Hi all, we'll see if this works. Brenda thanks for getting this username and password to me.

We are all doing fine. It's the end of the school year so you can imagine things are pretty BUSY around here.

Niklaas is losing another four key kids from his class so he's pretty sad about this.

Emily loses one, and I'm not sure about Matthew - I know atleast one.

Jaden our kids know how you must be feeling saying goodbye to friends. It's not easy! We are praying that you will find new friends. Be wise in your choice of friends - dont rush into things. One thing we notice is it's best to sit back and observe for a while first, then start making friends.

I'm glad all you stuff is there - now's the fun part of putting the house together again.

We are changing our house around too. We put the diningroom table into the livingroom, we are moving our bedroom up to the diningroom, and we'll make our bedroom into a guest room. I wish we had thought of this before last summer. We figure if mom and dada want to come for a while they have a place to stay.

Don't worry we understand that they are more needed in Brazil once the camp gets going and we bless them for that.

I brought my special Tim Hortons coffee to work today because we are celebrating Herr Fields birthday and he's my Australian coffee buddy at work.

Our boys are both loving tennis.

Niklaas is thriving in his writers club and it's becoming a social outlet for him as well. He gotr the English and Choir awards for grade 8. They have a closing time planned for tonight with supper and a movie together after writers club is over.

The rest of us are off to a toga party - the high school spring party is up in the vineyards of Tannenkirch.

Saturday Niklaas' class is having a cookout near Frieberg from 2 - 8.

Sunday is the middle school/high school spring concert.

The pool is open with the new rule of speedos only for guys. Matthew has braved it and feels fine, Niklaas refuses at this point. Markus bought himslef a pair but I'm sure they will not get used very often.

I know this is long, but I haven't written for so long.

Mom, Emily loved talking with you the other day - thanks for taking time for that.

Love you all,
Teresa

Dear Al and Brenda,

You are definitely in our prayers. That does sound like quite the roller coaster week. I can imagine your emotions have been varied to say the least. Keep us posted. We love you tonnes.

Patsy

Hey, just an update for everyone. We had a rep from the moving company come today and check out all our stuff, and there is a lot. He gave us the price it will cost us and 1% of what we want to claim for insurance.

The guys can come on Wednesday to pack all our stuff and put it on the truck. Then Thursday they will drive and Friday they'll unload in Schroeder. So we, Shannon, Jaden, Jasper & I, will spend Wednesday night down at Janz Team and leave early Thursday morning to get to Jaragua to pick up the keys. We will then head to Schroeder and do a cleaning of the apartment. I will also need to pick up a couple of items we will need for the kitchen. We will spend the night at a hotel in Jaragua and meet the truck at the apartment in the morning.

Lidi and Jessi will leave Gramado Thursday night on the bus. They will arrive in Guaramirim some time Friday mid morning. Guaramirim's bus station is closer than Jaragua's.

So things are falling into place. I feel much relieved after our consultation this morning. They guy was very nice and helpful and didn't look at us like we were crazy to want to move so much stuff.

We just have a few things left to do here in Gramado before we leave. With two days to do them we should have no problem. Lidi is going to Caxias Monday to change our address with the Federal Police and to extend my protocol so I can go to Canada and return no problem. She called and she is able to do this for us, we don't have to go.

So, will the Sens win the cup???? They do have a good break now to rest and heal up before the series begins.

Mom, is someone recording the games for us? Even if noone can record DVD's we would love to at least have the Stanley Cup series on tape.

Brenda, thanks for the call. It was great to be able to have an actual conversation rather than just writing back and forth. Al did catch the big one? A cold that is, being out on the water with wind and cold weather.

How are you Schalms? Love to hear what your up to.

Buhlers? Well, we keep pretty updated right now. Did you see the www.parcimovies.com.br website? check it out, they have some good options.

Alright, GO! SENS! GO!

Dwayne

Hi Family,

How exciting Dwayne and Shannon! Looks like a beautiful place! All the best as you transition. Sounds like a nice church out there too. That's great. We'll pray for new friends for Jado.

Patsy and Scott, I'm sure you are detaching and getting ready to move, at least in your minds. What a big change again. Al is looking forward to golfing with Scott. We are excited to have you around this summer!

Markus and Teresa, Haven't heard from you for awhile. How's the school year winding down? Or is it winding UP, like mine!!! Such a busy time for staff. Hope you are all well. It was sure nice having you all here last month! Any special plans for summer?

We have been on a rollercoaster this last week. We confirmed we were pregnant last weekend. Then we had to start processing mentally what that would mean for us. We were just getting used to the idea as it seemed surreal, and then I started bleeding. I spent 4 hours at St. Boniface Emergency Wed. night. Al came with me. I went through my severe cramps, which I had not had in almost three years. They called me back for more blood work Thursday (yesterday). They are trying to determine if I am still pregnant or had a miscarriage, for as my doctor put it, "your pregnancy may be in jeopardy." My gut tells me I miscarried. We are waiting for a call from St. Boniface for the results of my blood test. This is something you could pray about for us. It's a tender time.

Last night we went to Oakridge greenhouse and picked up a few more perennials this time for our front yard, in front of the house. We are excited to plant these this week. Marianne helped us out. Then we went for coffee with her, Jamie, and his girldfriend Bethany. Nice evening! Al is going fishing this weekend with the guys from church - 16 of them! Starting at Caddy Lake and then going on to Sailing Lake.

Love you all!

Brenda

Okay so here are the photos of the new apartment!! Front of the apartment, balcony, and empty store space. The living room and 3 bedrooms face the fron street.
Living room with a window into our room??????? I think we'll need some curtains! haha
Big bathroom with room for cupboards to store our stuff and Lidi's!
Laundry area and small room with a toilet just off the living room.
Living room with churrasco pit which is very important!

The Kitchen with Daniel's back!! Lots of space!

Dining room below which we may use a T.V. slash playroom!

Front doors off the living room!

Stairs to carry our food, kids etc!! Yeah, we lost the hill up to Janz Team and got stairs to our place. I think the stairs will be a lot easier!Below is Daniel and Grace Port. They are the pastor couple at the Lutheran church who have been a huge help and are super excited about us being there. They know Scott and Patsy from Janz Team here.

This is Itimar and his wife. They are a christian couple who goes to the same church and have and imobiliaria. Dwayne go to spend mother's day with them and their family.

So that's the place and some connections we've made already. It's going to be a lot of fun! Well it's cold today but we do have some sunshine so i will get some laundry done and i'm making soup to keep us warm and skinny!! haha

Hey guys,

So we got the apartment!!!!!!!!!!!! I just received an email saying that we are approved and Dwayne is signing the contract! Yepeeeeeee!

We are pretty excited, i know Scott and Patsy you are too. We have waited patiently and God has provided. So now the move begins and off we go. Thanks for all your prayers!!! Once we get our for sure date we'll let you all know.

Pray for Jaden, as he is leaving a very good friend. It's not easy as you all know but we have been praying for new friends for him there. Also pray that even though he knows some of the language that he will really open himself up to want to learn more, and that God will make it a bit easier to learn. 13 isn't the easiest age but he has come a long ways since we came here, ovecoming many things in his life. We see so much potential, and we know God will use him mightily.

Brenda thank your class and give them super big hugs from us. They are mighty prayer warriors and we have been so blessed by their emails.
So Al, we think Nestle should send you down sometime to check things out here in Brazil!!!
Let us know, now that you've met the big boss! haha

Teresa and Markus, we hope you have a great summer. I'm sure you are super busy with school end approaching. Say a big hello to the kids for us and you can tell them the next visit to Brazil will be in a new place!! Yeah, and close to the beach!

Mom and Dad, well what can we say, Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for all the calls, support, love, and prayers. We are blessed!

Alright, enough chatter, i need to do some organzing today. We have lots to do this week and Dwayne will get home early tomorrow. Yeah!

Love you all,
Shannon

Hey guys,

So as we speak Dwayne is in Santa Catarina looking for a place for us. There is one we like with 4 bedrooms for R$450 so it is a good price for that many rooms. It is in a smaller city called Schroeder so that helps with the pricing. There isn't much else with 3 or 4 bedrooms that we could afford so are praying this one works out. We have signers for the guarantee that we will pay them but they need some specific documents that we have to come up with so we don't know if it will happen on Saturday or until Monday or Tuesday depending on the process down here. So it is just a matter of waiting and then once we sign a contract we can move whenever we want to. So we hope to be gone within the next two weeks. We'll keep you posted on what's up. Just pray for a smooth process now and that all will work out.

Love you all,
Shannon