Cheeseburgers In Portuguese Paradise

Do you like Cheeseburgers? I sure do! To me...the cheeseburger should have its own food group. I like cheeseburgers with bacon. I like cheeseburgers with jalapenos. Ketchup and mustard on a cheeseburger is an obvious classic. Cheeseburgers with egg are fabulous! And yes...I have had a few cheeseburgers with peanut butter on it and I very much enjoy them.

Last night, Kelci and I had a traditional Brazilian Cheeseburger! It had...bacon, cheese, mayonnaise (which is their #1 condiment), corn, peas, tomatoes, ham, egg, and maybe a couple other things too. I forgot to take a picture because I was too hungry, but here is one I found online. They also brought mayonnaise mixed with garlic to add as well and it was very good. Long story short, it was a little different but I loved it! It was quite yummy. Kelci for the most part liked it...though she would rather have her usual with cheese, tomato and mayonnaise.

The best part about dinner though was who we were with and the experience we had with them. Flavio França, the hired Brazilian evangelist, and his wife Fernanda took us and we had such a good time with them. Flavio speaks some English and Fernanda does not speak any English. However, we mostly spoke Portuguese at dinner. There were only a few times when we either had to move onto a different conversation because nobody was getting it or we had to use Flavio's translator on his phone. We talked about music, family, hobbies, and a lot in between and walked away knowing the França's much more. It was a great evening and a success for Kelci and I. It helped show us how God has already begun breaking the language barriers that we arrived with. And we look forward to many more meals, conversations, and the simple sharing of life with our current friends here and many new friends to come! Thanks for reading and everything else you do to support us!

-Kelly and Kelci

It's Just One Of Those Days...

I wanna start by saying that there are days like the one we had today everywhere you live. We all have "bad" days. So by no means am I complaining about the day we had today or saying that we did not expect there to be days like the one we had today. As a wise man once said..."Momma said there'd be days like this!" What I am trying to accomplish with this post is to simply let our friends and family and prayer warriors know how things can go sometimes. We are good, we by no means feel conquered or defeated, it was just one of those days! (Remember this song by Daniel Powter? I could never decide if I liked it or if it was just catchy.)

Anyways...today our plan was simple: look at apartments. We were hoping to look at 3 or 4 and then maybe walk around and see if we saw any others for rent that we had not seen online. We ended up seeing 1 and we didn't see it until close to 5pm. We went to the first place to get the key to a apartment we liked online and things seemed swell. It was available, we got the key and we headed to the complex. However, when we got there the guy at the gate said that we had the wrong key and sure enough he was correct. So we drove the 25ish minutes back to get the correct key only for them to tell us that they did not have the key and that another office (further away) did. So we decided to look a couple other apartments closer to where we were first. However, that didn't work for a myriad of reasons.

Our next decision was to go and get the correct key to the first apartment we wanted to look at. We called and it seemed promising, however, when we got there they had just given the key out to someone else. The key wouldn't be back for close to 2 hours, so that was out for the day. The next thing we did was to call on a different one (this was the first time we were able to talk to someone on the phone about this one). They said to come on by and get the key. We headed there, found a parking place (finally), started walking there and called again as we were walking there to confirm. However, they also had just given the key out to someone else and would not be back in time. So that also was out for the day.

Next, we walked to another office to get another key, got the key and we thought that we would finally see an apartment. It was probably close to 4 at this point. We drove to the area where this complex was, parked, walked to the apartment and they said they needed a paper from the realtor saying we were there to see the apartment. This was after we asked the realtor three times if we needed a paper and they assured us that we would not. They even said that there was no need to worry. We called the company and they sent "a thousand sorry's our way (their words in Portuguese of course)." We appreciated that, but it didn't do us much good at the time. But they said if we came back, they would have a paper. So we went back to their office, got the paper and we finally saw an apartment at close to 5pm!

However, we did have Domino's Pizza for dinner (it's buy one get one free on Tuesdays here). I was able to play basketball tonight and if you know me at all, you know how exciting that was for me. I met some new friends at basketball. And we were able to meet a lot of new people as we ran from office to office to office today! Better luck tomorrow! Thanks for everything guys! Love you all!

-Kelly and Kelci

The Hunt

Hey everyone! By now, I am sure you have seen a few of our posts on Facebook and Twitter and you know that we did arrive safely to Niteroi and are doing well! On Friday, we became official Brazilian Residents which is very exciting because it was quite the process. We spent all day Thursday gathering documents that we needed and the hope was to get the two documents we needed that day. However, Brazil had other ideas. Long story short, we visited 4 post offices, many government offices, the "policia federal" office many times (which btw is in a mall and Kelci never bought anything in the mall, there is a first for everything), a few banks, and a few other offices before we got our official documents on Friday. But we are good to go for a year and then we will have to re-apply. More on that
next year.

Right now, I would like to update you on The Hunt! And no...I am not talking about the hunt each night that we have as we search for mosquitos and other bugs to kill with are cool tennis racquet bug zapper thing (see picture). That hunt can actually be quite fun! I want to update you all on our apartment hunt. Up to this point we have seen 7 apartments. We saw two on Thursday after we did everything we could do document wise. Then on Saturday morning we saw 5 different apartments.

A quick synopsis on the apartment hunt in Brazil. We have been looking for apartments on websites here, that is the easiest way. When we find one we like, we take notes on it or write down the code for it so we can find it later. Also, that code or information will be needed to tell the real estate company which apartment you want to look at. Most times thus far we have had to visit the real estate company and get the key to the apartments we want to see. Sometimes they will give you all the keys you want, and sometimes they will not. It is then upon us to go look at the apartment(s) we want to see and typically there is a 2-hr limit to having the keys. So getting to see 5 apartments in 2 hours on Saturday really was some kind of miracle. The apartments are not always clean and they do not try to "sell" you on them nearly as much. Which is good in some ways but also bad in some ways. I do not think I can completely explain how different looking at apartments here and in the states is, so I'm not gonna try. It is not bad, just very different!

Needless to say, our apartment hunt in Brazil has been an experience. It is fun in a lot of ways, but it is also exhausting and frustrating in some ways. We have mostly enjoyed it but are ready and hopeful we will find our new home soon! Please continue to pray for us and our apartment hunt. Up to this point we have found 2 that we like, however (and very unfortunately) paperwork has already been submitted on both meaning that unless the paperwork is denied...we missed our chance on both. However, we have a list of other ones to go look at and we are confident we will find our new home soon. We will be on The Hunt tomorrow!

Love You All,
Kelly and Kelci

Help Wanted!! Puzzle Master Needed...

I can remember a few years back when school and work was cancelled for virtually everyone in the Edmond/OKC area because of weather. For like 3 days there were about 12 people holed up in our tiny apartment and we had so much fun! We played games, the guys played video games, we watched movies, we ventured outside some, we cooked big meals, and the patient people of the group did puzzles. If you know me and my friends at all, you might expect that the puzzle group was a small group. Not many people participated in the putting together of the puzzles that we had. My question the whole time was "how or when did we get puzzles?" I know I didn't buy 'em!

Kelci and I have started packing and we are in need of a Puzzle Master! We cannot pay much. We do not offer benefits. It is a seasonal job and there is no chance for the employee to stay on past the 18th of February (4.5 days!!!). Many people have asked if we are shipping anything over to Brazil and the answer is no. It is quite expensive and really not worth it unless you have really nice stuff which we do not. However, there is stuff that we want to take obviously. Some is sentimental to us. Some of the items are poorly made or very expensive in Brazil (like small kitchen appliances). And some we just gotta have (unfortunately my golf clubs do not fall in this category).

So we have 8 plastic Rubbermaid Action Packer Crates/Tubs and 2 large suitcases. These will carry
our livelihood overseas. It is quite stressful, quite intimidating, and quite frustrating at times. It is like a puzzle. We are trying to make everything fit and so we end up packing...and unpacking...and packing...and unpacking. We will have to do this until we either get everything to fit or until we realize that it won't all fit and then we will have to cut some stuff! It is like ONE GIANT PUZZLE! And for someone that is not a Puzzle Master, it's annoying. Luckily for me, Kelci likes puzzles and is good at them. We will get it all done, I know. But I'd ask that you please pray that I have patience with the process and that Kelci has patience with me. And if you just happen to love puzzles and are searching for a very short part-time job, let me know! Thanks so much everyone!

-Kelly

Brazil, Here We Come!

We finally got our visas! We are so excited that we are going to be on our way to Brazil on the 18th! We found out yesterday that our visas were approved, and we obviously had mixed emotions. Our first thought was mere excitement! We have been longing for this moment, praying for this moment, and anxiously awaiting this moment. After we had our moments of smiling from ear to ear, reality started sinking in. I know this journey started several months ago, but now we are so close to making our move to Brazil. Of course I started freaking out a little, realizing everything we have to get done in just a short week and a half. We have to finish packing, buy some last minute things we want to take (like Peanut butter and Dr. Pepper), say more goodbyes, and everything else that comes with moving to a different country!

We ask that you continue to pray for us as we continue in this journey, and all of our stress. I also ask that you pray for Chad and Micah Baker (the other couple going with us) and their visa process. They are supposed to leave the same date as us, and they have still not received their visas. Thank you all so much for your support, prayers, and love thus far in our journey! GOD IS GOOD!

-Kelci

You've Got A Friend In Me

Kelci recently saw the newest Disney movie, Frozen. She liked it...said it was good. However, she did say that for her it wasn't a Disney Classic. We began discussing some of the Disney Classics and some of the obvious ones came up: The Lion King, Aladdin, The Jungle Book, and of course Toy Story! There were many more. But for me, those ones are special. They are the Disney Classics I grew up on, loved as a child and still love to this day. 

For the movie Toy Story the song "You've Got A Friend In Me" was written by Randy Newman. This song is just real good. It might even be a song that emotionally stirs you in the right context. I have no shame in admitting that I have this song on my iPod and listen to it regularly. I would recommend you getting it too, it is just a perfect song. Here are the lyrics to the song. But go find it on YouTube or something and give it a listen.

You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

When the road looks rough ahead

And you're miles and miles from your nice warm bed

You just remember what your old pal said

Boy, you've got a friend in me

Yeah, you've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

You've got troubles, I've got 'em too

There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you

We stick together and can see it through

Cause you've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

Some other folks might be

A little bit smarter than I am

Bigger and stronger too

Maybe

But none of them will ever love you

The way I do, it's me and you boy

And as the years go by

Our friendship will never die

You're gonna see it's our destiny

You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me

You've got a friend in me 

Kelci and I are blessed to have some really good friends (and that includes our family). A week or so ago, some of our friends put on a going away party for us. It was the last time that we were going to be in Edmond and it was so good to get together and feel our friends' love, encouragement and support. It means the world to us to know that our friends are behind us in this new journey of our life. There is no way we could be embarking on this new chapter without you and we hope you know that.

We hope that you are as blessed as us by the friendships you have. This song has been coming to my mind over the past couple weeks because it really does hit home for us right now. I cannot stress enough how important our friends are to us. We may be miles and miles away from you...but we KNOW that we have a friend in all of you. We KNOW that you all are praying for us and thinking about us. We KNOW who we can call on when things get rough. We KNOW you would do anything for us. And we KNOW that our friendship will never die. We love you all! Thanks so much for blessing us with your relationships. We can only hope and pray that we find friends as special as you in Brazil.

"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship." - Thomas Aquinas

- Kelly and Kelci

Those Pesky Visas

We are drawing ever closer to our February 18th flight date. A little more than a month from now, we hope to be on an American Airline Flight from Dallas to Rio. Things are about to get crazy. We are spending some time with a couple churches that are supporting us over the next couple weeks and then will be heading to Colorado one last time to be with my family. We are looking forward to that.

This morning, however, we wanted to ask for your prayers. We have made our flights as I mentioned above. We are very close on our funding for 2014. One last thing remains...those pesky visas! The visa process for Brazil is tricky. We had no problem getting our tourist visas last year when we visited. But it is a totally different ball game when applying for a long-term visa. Our prayer is that we get our visas before February 10th. If we do not have our visas by then, we will be forced to discuss moving our relocation date and we REALLY do not want to move our date back again. I could go into how the Visa process works, but it will most likely just confuse you more. Just know that it is tricky and stressful. (To shed some light on its craziness...I had to create a Minister Ordination Certificate, have it signed by the elders at Park Plaza and turn it in with my application.)

So...please pray for a few things. Pray that we do in fact get our visas by February 10th. Pray that we do not have to move our date back again. Pray for the man who will be looking over our visa application and that his heart is softened towards us and our application. We could not be going to Brazil or be where we are now without your prayers, so thank you! We appreciate every one of you.

-Kelly and Kelci