Coffee with a Friend

I had coffee with a friend this morning.

She asked me, "Why Portugal"....it was fun telling her our story.  She also got told the very funny story of me snorting like a pig at the butcher.  Yep....true story.

I don't get asked to coffee very often....in fact I can count on one hand how many times someone outside the church has asked me to do anything.  Seven years later, I'm still strange to the folks around us.  I mean I wear tennis shoes when I'm not supposed to, I walk around with my travel coffee mug and I hang my clothes out to dry in an unorganized fashion.  In this small village, things like this matter.  To me... they don't matter at all.

The fact that a new friend asked me to coffee today was a victory.

Yay for having friends.

Blogging Again?

I'm not even sure how to do this any more.

Times have changed....my babies aren't, well, babies anymore.  I've got 3 teenagers now and they'll probably be very disappointed/embarrassed if I blog about them now.  I know I'll have to have all pictures approved before any posts goes 'live'. --- My, times have changed.....

Michael and I were talking about what the date was when we first arrived in Portugal.  We knew it was the middle of February 2008, but the date.....well, we couldn't remember anymore.  I used to know it by heart. And each year on that date we celebrated one more year on the foreign mission field....each and every year spent here was a victory.  It's still a victory, but not quite like it used to be.   Battles are different now....it's not just surviving the language barrier or figuring out where to take our babies with an ear infection. This is home to us now and home is comfortable.  There are still battles, mind you....just different.  We all have them, regardless of our address.

Well, I turned to the old blog to figure out what date we actually arrived and learned it was February 19, 2008.

This was taken about a week after arriving.

In another week or so we'll be celebrating 7 years in Portugal.

God is good........

So thankful He's trusted us......

It's been an awesome 7 years.