learned. May I be a good steward of this straining, exciting, exhausting, yet life giving journey our little family of four has been on. So here's a start...

Not having a car connects you to community

But a car would have kept us from knowing "Tio Davidson" who runs the pet store on the corner. We would have missed out on so many smiles and entertainment from the tire store down the street where the boys love to watch the guys work.We wouldn't know our gatekeepers as well. The boys would miss out on the homemade biscotos (cookies) one of them regularly makes for our family. I wouldn't have shared tears and received encouragement in motherhood from Dona Beatrice who's raised 3 kiddos of her own.

Needs verses wants can be so relative

One day Aaron and I were pushing our stroller on horrific side walks here in Sao Paulo. I couldn't help myself. As humbling as this was to say this, I was compelled, "Aaron, shame on me for thinking the civic was too small for our family when we lived in Texas. Shame on me." You see this is something I said (nagged?) fairly regularly to Aaron after having Jonathan. The truth is our civic was plenty big for our family.

A simplified schedule unites brothers (family)

I have never been the homebody time. I like to get out and about. I love being outside. I love being with other people. Sao Paulo has slowed us down. The weather is constantly changing. Rain could come at any minute. Traffic is incredibly difficult and going somewhere typically means at least two modes of transit (a bus and a subway, two buses, etc). All these things have kept us home a lot more- not by choice! It has been such a gift to see how this has developed Austin and Jonathan's relationship. They are buds. They share such joy in one another. Even around others, they stick close together.  

 

My first role - Woman before my Lord 

I have said for a long time, I have to be woman before my Lord before I can be anything to anybody else - wife, mom, cook, house cleaner...etc. These two years have made me put this concept to practice in a significant way. There's no way I can meet the demands that come at me daily without processing them with God first. I heard a man I deeply respect address this. Someone asked him, how can you get up at 5am and still do all you do in a day. He answered by saying it's because he gets up at 5am to be with God that he is ABLE to do all he needs to do. It's through in coming face to face with God Almighty in His Word that I receive the strength that ENABLES me to live in the day to day.

 

 

Even as I re-read this I am kneely aware that these lessons only skim the surface of things life has taught me. I need to think on this more. I need pinpoint what I can gather from these crazy adventures and hopefully allow the lessons to shape me.

 



Heart Filled Bedtime

Our bedtime routine is very...well routine! It looks the same every evening. We brush teeth, take baths, get dried and dressed, go read books, pray, get into bed, tell a quick story, kisses to each of the boys, then lights off. What happens afterwards is often entertaining, sometimes endearing, and if gone too long frustrating! A friend once told me that she believed sharing a room is where brothers turn into friends. So we tend to give the boys some freedom to chat, sing, and tell stories to one another. The rule is that you must stay in your bed. For several nights soon after we lay the boys down to sleep, Jonathan thinks it's a good idea to hop up, turn on the light, and go get books. One night we even found him on the top bunk with his brother. He knows good and well, that's not an option! So we've tried to buckle down a bit and help him understand the limits more clearly!

Of course, there is always a good story to how things go down. One night, I heard the what sounded like the light switch. I looked at the bottom of the door and sure enough, the light was on. I quickly hopped up and opened the door. Jonathan was startled at my quick and sudden appearance (he'd not been caught this quickly before). Like a dear in the head lights, as quickly as he could get it out of his mouth he said, "BUT I wost (lost) my tisses (kisses)!!!!"

I froze. For starters I needed to hold back the laughter welled up inside. But I also needed a moment to figure out how to respond. Do I reprimand? Do I laugh? Do I help him "find" his kisses by kissing those round little cheeks again? Or do I offer him high fives and fist bumps for such incredible spontaneous wit?

This child will keep us on our toes. He is mischievous and incredibly caring. He is charming and captivating as he tests the boundaries set for him. He is witty and loves affection. I can only imagine what he'll be like at 8, 15, 23 if he has this much personality at 2 years old! His life promises great adventure ahead! I feel privledged to be his momma!