Time

As many of you know, children here in Brazil have to start school at age two. If this seems young to you you are not alone. I think it is too. But nevertheless, this is the age. One of the joys of our day is going to pick up the girls after their classes. We enter into the school and as we enter, the teacher at the door calls out our children's names. First, comes Becca.

Here she comes running with her back pack the size of a Fiat on her back. She is so excited to see us. Everything is exciting to her. She tells us about how she froze to death in her computer class because the air-conditioning is turned up real high. Her hair, which was immaculate when she left the house this morning, now looks as if she just did a 50 minute Pilates workout in a sauna. (The girls classrooms are all open air and it is hot here in Brazil. The temperature rarely goes below 80 and is always in the 90's during the day.)

Now comes Gabi. Never in a hurry, always deliberate. She comes sauntering down the sidewalk as if their is a prize for going the slowest. She sometimes stops to admire the tropical birds they have in a cage and in the process, creates a log jam of kids on the sidewalk. Most of the kids are not looking where they are going in the first place so there are some collisions.

Both girls are happy to be going home. Filling our ears and anybody else's within ear shot how their day went. Who sat on their foot. Who called them a name. Who gave them a piece of their candy. It is a regular newsbreak right there in the entryway to the school.

I am sitting here trying to think what more could I want as a father. I am hard pressed to think of something. Our daughters are happy to see us. What else is there? They love us and want to be with us. The goal is to keep it that way. When Becca is 16, I do not expect her to run across the school like goofy, jumping into my arms and telling me all about her day. It is the emotion and the love that I want to have.

We are doing our best to see that it stays that way. Praying with them everyday. Reading tons of stories to them at bedtime. (We have read the story Medaline 136 times in the last month.) Taking them for ice-cream. Going to the beach. Time. For the most part, I remember the things my parents DID with me, not the things they said to me. When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, once a month, my dad would take me to lunch at Ponderosa. I remember it like yesterday. I do remember a thing we talked about, just that we did it and I loved it. I know we probably didn't have the money to do it at the time and that just makes it even mopre special to me.

Spend time with your kids. A good friend of mine just recently got a membership to an aquarium for his family. That is what I am talking about. I know this couple will have a daughter that runs to them when she is older.

Pray for us as we try to make time for everything that is calling on us. It is so easy to get busy. It doesn't matter if you are in missions or are working a normal 9 to 5. We so long to be there for them when they need us!

Shoot out!

I wanted to ask for all of you to pray for the HoH and our safety today. Just about an hour ago, the police and a gang were involved in a shoot out in front of the House of Hope. Ana, our director, was in the process of letting the morning class of the before/after school program go out the door when bullets began flying by the driveway. 30 seconds later and all ten of our children would have been in the middle of the street with no where to go.

This type of violence is getting worse. The gangs have no respect for human life and the police will pretty much do anything to reign in the violence. I do not want to think about how bad this could have been. But all we know is that we have to go to work there every day. This is not something we want to look forward to.

Please pray for our safety, the children's safety, and for the staff. We are all on edge now because of this. Please keep us covered. We love you all! John and Fabi

Welcome to the new Schmidt family blog. If you are having a wobbly over the name, then you need to read our newsletters and you will understand. I have enjoyed writing our monthly newsletters for you all to catch up on us but through the help of a very good friend of ours, we realised that there are things that happen weekly with us and that over time we may not remember to include them in the newsletter. This is kind of a newsletter add-on. (Thanks BKH).

The updates on this blog will be for both our family and the House of Hope. Pretty much anything that happens in our lives that we feel is necessary to share will be shared here. Cute kid stories, storiues from the daycare, God-stuff that happens on a pretty regular basis. We want you all to be a part and to know what the Lord is doing here with us.

Please enjoy the future updates and know that we miss you and love you many times over!!! In His Name, John