there's a baby!

   Melody Anabel Turner was born Wednesday night! She is so tiny and so perfect! She has long fingers, red hair, and beautiful eyes. She is adorable and will not be lacking in people to hold her. Jeff and Lindsay are super happy! Jeff's sister, Julie, is here to help with cooking for a month and Lindsay's mom, Jan, is here to help Lindsay for the first month. It's super awesome around here and everybody is baby-love struck!

     Last Friday a family from the school called to see if I wanted to go to Caruaru with them for the weekend. I really like this family so I decided to go! So a half hour after the call we were on our way to Caruaru. It was a wonderful weekend! The dad, Junior, had an Ipad so we used google translator a lot but I used my Portuguese and the mom, Glaucia, speaks pretty good English so we managed to communicate!  I watched my 4th grader, Vinicius, down a  triple cheeseburger and then a half of another one. Turned my world upside down. We had a birthday party for their daughter Gabbi and it was really fun! The kids were parading me around their friends and saying "This is my English Teacher. She's from America so she doesn't speak Portuguese."  Then I would be stared at and eventually they would ask Gabbi or Vinicius how to say something in English and then giggle and come say something to me. It was pretty comical especially from Gabbi because she's only in 2nd grade so she would send them over saying things like "The cat is on the table." Cracked me up!

   While in Caruaru, Glaucia and Junior took me to some weird indoor shopping center and it completely overwhelmed me. I think it was my first taste of what coming home might be like. Glaucia wanted to buy me something for my birthday and I couldn't find anything that I felt justified in buying. I think there will be more than just culture shock to deal with but also the difference of living as a missionary dependent on other people's support and not your own money. It's definitely going to be interesting but I'm 6 weeks away from that.

   My birthday was uneventful, just the way I like it. I got chocolate from Emily, Lindsay, and Jeff and my 5th-6th grade class wrote on the board for me on Monday. All in all it was good!

  Unfortunately, while in Caruaru, my stomach problems came back (which was terrible because there was no way to hide it and the whole house knew). It continued to be pretty bad all week. Wednesday, I came home after my morning classes and the school sent Emily home to take care of me. We giggled about the over-protectiveness of Brazilians and had a good afternoon off. Then Thursday I went to Recife to see Dr. Santos. He has me on 2 different pills for worms (they are the ones every Brazilian takes once or twice a year), some diarrhea medication, anti-dizziness pills, and he wants a blood test. This week I will go get the blood tests but it got really bad on Thursday night and Glaucia is not happy with the worms diagnosis so she is trying to set me up with someone else. We will see what happens. This thing goes in phases so I should be better soon, for a little while at least. 

   I'm pretty sure I broke my toe. I'm such a klutz. I stubbed it and convinced myself it didn't hurt that bad and that I was just being dramatic but it kept hurting for a few hours and I finally decided to put ice on it. That's when I realized it was completely numb. So I've been limping around with a fat, bruised toe feeling totally stupid. At least everyone got a good laugh out of it!
  
  Here is a link to a video that is just stinking adorable! The students name is Rui (which you pronounce Hoowee) and he is in Kindergarden. I just caught him doing this during recess! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv5U5zCkHHI

I love you!!! 

Love your sick, klutzy,  20 year old girl,

 







Brittney