Summer Vacation

Summer Vacation. For me those words conjure up mental images of green grass, blue sky, golden sun, shorts, flip-flops, watermelon, lemonade, cook-outs, lightning bugs, picnics, pools, sprinklers, and kids having fun enjoying their freedom from school. I’ve lived south of the Equator for 4 years now and have adjusted to the idea of summer being in December. What I haven’t adjusted to is that summer break here isn’t the same as my mental pictures.

I looked so forward to finishing school in December. I’m pretty sure that homeschool moms just like teachers are more excited about breaks than the kids. Finally some time to do a few things I would like to do and maybe get a couple more hours of sleep. So we worked hard and finally closed our school books a couple of weeks into December. I don’t know what I thought would happen but what did happen was not it.

First we had the whole Christmas fiasco with our delayed trip. It suddenly dawned on me that while we were waiting around to leave on our Christmas trip we were living our summer vacation. There was no golden sun, no blue skies, no running around outside enjoying the freedom from school. What we did have was rain, rain, RAIN. It rained every single day and rained hard. When it wasn’t pouring the air was heavy and muggy. We soon discovered leaks all over our house. Every time the rain started we ran around from room to room looking for where water might be coming in. It was very difficult to dry clothes (since we don’t have a dryer), and laundry became a huge chore. We spent so much time opening and closing windows. With no air conditioning a house can get pretty hot all closed up against a summer storm. Then things start molding, and we were constantly on the hunt for where it is creeping up in the house.

I kept thinking that this was so not the way I had thought our summer vacation would be. This is our first summer in this city so I learned that rain is a part of life here during this time of year (guess we should really look into buying a clothes dryer). Yet, we had an over abundance of rain that resulted in a national disaster in both our state of São Paulo and the neighboring state of Rio. People lost their lives, their homes, everything, and I quickly learned that rain day in and day out can get a bit depressing after a while.

Just when it looked like summer vacation would be spent in the rain things completely changed. Our car was finally out of the shop, and we could finally take our longed awaited trip to Brasilia to be with Patrick’s parents and celebrate Christmas (who cared that it was January 14th). It was just what we all needed, and it turned out to be everything my summer vacationing mind was dreaming.

We spent two glorious weeks in the beautiful city of Brasilia. I really like Brasilia. It’s GREEN! There are tons of trees, plants and grass. The sky seems so big and wide. It’s blue, blue, blue with big puffy white clouds. Patrick’s parents have a lovely home that invites you to sit awhile and RELAX, and that is precisely what we did.

We slept in every morning and my mother-in-law always had a yummy breakfast ready when we decided to make our appearance. Then the kids would play outside while I helped Deloris fix lunch. I loved being her sous chef, and that lady can COOK. We ate some amazing meals.

Patrick’s parents rest after lunch, and I loved me some rest time. My kids are finally old enough to play quietly, read books, play Gameboys, or watch a DVD which left me time to myself. I chose to read. Deloris has a great “library,” and I’d been looking forward to reading her books all year. I actually read 8 books while we were there. Loved it!

I quickly learned to wait until late afternoon to let the kids get in the pool. By then the sun had warmed the water, and we didn’t have to go through the chore of putting on sunscreen. The kids swam almost every day and swam for a couple of hours. They loved it! Once again, they were old enough to play on their own and have fun without needing to be held or helped. Elena actually learned to swim while we were there and surprised us by swimming the length of the pool by herself one day

After baths we’d eat dinner, and the kids were ready for bed by nine-ish. Gotta love how swimming wears them out. That gave me plenty of time to do some more reading before my eyes closed, and closed they did. I wanted to read and stay awake, but I hardly ever made it past 11:30. That’s early for me, but I was wiped out. It was the best, most restful sleep, too. Ahhh, it was so nice.

We also found time to celebrate Christmas, bake cakes, pick fruit from their fruit trees, go shopping, attend an art class, take a trip to the zoo, have manicures and pedicures (the girls), and of course do some ministry.

Patrick preached at his Dad’s church every service we were there. We always love returning to the church (where we first worked when we came to Brazil) and visiting with those precious people.

So it was a great trip. We had a wonderful time. I think we appreciated it more after waiting and experiencing the struggles of a wet, wet summer. God knew that this poor missionary lady needed just a little break, and He sure gave me a marvelous one.