The Swing House & More

Nova Resende is a wonderful place filled with family, memories, delicious food, and love. Here you will see glimpses of what it looks like at and near the Swing House. You will also see amazing people. These were taken in a span of three days, I believe. I'll guide you through...

This is my great grandma and Tio Silvio.
He's the one who picked us up (13 suitcases!!), housed us for the weekend in Poços, and drove us to Nova Resende. 

My great grandma. Francisca.
True beauty inside and out.
She has tons of Psalms memorized and recites them every night. 

He thinks he's a model. He happens to be an excellent photographer. *post coming soon

Grandpa. A man of few words. A man with a beautiful voice. He currently loves to sleep. 

A bit overexposed but the details are lovely. The backyard.

In the backyard. It looks like a shed but it was really dark when I walked inside. I liked the flowers. & the ladder.

Bananas!

I really like flowers.

My dear grandma. It was as if she was a child again, climbing trees and picking fruit--pure joy.

Oh, to be full of life but have the wonder and excitement of a child! An ambition of mine...

Looks like an orange tree, right? Nope. Sweet Lime.

Glorious Sunset.

This is one of my favorite books. I bought it for Danny--he was hooked!
We had to tell him to stop swinging and reading at the same time, though.

She's so lovely.

No drying machine here!

No dish washer here!

"Let's make sweet lime treats!"- Grandma
This process took three days!

But it did involve quality time. 

And LOTS of work.

mmm,

My grandma says that it's always nice when a kitchen sink has a divider.
That way, one person can wash and another person can rinse while having a delightful conversation.
It's the same thing when preparing the sweet lime treats.
They were there for a while. You can see for yourself.
How many sweet limes are in that bucket?

A charmer.

If they could, they would buy milkshakes every day. Danny is a sweetheart and paid for both of them. 

The boy on the right is the son of the lady that helps around the house. He's eight, but very mature and full of responsibilities.

My dear Maria Luzia. I miss her so much.

Again, both model and charmer. 

We had to soak the sweet lime for three whole days. Well, I didn't do anything but take the picture. 

This was taken by Maria Luzia. I believe this was the first picture she took with my camera. 

I really like flowers.

My great-grandpa's brother. Agenor. We went to his house to celebrate his 97th birthday!
He's a very happy, funny man, filled with joy and love.

My grandma and her uncle. He kept telling her to sit next to him.

Sweet, sweet man. 

Agenor's daughter. My grandma & grandpa. 

Maria Luzia also took this picture.

Agenor and his wife a little while ago. 

My sweet girl.

The view of the town a couple of streets away from the swing house.

Sweet lime treats are ready!  I didn't have any but my grandma said it was delicious.

Kicked him out of the bed. Go get some sun, Mr.
:)

Nice driveway perfect for jump roping, running around, biking, dancing, exercising, and so much more.

The kids really enjoyed playing with Danny's beyblades  on this porch. 

He'll sneak right back into bed if we don't keep close watch.
;)

The backyard, again. Or farmland Narnia. You pick. 

I can't even describe to you all the amazing meals we ate in this kitchen.

There's that swing again!

I love this home. 

*Bonus* More Swing Series pictures!

Hanging somewhere in this house (I can't remember where!) is a quote:

"As grandes caminhadas começam com os pequenos passos"

translated:

"Great journeys begin with small steps"

Being at the swing house and spending quality time with my family inspired me to take the step to share my pictures and create this blog. 

I'm so thankful for the swing house and all that it holds and represents & I'm thankful that because of it, I took a small step.

Cheers to the journeys of this wonderful life. 

love. always.

Fabiane 

First Stop...Poços de Caldas, MG

So, I mentioned in The Swing Series that I would talk about our first stop in Brazil in another post. This is that post. Poços de Caldas is a beautiful city in the beautiful state of Minas Gerais. I have lot of good memories in Poços and it was wonderful to have been able to visit once again. 

Originally, we weren't going to Poços de Caldas. Our plan didn't even involve stopping by for a quick hello. We had to get to Nova Resende (where the swing house is!) and that's what was on or mind. As I have mentioned, my family travels stand by so we only fly if there's room for us on the plane. We started trying on Monday, July 29th and only actually made it on Friday, August 2nd. We even became friends with a couple of the other standby's hanging out at the airport. 

After our first couple of drives to and from the airport, we became frustrated. There was no room for us on the flight! Our vacation just keeps on getting delayed! What are we going to do? Why, God, Why? This is not what we had planned! 

 

"Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19:21

This was what we re-discovered by the time we left Poços de Caldas. We thought it was awful that we didn't make our first four flights and it was tiring and annoying. However, had we not made the flight on August 2nd, many amazing things would not have happened. 

We arrived in Sao Paulo on the morning of August 3rd and immediately went to the "lost baggage" center to go pick up our luggage that arrived in Sao Paulo a day earlier. We took our thirteen, heavy suitcases (yes thirteen--never again) and walked aaalll the way to the bus stop that had a bus headed towards Campinas. In reality, it wasn't that far of a walk, but with all of our suitcases and no strong men to help us, it felt very far (Danny helped as much as he could and Grandpa walked slowly behind "supervising"). We purchased our tickets and sat on a bench waiting for our bus driver. Danny was getting sick, so my mom decided she would look for a pharmacy. As she was walking away, and I was putting my legs up to rest, I heard her scream. I looked to where she was walking and lo and behold there was our good old friend Claudia Franca! She's a flight attendant for American Airlines (we fly United) and happened to arrive in Sao Paulo that morning as well. She also happened to have purchased tickets for the same time on the same bus to Campinas. Needless to say, it was awesome. 

Our bus to Campinas was long but comfortable enough that I was able to take a nap. My mom and Claudia were able to chat the entire time, so that was nice. From Campinas, we took another bus to Poços. This one was a little longer and had no air conditioning. Yes, we were a bit sweaty, but thankful to be arriving at our first destination. Tio Silvio (my grandma's brother) picked us up at the station in his van (that fit our thirteen suitcases!---what we would've done without him and his van, I have no idea). He took us to the mall nearby, we had some lunch, and then headed to his cozy home. In the evening, his son came over with his wife and two kids, and his other son came home from work. We had such a lovely time eating Brazilian pizza and laughing together. It was so good for my heart. 

The next morning, they all went to church, where Tio Silvio is the Pastor, and we slept in. They picked us up for lunch and then one of Tio Silvio's sons, Joao Lucas, took us to tour the city. He brought us to some type of reservation area with a beautiful waterfall and marvelous greens. You'll see some of those pictures below. After our little tour, we went to the evening service at church and my mom preached a message that impacted the hearts of the people. She was even inspired to write a book based on her message and began doing so (look out for that in the future!). This all happened because we missed the first four flights to Brazil. So much for our plans. Leaving on the fifth day and being able to spend the weekend in Poços was so much better. 

The following pictures are a few from our time in Poços de Caldas. If there is a picture with me in it, it was taken by Joao Lucas. He is an amazing photographer (click on his name to see some of his beautiful work). 

Poços de Caldas was not part of our plan, but I'm so thankful that our plan didn't work. 

love. always.

Fabiane