2 weeks in Macaé

We made it!! It's been exactly 2 weeks since we arrived in Macae!

We made it with all 6 of our giant bags, the stroller, car seat, carry-ons, diaper bag, and baby in tow- nothing was lost, even after an 11 hour flight delay out of Houston- pure miracle! Kennedy Grace has survived her first international flight, one of many more to come! Due to the delay, we left Houston at 8 AM instead of 9 PM the previous night. She was awake about 9 out of the 10 hours of our flight (ah!), needless to say, we were all ecstatic when we reached Rio!

Kennedy, overjoyed to be off the plane! Big girl! 6 months old.

 Kennedy turned 6 months old the day after we arrived.  After visa issues, packing the house in January, and living out of a suitcase for who knows how long... I can't believe we're here!

Pappaw! Mr. Burns was in Rio the same time as we were for an oil conference. He was able to travel to Macae with us to help us get settled into our temporary hotel home and visit for a few days.

Mountain scenery on the drive from Rio to Macae (about a 3 hour drive). People drive insane here. I want to close my eyes every time we're on the highway.

 We've been staying in a hotel in Macae, just down the street from where we're going to live, getting settled. We're only a couple blocks from the beach, which is wonderful! Although it is about to go into the Brazilian winter, it's been in the 80s and humid. Only a few short rain storms so far.

View of Macae from our hotel. Our house in on the street you see on the far left, up the street from the red building, which is a big grocery store. So you can see it's a good location close to the beach and stores. The boulevard road in the middle is the main drag of the city.

We've bought appliances for the new house, gotten our Brazilian cell phones, and ordered some rental furniture for the house to hold us over until the shipment comes. Things are slow moving here... but we're making progress! We hope to be living in the new place in about 2 weeks, "camping" with the necessities until the big sea shipment comes. According to our management company, our air shipment should arrive in Rio on MONDAY! YEAH! I'm praying customs won't take too long... then our sea shipment should arrive in the next two months. We're hoping to have everything by early July (knock on wood!)

Blake and I in front of the new house (picture from our December house hunting trip).

Me, Blake, & Kennedy standing in the backyard of our new house!

Kennedy has been quite the international traveler, and such a good sport with us on the run and in a new place every other week. She's growing up so fast! She is ALMOST crawling, so close! She does the backwards crawl on accident sometimes and can go forward a few paces before she falls. She is also making a lot of babbling sounds now... "ga ga", "ma ma", "da da." We are so proud of our beautiful girl.

In our hotel room in Macae, Kennedy Grace at 6 months old.

Poor baby got some mosquito bites while she was sleeping, now we have to put the mosquito netting over her crib while she naps and sleeps.

Kennedy getting fingerprinted at the Policia Federal in Macae.

Mommy and baby trying to sleep in!

 Something I did not know- Brazilians LOVE babies, more than the everyday American. Everywhere we go we are greeted with "que linda!" or "how beautiful!" We get preferential treatment to skip lines in the airport, grocery store, wherever we go really. Brazilians highly value children and family. When I take Kennedy to eat breakfast with me in the hotel lobby, not 30 seconds goes by without one of the wait staff coming up to give air kisses and to love on her. At least I'm not the only one who spoils her rotten!

On our latest trip to Rio to get some paperwork signed for Blake's work permit.

We're missing our family and friends already. We were really sad to have missed our good friends', Billy & Lauren's, wedding this past weekend. But we are lucky to have met a good group of expats here already. Both the locals and expat community have been very friendly, and our fellow Americans living here have taken us under their wing, showing us the ropes.

At a BBQ at a new friend's house. We have been blessed to meet some great people already. In this picture is the daughter of one of the expats, me, Kennedy, and another new friend who will be moving to Macae soon.

Kennedy made herself at home at the BBQ, naked and playing on the floor of the patio. Everyone adored her and thought she was such an angel. She literally played by herself without making a peep for almost 3 hours... what a good girl!

We're looking forward to just getting settled in our house soon (hopefully :) ) and we already have some family planning to visit us over the summer (Mrs. Burns & my parents and brother are both planning trips), so we are overjoyed by that. We will post pictures and updates as often as we can here, to keep our loved ones in the know, and share what we've been up to! Hugs and kisses! Until next time ~ Jess, Blake, & KK