"What?" " You lookin at me?"

I have never been stared at like that before. It's like people never saw a large family before! Here we were, pushing 4 luggage carts, stacked sky high with every bag weighing the legal limit, through the airport in Curitiba. On one of the carts rode our two youngest sons, because it was easier to push them than it was to drag them. Once we checked our bags we walked to the gate. At this point we had put one of those kid leashes on Robert and one on Gabriel to keep them from escaping. It's funny, I use to look at parents who had those on their kids and I thought they were going just a little overboard on containing their child. That was then... this is now... because man, those things are awesome! I should have invested in one of those things a long time ago. Anyway, everybody just stared at us the whole time while we waited... like we were from another planet or something. We boarded our flight and the kids did great. It was their first time flying and they had a great time. They even got to sit in the cockpit! After we landed in Rio, and picked up our huge pile of luggage, we went to the taxi stand to arrange for transportation to our hotel (because that is what we were told to do by our liason). We requested a large van or a bus and the girl told us there weren't any and that we would have to get 4 taxi's at 80 reais each! Obviously she had lost her mind ( or she thought we were idiots, one.) because there was no way we were going to pay that much. We went out to the front of the airport and within 45 seconds we had procured a 15 passenger bus, on our own, for a fraction of what they were going to have us pay at the taxi stand (note to self: never use the taxi stand!). We loaded up all our luggage and the entire family and we were off to the hotel.

We were told before hand that Rio wasn't that nice... and they were right. As we drove down the highway, toward the hotel, you could see the impoverished delapidated houses that seemed to be everywhere. It was raining so everything just seemed even more drab. We pulled up to the hotel, in the rain, and my father-in-law and I went in to see the rooms (I had gone on the internet the other day and found this Hotel called The Apa Hotel for a really good deal and that can be scary sometimes.). When my father-in-law and I got on the elevator with the bellman to go see the room it was a little uncomfortable. You see in Brazil everything is small. From the glasses they drink out of to the cars they drive, to the size of the city streets. It seems like they are trying to maximize every square inch of everything. Everything makes you feel closter phobic. Well when we got on the elevator, just the 3 of us, my father-in-law and I were against the back wall and then the bellman got on. It wouldn't have been bad except that the elevator was literally 4' wide by 3' deep (For those of you who can't comprehend measurements... that's not big!). When the bellman got on he didn't face the door like us, he faced inward... and our faces were only about 4" away from each other. So here I was, face to face with this Brazilian bellman. I could actually feel the heat of his breath hitting me in the face! Did this dude want to kiss me? He was that close! I didn't want to look him in the eye because we were so close that just seemed weird and I didn't want to make eye contact. So, I just stared at the floor until we reached the 5th floor. Talk about uncomfortable! We arrived at our floor and we went in to see our rooms. It wasn't fancy, but the price was right and we had a van load of Dunn's waiting outside in the rain. So, I told him,"we'll take it." So back on the elevator we went... me, my father-in-law and my newfound friend, the Brazilian bellman... back in my face again... but this time I think I stared at the ceiling.

6 hours later...

We were stuck in our hotel room with all the kids the whole day today because it was raining! What's up with that? Talk about miserable. Being stuck in a 2star hotel with 7 kids all day ain't fun! Actually, I think it's the most torturous thing a person can endure, Im sure of it! We just finished feeding the kids and putting them down for bed. Finally, a moment to think. This was one of those days where you really have to know that the Lord has asked you to do this and that it wasn't some idea you came up with on your own. MJ and I were talking tonight about how doing it as unto the Lord is so much easier than even doing it as unto the kids. I don't know if that make sense or not but this is what I mean... we can love and really try to minister to these kids because we want to help them and because we love them... which is good. But, if we love, help and minister to these kids because we're doing it as a service to the Lord it's so much better. Because then it doesn't matter how they act or what torment we endure, in this prison called a hotel room, because it's all for Him instead of just them. Make sense? I hope so... sorry, I'm so tired it's hard to articulate what I'm thinking. So, I guess that's it for tonight. We have to get up at 6:00am and get the kids ready again. Our appointment at the American Embassy is at 7:45am. Please pray for favor as we apply for their visas. We are only a few days from coming home! Love you guys.

Love Ya,

Rained out in Rio