Sophia Joy Reese is here! She arrived Sunday morning at 8:40 am. She was born at the Maternidade Dr. Alfredo da Costa hospital here in Lisbon. Sophia weighed 8 lbs (3.63 kg) and measured 20.5 in. (51.5 cm). She has a good head of black hair and her eyes are already dark as well. She looks so much like her sister Eliana. Our teammates all welcomed her into the world, as well as the church here.

We are all home from the hospital now and doing great. Sophia has a good appetite. Eliana loves to watch everything we do with baby Sophia. Danny’s mom Beth is here to help cook and hold the baby, and generally take care of us. Praise God for all of His wonderful blessings.

Waiting to check in

Our precious bundle

"Sophia!"

Daddy and his new little girl.

Here's my little sister!

Danny's mom, Beth, is here to take care of us all. Katie's mom will come next month.

One of the favorite foods here in Portugal, and especially in the city where we live, is snails. They boil them in a salty, garlicy broth and serve them up in steaming heaps of shells. The Portuguese can eat them like popcorn, polishing off massive amounts (of course, there’s not much meat on a snail). There was a festival here in Loures with some local restaurants showing off their own special recipe for caracois. Danny and I have tried them before, but we still felt that we should get some again at the festival. Danny managed to get a free, small sample plate for the “Americans who weren’t sure they could eat a whole Portuguese portion.” (We didn’t even finish the tiny plate we had.) Eliana tried them for the first time and really enjoyed them. Beth, Danny’s mom, who is here to take care of us when Sophia is born, tried a couple and I ate one too. A little salty for our tastes, but they really taste a lot like mushrooms. You just have to not look at them while you are eating them.

And, without further ado, here are the picture you’re all dying to see.

Eliana kept asking for more.

Even the pregnant lady ate one.

Hooray for Mommom!

Daddy teaches Eliana the fine art of spearing snails.

Our tiny "American" portion. Normally, this plate would be full to overflowing.

Our team has a date night rotation where we take care of each other’s kids so that the parents can have a break. The Meyers babysat Eliana last weekend and Danny and I took the opportunity to go the Vasco da Gama mall where the World Expo was held in 1998. We went to an aquarium and also rode some cable cars that give you a good view of the area. It was a very fun and needed time.

I was also very happy recently to find a cheap kids table and chairs for Eliana. She was very excited and we told her she was getting a ‘big sister’ present since she would be a big sister soon. Luckily, she’ll have lots of Grandma time around the birth to spoil her!

Katie (and Sophia) at the aquarium

In the cable car

Eliana with her new 'big sister' table and chairs

Say that 3 times fast.

I (Danny) have officially started tweeting on Twitter.  For all of you who enjoy short, frequent glimpses into our lives, you can follow @dannyreese.  Also, our Angola Mission Team has started tweeting, albeit less frequently, at @HarvestAngola.

So far, I’m really enjoying tweeting.  It’s quick and painless.  Just takes a few seconds, and I’m done.  We’ll see if I keep up with it.

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about our team is how much our kids love each other and getting to see my teammates interact with, love,  teach, and discipline Eliana (and soon to be Sophia). It’s wonderful to have  someone to share the joys of parenthood with in such a deep way.

Eliana has been going through a ‘testing’ phase, seeing if we will stick with our words. It’s been great to be able to talk through it and have some extra moral support!

Tonight the kids enjoyed a special Bible class time in English together. Teague taught the story from Luke 2 of Jesus in the temple and growing up. Then we measured all of the children to see how much they have grown. It is always a pretty indescribable feeling to see children learning about and loving God and Jesus. How beautiful is the faith of a child!

Coloring a picture of 'me' growing up

Biruk has grown more than an inch since his birthday in May!

Life has been pretty stable and relaxing the last few weeks. We’re settling in to wait for Sophia to arrive.

Our language skills are slowly improving. Danny can understand most of what people say to him and can carry on a 10 minute conversation, especially if it’s about a topic he knows about, like the World Cup, Angola, or the role of the Holy Spirit in Acts. I (Katie) am a little farther behind.  I can pick out lots of words but have a hard time stringing them all together unless I really know what the speaker is talking about already. I do a great job of carrying on conversations about Sophia. I say things like, “Yes, Sophia is good. She’s growing. She kicks a lot. I have a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday. I have one month left.” Throw in a few grammatical errors where I know better but they come out wrong anyway, and a few errors where I don’t know any better anyway, and you get the idea.

Here are a few of the more funny mistakes we or our teammates have made (some in class, some out):
The baby won’t stop raining until I feed her.
I nurse (breastfeed) all of my patients.
I started high school when I was 40. (I got 40 and 14 mixed up.)
My brother got a new job as an umbrella.

Eliana is doing well. Even though she doesn’t get as much time around Portuguese as we would like, she already understands that it is a different language and that things have 2 names. She’s picked up about a dozen or so Portuguese words and enjoys showing them off.

The girls in language class

Having grown up as a missionary kid, lots of things that we’re doing now bring back good memories. We received our first care package and I must admit I was quite excited. We also celebrated our first 4th of July as a team living overseas. I remember many 4th of July picnics, parades, and fireworks that my parents and their team did. We didn’t have a huge production this year, but we did take the opportunity to spoil ourselves a little with a picnic of grilled hamburgers (with real ketchup), watermelon, fresh lemonade, and chocolate chip cookies and brownies. It was a beautiful day with good food and great fellowship. We invited another American couple that had recently arrived in Portugal to celebrate with us and it was great to be able to encourage one another.

We didn’t have any fireworks, but Teague had some glow-in-the-dark bracelets for the kiddos. We went inside and turned off the lights for them to swing them around. Then the kids went off to bed and the adults were able to spend some wonderful time in worship. What an uplifting time it was.

The kids all got glow-in-the-dark bracelets from Teague.

Our 'fireworks'

Well, the Portuguese football team was kicked out of the World Cup last night by Spain. We are all sad to see them go, as we have really enjoyed watching the games with various people and really getting to know the team. Eliana especially enjoys wearing her Portugal T-shirt with Daddy. I realized after one of the USA games that Eliana knows how to say “Portu’al,” but not “USA.” She’s working on “‘merica” right now though. (We also enjoyed watching the USA games, by the way.)

Here are a few pictures of our Portuguese World Cup watching days.

Watching the Portugal v. North Korea game in a mall

Danny and Eliana sporting their "Portugal shirts."

Watching the Portugal v. Brazil game with the church