"Chuchu" or Bitter Melon in English!

When Matthew and I were in Brazil (in 2005) he ate bitter melon (or chuchu as we call it in Portuguese) for the first time in his life and he loved it! He had never eaten before nor seen it and we did not even know how to say "chuchu" in English.

I've always looked for "chuchu" here but never found it until last week at Safeway. I was surprised! It was a little different from the Brazilian "chuchu", ours has more of a pear shape and the bitter melon that I bought was round.

I bought 3 bitter melons and payed 10 dollars!! It was a shock to me because you can find bitter melon in Brazil anywhere and it's very cheap. Probably, with 10 dollars you could buy a whole plantation of bitter melon back there. But I thought I'd try it to see if it tasted the same. And, after all, Matthew and I both love it.

It was exactly the same taste, thank God, and we ate it as if it was the most delicious meal ever! I even gave some to Julia who also loved it. She would grab the spoon, the food and put everything inside her mouth including her fingers. She absolutely loved it!

So it was expensive but worthy it! I'm trying to find out how to grow bitter melon here, because I think it will be much cheaper and we can eat it more often. So, if anybody knows how to grow bitter melon, please, tell me and I'll try.

Julia's pics - 4 - 5 months...

Isn't she the sweetest baby?

Now we have more hair to comb...


Ahhhhhhh!! I love my bath!!!!

And I love my fingers too!! They taste delicious!!!

I love to be in my carrier, I can see everything around!

I'm serious now!

Matthew

The day after Easter we had to come back to the ER because of Matthew's disease. It was not fun! He had diarrhea all over again and the doctors wanted to make sure that he did not have an intestinal obstruction. I was scared to death because if he had an obstruction he would need a surgery and the hospital here is not very good.

Praise God his exams came back normal and he did not need surgery. The doctor decided to treat him for intestinal infection although he was not completely sure of what was going on.

He is doing better now, still taking Prilosec for his stomach, because of the bleeding. We pray that God will completely heal him!

Thank God Julia and I never got sick. This was totally God's hands upon our lives and we are soooooooo thankful for that.

Thanks for those who prayed for all of us!

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL!!!

May we all do not forget the True Meaning of Easter, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

He is ALIVE, the cross is empty and He lives and wants to have a relationship with us. It's up to us to say yes or no!

I know Easter has nothing to do with Eggs but I certainly miss the chocolate eggs we have in Brazil this time of the year. My mouth waters just to think about them. I do miss Brazilian chocolate...

This week has not been easy for us. Matthew is sick. He's got a virus that actually took him to the hospital. It started on Wednesday with a headache, his whole body aching and a fever. Thursday he started a diarrhea and Friday he started vomiting. I took him to the hospital where they gave him an IV plus pain killers and some medication for nausea. We spent a few hours at Kona Community Hospital and, by the time we got out of there, he was feeling a little better. At least, he was not throwing up anymore.

Today he is doing better, not completely recovered, but better. He is feeling pretty weak yet. On Friday we noticed some blood in his vomit and today, in his stools so we are going to the doctor this week to check it out and make sure everything is OK.

Hopefully he will be feeling better tomorrow so that we can celebrate Easter in church and among friends because we have not left the house since Wednesday, except to go to the hospital.

We are praying for protection for me and for Julia so that we won't get sick. We are doing good so far. Please, keep the three of us in your prayers.

HAPPY EASTER and may God bless you!!!

Glory to God!!!!!!!!!!!!! And to God alone!!!

I must share what happened this week at The Pregnancy Center.

This past Monday I was there in the afternoon and I had the opportunity to talk to a young Spanish girl. She is 10 weeks pregnant, single, the boyfriend won't be involved in the pregnancy at all and to top it all of, she is here illegally. Her sister came with her and was very supportive but they were seriously considering doing an abortion because of the financial costs of having a child and also out of fear because of her situation in the country. It's very unusual for a Spanish girl to consider doing an abortion because Mexico is a Catholic country where abortion is illegal, as it is in Brazil (at least, so far!). But this one girl was desperate and was seriously considering doing the abortion.

As I spoke to her and her sister I felt she had a soft heart and was acting out of despair. I gave her some information about abortion and took her to the Ultra Sound room to find out how far long she really was.

The Ultra Sound was beautiful! This 10 weeks old baby was jumping up and down, moving his/her little legs and arms a lot, very alive and active. Little, if any explanation was needed as far as the images we were seeing because they spoke for themselves. It was very clear! After a few minutes seeing the little baby moving all around the mom started crying and I asked her why she as crying. She told me: " I AM HAVING THIS BABY, there is no way I'm going to abort him/her!" And she would not stop crying.

At that point I was crying as well and the sister had tears in her eyes too. It was so great and I could not stop thanking God for touching her heart like that! It was such a miracle and it brings tears to my eyes even now, just to remember it.

I told her that she was going to be a great mom because it was clear that she already loved the little one. And the baby would NOT stop jumping as if he/she was celebrating life, as we were! What a wonderful thing to witness, I really felt privileged!

So, every time you think of us, please, pray for our ministries, that God will continue to touch people's lives and hearts like He did with this one girl and that lives will be saved and transformed by His amazing grace, love and power!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZECA!!!!

Today is my aunt Zeca's birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! MAY GOD BLESS YOU BEYOND MEASURE!!

We wish we could be there to celebrate with you... Matthew really liked the Brazilian parties. I think he will adapt pretty fast if we do go live there for a while.

This month we've been really busy. Matthew is leading the next Living Waters Program that starts this coming Friday, 23rd of March and he's been very busy getting ready, preparing everything, interviewing the participants and trying to put things together before it begins. It's a big job to lead the program and it takes a lot of time and effort. But Matthew thoroughly enjoy it. Living Waters is his passion so, praise God for that.

It is a great ministry and a wonderful tool that God uses to heal people. I've gone through the program myself last year, as a participant, and God dealt with several issues in my life. Some that I was not even aware of. It was great!

This year I took the Leadership training but I won't be involved because of Julia. The classes are on Friday nights from 6 PM til 11 PM and it's a little too much for little Julia. So I'm staying home with her but maybe next year I'll have a chance to get more involved. We want to have enough training under our belts to be able to take the Program to Brazil in the near future.

Talking about training, we have a praise report!! We've got ALL THE FINANCES to go to the Exodus Conference in June, in Irvine, CA. God is soooooooo good, He provides in the most unexpected ways. All we need now is the time off work. Matthew will try to work it out at the office. We are praying that it will all work out. We do feel that God is opening this door for us to go so we do believe this will happen. It will be so good to get out of the island for a little while. We haven't gone out since August 2005 when we came back from Brazil. It will be very refreshing, in all ways, I'm sure! Please, join us in prayers for the time off at Matthew's work.

And pray for the next Living Waters team as well. We have a few new staffs and we've changed some rules. We pray that it will all be for the better. Pray for Matthew as well, that he will have the strength and wisdom of God to lead one more program.

We love you all

Ana, Matthew and Julia

PS - Of course I had to put one more pic of our little princess!

Chocolate

This week has been a crazy week. Matthew is very, very busy this whole month because of the new Living Waters’ team that will start on March the 23th. He is leading this one too so it’s been a busy time with preparation for the new team.

On Wednesdays I teach Childbirth Classes at the Pregnancy Center from 5 PM to 7 PM and Matthew picks up Julia and takes her home for a couple of hours. Last week I arrived home, after the class, and asked him how everything was. I’ll reproduce our dialogue:

Ana – So, how is everything?

Matthew – Good.

Ana – How is Julia?

Matthew – She is doing good, we had a great time.

Ana – What time did she take the bottle?

Matthew – After the chocolate.

Ana (freaking out) – WHAT????????????????????????? Matthew, did you give her chocolate??????????

Matthew – Of course not! She took it.

Ana – Oh please, you better have a good explanation for that.

Matthew – Well, I was opening a Reeses Peanut Butter cup and the chocolate was melted. She reached out for the chocolate and knocked it out of my hand. It fell on her dress and it was all melted. I put her on the bed in order to clean both of us and when I came back she had chocolate all over her hands, face, dress and mouth. And she was sucking her fingers that were covered with chocolate.

Ana – Oh GREAT!!!!!!!!! She not only ate chocolate but also peanut!!!!!!!

Matthew – As I said, it was not my fault! She took it, I never gave it to her. But I can tell she liked it!

Well, I don’t have to go on with this, do I? You all got the idea. Julia had her first chocolate experience at three and a half months. And not only a chocolate experience, but a peanut experience.

God is good indeed and does protect the children. The good news is that she did fine. Her intestines worked just fine and I think she is not allergic to peanut. Praise God!