November Sunday Funday

Our weekly vlog (this week we have two):

and

(This was catching up from when Jessica was sick)

We will be back in the USA next month, and things are rolling quickly! I am moving from "Let's figure this out" phase to "Let's get this done." You can tell from all my blog posts recently, as I am trying to finish processing 15 years of serving in Brazil...it seems like a good milestone to do it:). Bascially, the end result was summed up here, in my "What Missions Means to Me" Series (It also has a video). 

It was a lovely week, as we celebrated Jeff's birthday instead of Halloween, and November 2nd is the Brazilian holiday Dia dos Finados, which is basically like day of the dead but without all the cool makeup and music (but they do have the flowers)! Jessica is all better health-wise, which makes life much easier on everyone, and she officially has her first words (we don't count them until they are repeated enough to know they aren't an accident)! 

While Sofia's first words were in English (we were having bets on which language she'd speak first), and the very common "Da-da" (he was very proud), Jessica's first words are also in English, but are "Hi" and "Bye." Yep. We are always telling her to tell people "Hi" and "Bye" on Skype and Facetime with family, and whenever Daddy leaves in the mornings...and now she regularly does it. Does this say something about being a third culture kid?!?

Reads from the Interwebs:

1. Rethinking the Language of Short Term Missions: I have posted many things with this general idea before, but this just keeps coming up, and I think is really important, and is something I am continually evaluating to see what I can do, and what changes I need to make. 

2. Unprotected: This is a very long, secular investigation into an NGO. I read it with a heavy heart, because so many good ideas and good intentions can go wrong so quickly. I am constantly reminded that "But for God's grace, there go I..." This is a hard read, but important for those working in NGOs, especially if you don't have a (actual working) child protection policy in place.