Mike is from Araczu.

That first sentence was from the Julian's youngest son, Michael, who is 6. He told me to tell you all that. Michael is truly a bundle of joy. Everyone on the team adores him; he brightens every minute we get to spend with him. Today Melody Julian shared with us the story of how Michael came to be with their family. I wish I could do the story justice, but I think that can only be done by hearing the words of the grateful, tearful mother herself. When in Aracazu 7 or so years ago the family prayed for a child to adopt, and after several failed attempts, Michael was almost literally brought to their doorstep. One month later though, he was taken from the family and a 6 month legal battle followed. In the end, God worked a miracle and finally reunited Michael with the family where he is been ever since. We have been blessed to get to share these past 3 days with him and the rest of his family since they have been on a holiday break from school. Today's holiday was "Black Awareness Day" (I think that's the best translation for it). We did not see any celebrations first hand, though, on the news there was footage from the concerts and speakers downtown. It has been such an honor and a blessing to really get to "do life" (shout out to gary there) with this amazing family. Today we got to spend time with them cooking for our Thanksgiving dinners, eating waayyy tooo much, and browsing the local malls. For lunch we went to a restaurant that had traditional food from northern Brazil, which was INCREDIBLE. It was rice, pinto beans, and either sun dried meat ( we don't really know what that means) or seasoned chicken. Then for dinner we went to a pizzeria buffett, also INCREDIBLE. Buffets here bring the food around to you. This concept is really revolutionary. I had 5 kinds of new pizza including shrimp and onion, not to mention the ice cream and pineapple pizza, and chocolate and strawberry pizza I had for dessert. Needless to say we plan on coming home 400 pounds heavier, collectively. Browsing 2 of the 50 malls in Sao Paolo today gave us a better feel for the upper class here that Chris and Melody target with their ministry.

I think that hits the highlights. Its bed time here since tomorrow we are hitting the buses at 5 am.

Biejinho, Biejinho, Tchau, Tchau (kiss, kiss, bye, bye)
Lindsey