It has been difficult to begin the process of leaving this house. After bouncing around to three different houses in our first four years here, we were so happy to finally be able to stay in a house for over three years. We love this house and have made so many wonderful memories here.
God knew I needed some incentive to move out, so He provided some this past weekend. We all left together on Saturday morning to run errands. When we returned, our neighbor informed us that he'd seen a young man climb our wall and enter the outside area of our house. The man snooped around for about fifteen minutes and then left carrying a plastic bag. Our neighbor called the police, but they arrived after the guy had taken off. Fortunately, the man couldn't or didn't enter our house and the only thing missing is our iron which is kept in the storage room out back. I don't think I'll replace it anytime soon since I hate ironing and am not all that good at it anyway.
Needless to say, it's a little unsettling that someone came onto our property uninvited and took a look around. In almost eight years here, we've only had two other incidents similar to this one. In our second house, someone hopped a wall and stole some white plastic lawn furniture. In our third house, the teenager who lived next door climbed over our wall while we were traveling to use our washer and dryer. When caught by someone keeping an eye on our house, he claimed Nathanael had given him permission to use it. Maybe he came back this weekend to get the iron he needed to finish off his clothes.
The only other crime I've been a victim of here in Brazil occurred on a trip downtown with a friend. We were shopping for some fabric to make tablecloths. While we lugged huge bolts of material along one of the busiest shopping streets in the city, someone (I never saw him) slashed open my purse from the side. I wasn't even aware of it until I arrived home and found a clean cut, top to bottom, on my purse. I looked inside and found my wallet, documents, phone and other valuables still there. On further investigation, I discovered that the slash led right into the compartment where I kept my feminine products. That was one disappointed pickpocket!
I laugh about these events now, but am so grateful for God's protection. Many of my friends have experienced much worse losses--oftentimes at gunpoint. The Lord has been very gracious to us.
This little incident was not the focus of our weekend--Easter was! Every year, our church serves a breakfast followed by our Easter service. The service was beautiful, beginning with communion and flowing into a celebration of the resurrection and anticipation of the Second Coming. I taught Junior Church so wasn't able to be in the entire service, but we had our own "new life" celebration upstairs as we finished our four-week look at the "garden events" from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Gethsemane to the garden tomb as well as the Easter morning garden encounter with Mary using the text from The Jesus Storybook. We then had a wild party with balloons, confetti eggs, butterfly cupcakes, and crafts. Here are a few pictures:
A little blurry, but the best picture of the boys together on Sunday morning.
The Easter garden we made together in Junior Church as we walked through the garden events. (I found this beautiful idea here.) Note: Making the garden works better with a small group of children, say, your own, rather than a large group of children, say, 40 Junior Church children.
The Junior Church room decorated and ready for our big party.
My version of these cute cupcakes. If you're wondering, that's a butterfly on the top.
The four and five-year-olds enjoy their cupcakes.We made these cute butterfly crafts and ate these adorable butterfly lollipops.
Later in the afternoon, we joined friends at an annual Easter party given by our friends Vanessa and Kevin. The highlight of this party, for children and adults alike, is always the confetti eggs. I'm not sure where this tradition came from, but Vanessa always makes dozens of eggs filled with confetti for the men to hide. After the eggs are hidden, the children collect them and then in a wild frenzy, crack them over each other's heads. They love it! Here are a few pics:
Ethan with the dozen eggs he found hidden around the yard.
Micah found plenty of eggs to break, too.
A close-up of these fun-filled creations.
A little brother cracks one over big brother's head.
It takes awhile to get all that confetti out of your hair--not to mention the yard.Hope you all had a wonderful Easter too!
