Beach Sunday Funday

I am really looking forward to a short trip to the beach. While we live an hour and some away from the ocean, circumstances this year have hindered us from having any beach time (biggest hindrance: I am stingy. With time and money). Ana hasn't been to the beach since she was three months old, and I am pretty sure she loves eating sand, so we are going to have a blast.
This week we enjoyed being in a country other than the USA, and November 9th was our 3rd anniversary, rather than "The day we found out who our next president would be."

We saw one of our core team families off, as they return to the USA for a bit, and then move to South Brazil. We will miss them terribly, but being used to good-byes, we hugged and smiled and waved and knew we'd feel the brunt of the change after this phase of transitions. Our lives are speeding up as we try to fit everything in that normally would happen over another year...

Reads from the Interwebs:

1. I read this last week, and it wouldn't get out of my head! SO TRUE! When you want a different life. 

2. I am not ignoring the USA completely. I have read plenty about it through social media. I am just not sure what to say. But this piece, about missions, seems to say it perfectly. Trump supporters--welcome to the world of missions to the culture of Hillary/Bernies! Hillary/Bernies--welcome to the world of missions to the culture of Trumpers! This 1963 quote from Max Warren is it: 

"Our first task in approaching another people, another culture, another religion 
Is to take off our shoes
For the place we are approaching is holy
Else we find ourselves
Treading on another’s dreams
More serious still, we may forget that God was there before our arrival.

We have to try to sit where they sit, to enter sympathetically into the pains and grieves and joys of their history and see how those pains and griefs and joys have determined the premises of their argument. We have, in a word, to be ‘present’ with them.”

3. For a minute I thought to myself "But I've never really been betrayed." Then I remembered. I tend to bury hurt pretty far down. When the ground swallows you.
4. So you are thinking about serving overseas? Send this to anyone you know thinking about this! There is no rule/guide book for missionaries, but this online community sure helps (and I wish I had it back in the day)!
5. The benefits of parenting in China. I want to put together a list of benefits of parenting in Brazil! While away from home, sometimes we forget there is good stuff too!