We've come a long way, baby!

Back in the 70's, after ther women's liberation movement, the Leo Burnette Ad Agency produced this ad slogan for Virginia Slims Cigarettes. It depicted a woman all bowed over carrying a big basket of laundry in raggedy clothes, all beaten down looking... like she was on her last leg because she had worked so hard for everyone else. This was suppose to be a depiction of what women of the past were like. Then this thin super-model looking chic in a business 'power suit' with a big smile on her face (depicting what women of the present supposedly look like) came on the screen with this cigarette between her fingers, like she had arrived. The slogan for the campaign was, "you've come a long way baby!" Do you remeber that? Well, today I thought of that slogan and I'll tell you why... a little over a month ago we came to Brazil, trusting God, to adopt 5 children that we had never met. When we first got them from the orphanage and brought them to Betania it was very challenging and there were times when we really questioned what we were doing (If you've been following our blog you know this.). Well that was then and this is now. Today Mary Jane, Michael, Matthew, Maryssa and my mother-in-law went to this thing called the Hippy Fair. It is a place downtown where on Sunday's they close down the street from 9am-1pm and all of these street vendors sell their stuff. My father-in-law and I stayed back at Betania with Marlon, Ana, Diogo, Gabriel and Robert. We took them to the park to let them play and at one point I went and sat down and just watched them. I then thought back to about 4 weeks ago. I was sitting in the exact same spot watching them. Man, what a difference. First of all nobody was taking their clothes off running around. Nobody was peeing outside. They were throwing their trash into the trash cans. There were no fights breaking out and the biggest thing... they were actually listening to me and following instructions! That may not sound like a big deal to you but this is huge. These kids were crazy in the beginning. They were like a pack of wild animals sent to torture me and my family. Sure, they were really cute but beyond that it was insane! I have litterally spanked more in the last month than in my entire 18 years as a parent combined . I'm not exaggerating either. But look at what the Lord has done! Michael actually told me today that it isn't really as bad as my blogs made things out to be. That's when I told him, "you weren't here in the beginning!" Things have really taken a turn over the last few weeks (excluding our day at court/doctor). It's almost like night and day. Don't get me wrong... it isn't perfect by any means. We still have a lot of stuff to work on... but we're no longer like that lady in the ad all beaten down, and bowed over. We're more like the super model all smiley and stuff... just without the cigarette! We've come a long way, baby!

Tomorrow we're going to be taking a city tour on a bus with the entire family. Pray for us! We're planning on going out to eat at a restaurant at the very end of the tour. It will be our first time eating out with all the kids so it should be interesting. I don't think any of the kids have ever been in a restaurant before so, like I said... Pray for us! Besides that, things are going good and we're counting down the days. We love you guys!

Love ya,

Jim and Mary Jane