opa!

reunited and it feels so good

Meet Kristy, Rachel and April...the girls I lived with the last year before moving to Brazil...We, along with about 15 other old-school friends, met up in Atlanta this past Saturday and had a blast catching up and just being together!!

pecado, arvores e jesus (sin, trees and jesus)

Comecei esse dia numa briguinha com minha colega de quarto. Acho que é a primeira vez que morei com alguem muito parecido comigo no fato que falamos o que pensamos e temos opinão bem forte sobre quase tudo.
A coisa boa é que temos em comum é que temos confiança suficiente entre nós pra poder brigar (discutir) sem muito medo. A coisa ruim é que talvez não sabemos quando já entrou no pecado (orgulho, querindo ser A Certa, etc). Então, foi assim que começou o dia. Depois, fizemos as pazes e isso foi bom. Deus é bom. Toda vez que já engoli meu orgulho, pedi perdão, confessando meu pecado na situação, Deus derramou muita graça e o relacionamento ficou melhor do que antes. Foi isso que Deus fez hoje :)

Bom, depois disso, montamos nossa arvore de Natal e ficou linda!!! Tudo parace Natal agora no apartamento e fico feliz demais de estar aqui no mundo onde tudo tá enfeitado de Natal. Sei que isso não tem nada a ver com Natal de verdade, mas me ajuda a lembrar do Natal de verdade...agora, olhando pra nossa arvore de Natal na sala (coisa esquisita fazer se for pensar bem, neh) fico pensando na arvore de verdade que tem tudo a ver com Natal. A cruz de Cristo onde Ele morreu pra meus pecados (inclusive meu orgulho que rendeu essa briga hoje) e me deu a vida dEle. Talvez seja facil esquecer de Jesus não só durante essa epoca de Natal mas dia após dia. Então por isso sou grata, até mesmo pelas brigas pois elas me fazem grata pela misericordia e perdão que tenho em Jesus e me fazem querer perdoar, amar e não brigar!

nonreligious thoughts on christian spirituality

that's the subtitle of this book i just started reading....

enjoying it so much that i'm already planning to give it to several people for Christmas.


most of all i'm enjoying it because i feel it...that deep, mysterious part of my soul that wants to be a writer or a poet you know; well that part of me is feeling it, relating to the author and his frustrations with life, christianity as we know it and mostly himself - his own self-righteousness, false christianity, sin, mis-representation of Jesus to the world, lack of compassion and action...

recommend it to anyone who likes a creative, oddly written read and who desires the real thing when it comes to Jesus.

lessons on grace

there's a lot i could say about these two eighty-ish year old cuties you see in this pic. i could tell you they are my ex-ex-step-grandparents. i could tell you about how great a cook she is. i could tell you about what a great and funny Vet he is. i could tell you about boat rides and weddings or the most wonderful laugh i've ever laid ears on. i could tell you about his current illness or her past ones...

but what i really want to tell you is exactly what i want to tell them someday...

these two little and great people taught me (rather showed me) more about grace than i could even begin to tell you. thank you Jesus for the simple yet profound things this couple has done to live out Your grace.

i bet they don't even know it.

if God wasn't sovereign...

or even if He was, but didn't remind me of that fact quiet often, i would go crazy or into a depressed funk and never come out.

That's the thought I pondered for a while on my escape back to Woodstock from Carrollton tonight. I realized that when I forget that fact and lose the perspective that He's in control AND good and, therefore, the world (especially the one of my family) is not on my shoulders, I get really, really, really drained. I get sad, worried, frustrated, hopeless and my survival mechanism is to run, run, run. Emotionally I am drained and have nothing to give to anyone, yet feel guilty for it because I've forgotten that it's not ME they need after all!

Oh, thankful, rested, at peace, sturdy in the storm, able to "stay" and love...that's what happens when I'm beleiving in the One who is in control and with that with an arm of love.

I failed again today, as I always do, at remembering this and relating to my family based on that simple and life-altering truth. God please help me to know it, not just in my head, but in my walk in life. Help me to rest in You and hang in there with others no matter how overwhelming their problems seem to me.

Home for the Holidays...let the eating begin!

with my baby brother and mother with my mom's baby brother (is there a trend here?)
ben "loving on" smokey joe

This is my first Holiday Season to be home with my family in four years. Today, Thanksgiving Day, I am reminded of the joys and the pains, the pleasures and the prices of what is means to be home this time of year!

I had a surreal, nostalgic feel this morning as I picked up my nephew and visited my sister and father for a few moments. Happy to be here, but once again feeling a bit dissappointed and helpless as I faced the reality of sin in my family, in the world...the discord, confusion, depression, disanimation, selfishness, fear. And though And though many old, but familiar feelings like fear, frustration and sadness came flooding just as they did when I was a teen, I saw a difference in myself. An ability to step back, look at the situation and not totally get lost within it, but to step out and let go AND love at the same time.It was freeing - for us all I believe.

The day continued with great things for which I am very thankful...cooking in the kitchen WITH mama all day then eating, playing football, walking to the creek, talking, eating some more, watching the Falcons...and all that within the context of enjoying A LOT of people, some known, many unknown.

I felt that it was such an American Thanksgiving and we were wiped out and tight as ticks when it was all done tonight. Isn't that nice :)

the new abode

portuguese, walmart and conquering fears

i'm daily discovering just how inundated this area is with brazilians! i love it. i love randomly hearing portuguese while i'm out at walmart or the mall. i try not to get too excited in public, but i have followed a few of them around the store trying to get the courage to speak to them. ha.

speaking of courage, i entered one of the scariest, teeny-bopper stores ever tonight. i DO NOT go in those stores normally b/c i feel so frumpy and un-cool and i'm afraid of what the cool people think of me. i know, i know, get over it! anyway, paige was my moral support tonight and we went in! i even walked out with a cool pair of jeans :)

"coisas do brasil"

That's the name of the store I just discovered down the road! What "coisas" did I find? Well, everything from guarana to panatone to adds for a brasilian church to, and this is the most exciting, a woman who will do my nails for $20!!! Yeeeessss. I think I'm gonna survive here after all ;)

meet the roomies

meet my roommates...
paige, many of you know her as enzo's fiance. great gal. we're having a blast together!
bruiser, the 3 pound chihauhau (don't even know how to spell that word) who is warming up to me. you know, you were right...stewart was not typical...i think i can handle, even enjoy, this.

the "you almost got shot" discount

We assumed this was the discount that was in play tonight when our waiter left our drinks off our tab at the chique Sports Bar in the new "Atlantic Station" in downtown atlanta (got to check it out people!).
A nice discount. How to get one for yourself? Well, it's a matter of luck I'm afraid. Just be there on the night that someone threatens to pull a gun and, thus, hundreds of wild people (including yourself and your two girlfriends) run frantically into street, just waiting to have to dodge bullets!
Where am I again?

first full day in woodstock

6:45am - wake up - first miracle for those of you who know me. find it's 27 degrees (-3 celcius) outside
7:00am - sipping coffee that i made - second miracle - and reading psalms 115. feels good, this moment.
7:30am - outside to take a closer look at the ice my Creator delicately placed on every blade of grass and needle of pine. it's a wonderland.
10:00am - a mid-aged woman named Penny introduces herself as she asks for help on the computer in our apartment's "cyber cafe".



10:05am - finding out that Penny and her 35 year-old, single daughter live right above me...trading info...hoping to be in insider!
1:00pm - see my first "beggar" on the street. a well dressed man with a state of the art prothestic leg, standing near his new dual-cab truck, holding a sign that says, "help those with no health insurance. please donate". okay, i respect the intentions, really, but the reality of the world i'm in (and the one i call home in belo) hits hard.
2:00pm - drive around to take in the many colors of the leaves before they all fall off to welcome the true winter

first signs

Sitting in the Miami Intertational Airport at 5am local time, I spot, to my utter delight, my the first sign that I'm truly back in the land of opportunity...fountain drink, half diet/half regular, all the ice you want, all the refills you can handle...oh, yes, home sweet home ;)

Lessons, Laughs and Laments...

Inspired by Elisabeth Elliot, I've decided to record some of my daily happenings here for all to enjoy or ignore...to each his own. So, keep reading if you're interested in walking a bit with me thru this adventure they call "going back home."