Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Meier’s in Portugal. The year 2008 can be summed up in two words, transition and travel. Since leaving Malawi in June 2007, we have been on the move…literally. We were blessed with eight months in Wisconsin with our families and friends while we waited for a residence Visa for Portugal. It took much longer than anticipated for the VISA to be approved, but we finally made it to Portugal the last week of February, 2008. Since arriving we have had to make a lot of transitions and changes. Elise and Audrey started at a new school without knowing a word of Portuguese. Thankfully they were put in the same class together for the first three months and they had each other for support. Maria is now attending day care twice a week, which has been a big adjustment for her. Bill and I found ourselves having to adjust to not having a large network of family, friends, and missionaries around us, which we were used to in Malawi and America. After ten months of being here, we have made friends and have come to feel comfortable in our home. It was a more challenging transition than we anticipated.

There have been some real blessings while living in Portugal. We have had many friends and family visit us in the last ten months, and we will have more visitors in the next few months. What a blessing it has been to spend time with all of them! We have also done some traveling. We visited southern Spain in July for a week. We also made a short trip over to Gibraltar for a day which was very interesting. We were also blessed with the opportunity to attend our church’s European Chaplaincy Reformation Retreat in Germany in October. It was a huge boost for us spiritually and it was wonderful to worship with fellow believers in English. Before and after the retreat, we visited German friends we had made in Malawi and reconnected with them. In May we will be traveling to Ukraine to visit some friends and will stay for about twelve days. It should be interesting to see Eastern Europe. Besides traveling, here is what has been going on in each of our lives……

Bill is studying Portuguese full time. He has language classes four days a week, meets with a tutor four or five times a week, and meets with Pastor Villares (Pastor here in Portugal) to study liturgy and Portuguese religious terms. Bill is leading his first full worship service in Portuguese this Sunday. He is also taking online classes through MLC, working towards synod certification. Portuguese coffee and tarte de maça (apple tart) are Bill’s favorite Portuguese discoveries. Not having a car to drive has been a real benefit for Bill as driving here would be challenging, while at the same time the public transport is great. He also feels blessed because he is able to spend more time with the girls now, than he has in the past.

Cathy keeps herself busy by taking language classes twice a week, going to the gym (right next door) as often as possible, studying to be a fitness instructor, doing a bit of home schooling, and being a mom. Apart from not having a car, Portugal has finally grown on her. The weather here is very pleasant and never too hot or too cold, which makes walking everywhere pleasant. She has found some good friends here who she can relate to and who also have young children. She has really gotten into cooking Indian food and trying new recipes. She loves being a host when we have visitors.

Elise is now in first grade and is doing really well communicating in Portuguese. She has started correcting her father’s accent. She enjoys doing her homework because it almost always involves coloring. She continues to impress us with her art ability and projects. She turned seven last month and has lost a lot of teeth. She has started to choose her own clothes, worry about how she looks, and do her own hair. Elise is still a TV junkie and will spend hours in front of the TV (if allowed).

Audrey is now in kindergarten and LOVES going to school. She understands Portuguese, but rarely speaks it. She has started individual lessons twice a week to try and give her a boost in the language. She loves when mom does some home schooling with her and never wants to quit. Her favorite thing to do is play with her makeup and get dressed up. She can spend hours in front of the mirror grooming herself (she isn’t even a teenager yet!). Audrey will be five in March and can’t wait for her birthday!

Maria is the baby in the family at 2 1/2, but is by no means the quietest in the family! She has really taken charge of her two older sisters and makes sure she is not left behind. She is trying to learn the difference between an outside voice and inside voice J. She loves playing with babies and being a “Mommy”. She would be happy if she ate peanut butter and jelly everyday and nothing else.

It seems the transitioning and traveling will not end this year either. We are planning to move to Mozambique around the first of July. We are still waiting for the mission to be registered with the Mozambican government and pray that it will be completed by July. If it is not completed, we may still go to Mozambique with a visitor’s VISA and try to get a permanent VISA from there. The girls will then attend another school, this time with an American curriculum, and we will be living in a guest house until we can find a permanent home. There is no way to know when we will have a permanent home and when our things from Malawi, America, and Portugal can be shipped so we can “set up” house. Please pray that 2009 is full of smooth transitions and travels for us. God’s blessings in 2009 and may we always remember the promises of our Lord.