Nana’s angels

God is so good and has blessed us SO much!!  He has given us four beautiful children, three great in laws and now 10 little angels and will be with 4 of them for the next week….guess I should say we are with angels if I include our daughter and her dh  (dear hubby),  Our daughter was called an angel by her Dad from the time she was born and  now she has 4 of her own “angels”!! 

 

We arrived down here on the Gulf Coast last evening and were met by four excited kids.  The oldest one is now almost as tall as his Popo….he will be 13 while we are in Brazil so we are planning an early birthday party for him!!  He has it all planned and wants the party to start NOW!!  I think we have persuaded him that next Wednesday would be the perfect day.  That grandson is our “professor” and for years I have called him “Mr. B.”  He  knows way more than I do in so many areas….It will be exciting to see what GOD has for him in the future.

Our ballerina  has been SO busy helping take care of things around the house as our daughter fell a few weeks ago and has a badly sprained ankle.  This 10 year old can clean and cook all kinds of things. She is such a delight and makes this Nana smile!!

 

Then there is our 8 year old grandson who SO reminds me of his Uncle, our youngest son.  He has a list of fun things he wants to do with us.  Kayaking in the river, swimming in the pool and going to the dollar store.  He is such a happy little boy.

Our last little five year old is still dancing on her feet, smiling and getting loads of hugs from her Popo.  She  doesn’t quite understand time and distance so wonders why we have been away for so long.  Last night she had to show us all of her shoes, and new clothes.   She changes her clothes 3 or 4 times a day and keeps me smiling!!

I have 10 little angels now and we get to spoil these four for a week and then we are off to Orlando and then to Brazil.  Isn’t GOD good?? 

Brazil

Brazil—Brasil to me….you see I grew up down there. In fact I knew how to write Portuguese before I could write English….would you believe?? Guess when you are six and are in a Brasilian school that is exactly what you would learn to do. I could speak english….YEAH as my parents are Americans. But I did learn to stand at attention and sing the Brasilian Nathional anthem at a very young age….My nieces and kids use to LOVE to hear my sister and I start singing it. They would laugh as we stood to attention and would sing the song as loud as we could possible sing it.

I am trying my hardest to insert a picture into this thing but I guess I am just going to have to have my dear sweet hubby do it….as I told you he is WAY better at computers than I am….but where was I in my little story.

I went to Brazil as a 6 year old so I did learn to read and write Portuguese before English. My dad would translate my letters to my grandma….from Portuguese to English. It was either you learn Portuguese or you end up saying the wrong things at school and at play. So, we learned very quickly while our parents were struggling with language learning. Dad was a missionary and started YFC down in Brasil in the 50’s…..he became very fluent in the language and could preach, preach, preach but when it came to just daily communication he relied on us!!

I didn’t even realize at the time that I also was learning the Brasilian Culture as I was learning their beautiful language. It is awesome to learn from others.

So now as an adult I have had the privelege of going down there for the past 6 summers. It has been such a blessing and so much fun to be back down there with the Brasilian people. They are awesome and the food is yummy…….just ask my kids. Whenever we get together they want a brazilian meal with everything….pasteis, bifes, rice & beans and a good vegetable salad with heart of palm on it. OH…let’s no forget the dessert. It is like a flan…easy to make and delicious.

So we are off again this summer and this time down by where I use to live so that makes it really special!!

My little corner of the world- NC

Somehow I wrote a long lengthy blog about North Carolina but when  I published it I somehow LOST it.  How very SAD….so now I have to start all over again!!  Sigh!!   So here goes….I just might get this blog thing figured out one of these days.  I tried to post a picture on this too but I need my daughter’s help.  She is the one that has encouraged me to write and has her own blog, she is the greatest!! 

Anyway………………what can I say about my little corner of the world??  We moved from our daughter’s corner up there to where our son lives.  It has been an incredible spring…..we had daffodils, then lillies and at the same time a Japanese Pink Tree and a Red Dogwood tree blooming, it was SO beautiful.  Everytime I went outside or drove into our driveway I was reminded of God’s creation and how much HE must love various colors.  The colors of the trees have also been amazing and things are still blooming all over NC.

We are 45 minutes from the Blue Ridge Parkway and as I tell our 6 year old, “the mountains are calling, can you hear them???”  We listen for awhile and then I always say…”I hear them…they are saying come, come, come!!”   So off we go with a picnic in hand that always has “oreos” in it.  For some reason, if we go out in the canoe, beach, mountains or a picnic we NEED “Oreos.” 

Where was I, oh, the Blue Ridge Parkway…..the Parkway goes through various States and NC has a long stretch of it.  It is SO beautiful up there and so peaceful.  We like to take our picnic and chairs and then find a perfect spot to put our chairs to see ridge after ridge after ridge of mountains that are changing as we watch them.  They remind us of our time in Papua New Guinea and also remind us of God’s faithfulness to us!!  You can go on hiking trails, camp, go canoeing or just sit and relax in the various parks and turnouts on the road.  It is SO beautiful.  We always stop at “the apple man” on the way down or up.  He has apples from his orchard, baskets, fresh jelly and all kinds of goodies.  They are open year round and in the winter I wonder how they even can be there as it does get cold up there. 

The drive up there is also awesome and right before you get to the parkway you will find the little town of “Blowing Rock”.  My daughter in law LOVES that little town and could probably tell you all about the ice cream store, cozy places to stay and the best little shops but when we are driving through there my hubby says, do you want to stop?   My response is usually NO…I want to go to the Parkway!!  For some reason the fantastic views up there are what bring me JOY!!! 

Today was our grandson’s 5th birthday and he wanted to go up to the mountains and to Grandfather Mountain…..so we went with them with our “oreos of course….maybe I should do a commercial on Oreo cookies…)  Anyway we drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, followed it for miles and then turned off to Grandfather Mountain.  It is one of the highest points in the Parkway and has a mile high swinging bridge.  You do have to pay to get in up there but it is worth it as the sights are incredible.  They have hiking trails all over too.  I stayed at the bottom……well………not really at the bottom as I was WAY up there but just didn’t climb the 51 steps up to the swinging bridge.  We had a 3 week old number #10 grandson with us and I opted to STAY with him.  Off went the birthday boy, the 6 year old that is missing teeth, the 20 month old who can stare you down, her mommy, our son and my dear hubby.  Soon I could see them walking across this swinging bridge….it looked so SCARRY up there. 

Then our son put that grandbaby on his shoulders and proceeded past the bridge to the highest point.  He looked like a little dot up there…I then noticed that my hubby was out there too with the birthday boy.  I started praying that God would keep them safe and thought that they were INSANE taking those grandbabies out so far….I could hear my daughter in law saying, What are you doing??  It isn’t safe out there, come back!!  I just kept clicking pictures and was in awe just seeing the DOTS of our son, grandbabies and my hubby up there.  GOD did take care of them and they looked so, so small in the grandeur of HIS creation that surrounded them.  GOD created all of this for us to enjoy and we did enjoy a perfect day in our little corner of the world.