See I do have a life

See I told you I had a life outside of my cat. Today was our day off and a beautiful, rare day when it was neither hot, nor cold, nor rainy or too sunny. So we went off to the Lagoon to rent bikes and ride. But since it was a weekday, they didn't have "real" bikes. They only had these bicycles for two. I remembered they were difficult, but I didn't remember clearly enough to nix the idea of renting one. After about 10 minutes we were desperate to stop, take photos, look at the scenery, anything to rest our aching calves. It was fun, but we were plenty tired after 40 minutes. Then we had the bright idea to check out the new Wal-mart near our house (how's that for an exciting project for your day off?). We didn't realize that it had just had it's grand opening yesterday! I think half the population of the city was at the store. They had some great bargains, so we just meandered and looked and had fun "pawing" everything, despite the crowd. We even bought some groceries on sale. Since we had already done our morning exercise, ridden the bike, walked around the lagoon and then spent 2 hours in the store, by the time we got home, we were glad to collapse on the bed and have Mia purr us to sleep. We had a big thunderstorm and she seemed a little frightened.
Time marches on and now I must get a few things done around the house. Hope you have a fun weekend.

Ladies and Gentlemen, She has a Name!

Finally we have made a decision. This is our final answer. I will of course continue to call her, occasionally, "Una Paloma Blanca" just to be humorous and because everyone deserves to have a really good nickname. Her real name, however, will now be MIA. Congratulations to my "anonymous" friend who left the comment that Mia was a good choice. I would give you credit if I knew who you were. It is a great suggestion (as were all of them) and fits her just right. A girly name, as she is a girly kitty. An easily pronounceable name in English or Portuguese. In Italian and Spanish it means "mine" and we do think of her as "ours"! In Portuguese it is the verb for "meow", which is great for her rusty hinge meow (or as João says, her meow sounds like her battery is running down). So "Mia" it is. As they say in Italian "Cara Mia" - My Dear. My dear little cat. If you are sick of the subject, you will be glad to know that in the future I will be devoting less entries to her. I do, after all, have a life outside of my cat (but don't tell her that).

Gotta love their ingenuity

Take a close, close look at her claws. No I am not totally nuts. I did not give her a manicure! I was able to find some hot pink soft claws (silicone claw covers) that I glued on to keep her from scratching the furniture. She is a scratcher (what cat isn't) and although she does use her scratching post, she also loves my white couch. That will not do! Declawing is illegal here. So the solution was to use these claw covers. She was thrilled, as you can imagine. I don't know who got more glue on them...her claws or my fingers. But they were easy to apply, actually, as she is a cooperative cat. She shied away more because of the smell. Of course I gave her lots of kitty treats to encourage her along. Let's hope she is the kind of cat who takes 8 weeks, not 4 to shed her nails! This is a nice photo showing her true color of chocolate black. You can see her nice apple shaped face as well. I love my "Una Paloma Blanca"!

The Cat With No Name

We are working on it, but so far no name has matched our sweet little Motira (her given name, but we hate it). We voted on UNA, but it just isn't her! We loved your suggestions (thanks so much), and via e-mail also received the ideas of Tar Baby, Cinders, Inky or Inkspot, Othello, Rave or Raven. The problem is none of them are "her". She needs a delicate name. She needs a charming name. She needs a name that works in both languages. She is such a little lover. Except when she meows and then she sounds like a tom cat. That is so funny. And she screams when she doesn't know where we are. She loves to be cuddling us. We are all very happy to have her with us. As my sister said we should just call her "I Fell into a Bed of Roses". We definitely plan on spoiling her. Now if she just had a good name.

Sweetie has arrived

Our sweet kitty arrived this afternoon. We were so excited. Sissy was disappointed that she had to go to classes and miss her arrival. When her mommy arrived, she asked if I wanted her to cut her nails and I thought, yeah I wanna see this. She sat still like a little lady, that she is and she let her do it.
She let me pick her up and carry her around the house and show her things like she belonged to me. She meowed a few times and then began to explore. Her meow is like a Siamese - throaty or gutteral. I heard her just a few minutes ago. She found her spot right away - hidden in a corner under the sink in our bathroom asleep on a pile of clean (alas!) towels. I finally coaxed her out and she spent about an hour on the bed with me, kneeding, purring and looking totally smug and content. Since I did have things to do, I finally left her. She immediately jumped off the bed. Where she is now, I don't know. Can't find her. The apartment is so big, even though I have shut off various rooms, she could be anyway. I hear her meow now and then, so she must be exploring!
She appears to be smart and obedient, quiet and really sweet. As for her name, I too like Maura, but Sissy associates the name with someone she doesn't care for, so the name is out. Tonight Elly is coming over, so in our family conference, we'll try to decide if we all like UNA or come up with something else. We've ruled out the common names like Midnight, Blacky, etc. No one liked my suggestion of Noir, since it sounds like In the ar in portuguese! Will keep you all posted.

Today is the day

Today our kitty should be arriving to live with us. I am so excited. So I have things all set up for her and am waiting. João and I are thinking of renaming her to give her "our" name. We are debating between "UNA", which is tupi-guarani (indigenous people of Brazil) for "black" or "Maura" which is Greek for black. We wanted something original and easy. What is your vote?

Pastor's Wives

I just had a great weekend in Belo Horizonte (Beautiful Horizon) in a neighbouring state (Minas Gerais) where I was the main speaker for the pastor's wives retreat. From the time the group invited me, I was excited about this event and was really looking forward to it. I worked a long time on the Bible studies. I spoke about celebrating being a woman (about Eve), celebrating being a woman of God (Deborah) and celebrating being a pastor's wife (Elizabeth). It was hard work, as I did lots of Hebrew and Greek exegesis to really understand the women and their world and then bring the lessons from their lives into our world. I learned so much and reminded me how much I love studying and sharing my applications with others. It was thrilling to see people who I hadn't seen in years and also get to know a new crop of woman. It was particularly gratifying to have contact with people who have "followed" my writings and messages throughout the years. I sensed a real hunger for God's word among the women, just the kind of audience any speaker loves to have. You can see by the photos there was a good crowd and the Baptist camp in Minas is a beautiful place. I spent most of my time speaking and studying, but I did have time for lots of chats and heard many inspiring "stories" from these heroines. Minas is a particularly challenging state for evangelism. Some of these woman live far far away from any other church or other Christians. Their life is hard (physically and spiritually), but they are certain of their calling. I was definitely inspired by their lives. Although I came home tired, I felt like for the first time since I have been back in Brazil that I really did something worthwhile. My heart and soul needed this weekend and I think the group needed to hear what God had me to say to them. What a great way to spend 3 days.
Since the group sent me a plane ticket, I was able to get home in time to attend church on Sunday night and it was terrific to be back in my very own church. I will have to spend today, Monday, recovering my energies, but I would certainly do it all again!

Church Anniversary

Last week João and I took off for Vila Velha, Espírito Santo, about 8 hours north of Rio. We went for him to preach at the 76th anniversary of First Baptist em Vila Velha, where he had been a pastor back in the 1970's. In addition, his parents are still members there. I was still feeling pretty punk when we headed out last Wednesday night, but as the weekend wore on, I grew stronger and was feeling much better by our return on Monday night.
It was nice to stay with his parents and have a good time visiting with all the nieces and nephews, as well as brothers and sister-in-laws. A real highlight for João was seeing so many people he had baptized 25 years ago, still active in churches of the region. There were lots of visitors who came out to see him. I also know another exciting moment was on Sunday night, when he baptized his nephew. Filipe asked his pastor if his uncle could baptize him and of course he accepted. He is 11 years old, but small for his age, like his uncle. These are the special moments in life that you would never like to miss. Since we live far from family, we feel privileged when we do get to share in such times. He is such a sweet little boy... as are all my nieces and nephews. Jessika, the youngest of the crew is just nine, and she came with us to all the meetings. She sat by me and I helped her understand the messages. Everyone thought she was our child! I threatened to just bring her home with me.
On a lighter moment, on Saturday we met up with a friend, Pastor Baltazar, and drove up to the mountains (about an hour away) to see an area where he goes for all his vacations. It was chilly, but fortunately we had some sunshine. We had a nice visit in the little town where folks don't ever lock their doors. I just kept taking pictures of the flowers. Can you imagine, orchids just growing wild? We visited the little Baptist church and there was a coffee plantation in the backyard! Have you ever seen the blossoms on coffee bushes? Look at the photo on the left and you will see them! Everything grows in Brazil... you put a stick on the ground and soon something is popping out of the ground. This flower was growing in our host's front yard. It did make me wish we could retire to some place like this... where I could have a house and a garden. Wouldn't that be "loverly"?
I just wish the gospel would grow like the plants. Some day I will wax eloquent on the ecclesiastical trends and my disappointments. But for now, I just want to enjoy our lovely trip up to Espírito Santo. It's nice to get far away from the "Madding Crowd" for a while!