Dear Supporters,

Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Brazil, we have been missing the usual occasions to share the things we are thankful for with our friends and family. In this Christmas letter we'd like to express our thankfulness to God and to those who have been helping us on our journey. We have exciting news to be thankful for, so please stay with us to the end!

School 
We are very thankful that God has allowed us to make our home so close to a Christian pre-school. Lucas and Elena have richly benefited from this environment, where they are learning Portuguese and basic social skills. While some bilingual couples choose to each speak a different language with their kids, we have decided to basically keep our house an "English" zone, and while we're out (to school, church, etc) we speak Portuguese. Taara mainly speaks English with the kids. As her Portuguese improves, there will likely be more of it interspersed in their conversations.

It has made a huge improvement in our church experience, the kids can now understand the Children's talk and enjoy Sunday School. We are very fortunate to be able to give them an opportunity to learn social skills and Portuguese while still being able to have them home most of the time (they go to school each morning for a few hours). For this reason alone we are very thankful to our supporters for allowing Taara to be a stay at home mom.


Walking to school in the morning. 

"My Big Car!"
Shortly before Elena's birthday in August, our beloved Corolla's transmission kicked the bucket. As we began to look at other options, David's dad, who has been one of our most faithful and generous supporters, offered to provide us with a new car. Within a few days, we were the proud new owners of a 2008 Hyundai Tucson. Lucas calls it "My Big Car" and while it's bigger and higher (much better for navigating the dirt roads to Refúgio), we were also excited about the option afforded by the Tucson's back seat for accommodating another carseat, if our family were to increase. After moving to a larger house, and being blessed by a larger car, we felt we might start planning for a larger family. 



A New Addition!
At the beginning of October we were pleased that our family planning had been successful - we were expecting a third! A few short weeks later, we were surprised at our first ultrasound to discover that we were not only expecting a third, but also a fourth. That's right, we are having twins! This has made the first trimester significantly more difficult for Taara (compared to her other two pregnancies) but we are excited about welcoming two new little ones into the world in May of 2013.  



We feel so very blessed by God this year, and are excited about the year to come. We pray for a wonderful Christmas season for you and your families.

Blessings,

David and Taara