He parted the Red Sea for us

Last Thursday I was coming home from running errands with my Portuguese neighbor. As we came to the highway intersection before our neighborhood, a policeman pulled me over. Apparently he and other police at the intersection corners were checking each car for registration papers. The officer, and then another lady, came over and spoke to me in Portuguese. I would turn to my neighbor, Isabel, for a translation. Then the woman began to speak directly with me in English (so well that Isabel said she couldn't follow her!). She asked for my car's registration. I searched through the glove compartment looking for something different than our insurance. I had never been taught what else you might need to have in Europe! I called Scott; he didn't know where the other paper would be, but I knew he started praying because right after that I found a folded piece of paper that was what she was looking for!

The woman asked me when we brought the car into Portugal—June 20^th. She said it was over the 6 month allowance to have our registration changed from Germany. We read that we had 12 months from a website that gave instructions in English to people coming into the country. I told her we had planned to get the car inspected next week just so we could change the registration over. Isabel kept saying we had been out of the country for 3 months (for our recent furlough)—didn't that count? The lady clarified that we had not driven the car out with us. No, we flew to America. She took my papers and was gone for a long time filling out paperwork. When she returned she said my car would be in their custody, but I would be allowed to drive it that night only. After that I could not drive it until I had changed registration and paid the fine for not doing it in time. I asked how I could take care of the registration if I couldn't drive the car. She asked if we only had one car—Yes. So she made a note on the paper that we would be driving to the customs office the following day.

The next day at the customs office in a beach town about 30 minutes from here, we went first to a counter that appeared to deal with the car registration. One woman there spoke English. She read our papers from the officer the day before. She said we could not register the car as usual because we were over the 6 month mark. We would have to pay taxes on our car to be able to register it (or get it back from the government's custody!). We told her we'd read that because we'd owned our car in Germany for over one year we wouldn't have to pay taxes. She said that would be fine if we had registered within the 6 month mark. We asked if they'd consider that we were misinformed about the time period. She said we'd have to speak with her boss. In the mean time, she would figure the taxes for us. Scott and I discussed that God would not require more than He could take care of. She came back with a list of numbers that totaled 9, 350 Euros! Unbelievable! Yet peace prevailed. We asked what if we could not pay that? She said they can keep the car instead—our only car. Then she took us to her boss's office.

This manager we talked to was a nice man who spoke in broken English. He had my car papers that the officer took on Thursday and appeared to be informed about our situation. He spoke specifically to me, since I was the law offender. He began to tell me my rights under Portuguese law, one being that I could lie. I said I didn't understand, surely he had a word mistranslated or something. He repeated, "You can lie!" We told him we didn't want to lie. He asked me what I wanted to do. He repeated that my options were to pay the taxes and register, to give the car to the Portuguese government or take the car back to Germany. That brought up many questions in our minds but first we told him our story about having the wrong amount of time to get the registration changed. He said that because we were Americans and not European Union citizens that we would have had to pay taxes on the car within 20 days of us crossing the border because we were coming to live here. The only exceptions were for people here to vacation. He said we weren't even allowed to drive in Portugal as Americans because we weren't licensed to drive in the EU. Thankfully we had our German drivers' licenses that we'd worked so hard to obtain! When we showed him this, he said he needed to speak with his boss. He said he's studied the law and complained that there are too many exceptions in the Portuguese law, almost like he was suggesting that we would not be the next exception.

He was gone for a while, and everyone else was out of his office. We prayed there by ourselves for God to move on our behalf. Tears welled up in my eyes, not because of the enormity of the problem before us, rather that I knew God would not forsake us. Even if we had to pay the money, turn the car in, or drive the car to Germany to sell it (and then buy a new car in Portugal), He was going to come through for us somehow. Sea gulls seemed to float in the air right outside the only window there above a beach inlet. They had no cares in the world (Matthew 6:26-27). The manager came back and escorted us to the Director of Customs office for that area.

It was a large office with a large desk and a conference table. The director was in a suit and spoke very good English. He kindly asked us what we were doing in the country. We explained and made sure he knew we received income only from America. We showed him the papers saying we had 12 months to take care of the registration change. He looked at our German drivers' licenses and Scott's Portuguese visa. Then he spoke Portuguese with the manager for some time. He came back and asked to see any evidence that we'd lived in Germany for over one year. Thankfully Scott had done his homework and had every paper that was requested of us.

Then he said, "OK, let's go back to the other office and get your car registered." We said that's fine, but we could not pay the taxes. He said "Oh, you will not need to pay anything." Can you feel the relief we felt?! He took us to the first counter, told the ladies a bunch of stuff in Portuguese, and they got right to work preparing our paperwork to be done. I stopped the director on his way out and asked if my name would be cleared because of the citation or if I needed to do anything else. He said it was taken care of!

We think the Director used the date on Scott's residence visa (mid-August) to begin our 6 month time frame, rather than when we crossed the border. That is also the time we closed on our home—so our residency became official at that time. The manager stayed in that office for some time looking at legal books. As he was leaving, he stopped to tell us he didn't agree with his director, that he thought we didn't have "the right" to get this exception. We were thankful nonetheless that he wasn't the one with the final say.

We drove home that day in our car without a dime less having all the necessary paperwork to drive in Portugal and get further in the process of having new license plates, etc. We ended up ahead rather than behind. We laughed at how we had started to make plans in our head about how we'd take care of this. Scott leaned toward giving them the car (and calling someone to pick up the girls from school!). I leaned toward driving back to Germany. I missed our friends and familiar things there and driving back would surely be easier without so many of our household items in tow as when we drove out of Germany in June '09! God truly parted the Red Sea for us in the easiest way. Back at home, I felt most victorious in the fact that we didn't succumb to unbelief at the sea's edge. Rejoice with us!

Flea Market Finds in PT

This afternoon we took the girls to the "Gypsy Market" in our town. The girls wanted to replace some broken toys they had gotten there last summer. It is held once a month on the 23rd unless that falls on a weekend (then the following Monday)--we learned this after driving out to nothing on Saturday! Not sure where we got the name for it, but it seems fitting with all the random things you can find and the people yelling out how good their prices are. Even funnier when they change to English when they realize you aren't speaking Portuguese (reminded me of the Silk Market in China--"25 dollar for you my friend!").

I ended up getting some green onions, bell pepper and cucumber seedlings to plant. Scott and the girls bought Farturas (yes, don't laugh)--they are like big churros with gobs of cinnamon sugar.

 

And what about the girls' toys? We ended up giving them a choice. They could get the toys again or... Guess what's in the box!

We've re-entered the pet owning world. Our better-than-toys buy:

Adorable, huh?! A dwarf lion-faced female rabbit--name to be determined, but Caramel is in the runnings. Why do we always choose food names? (Two of our guinea pigs were Nacho and Noodle!) 

When we stopped to get a few rabbit supplies before heading home, Scott spotted a real flea market in the town square. Come to find out they have it the same day as the Gypsy Market monthly. YEAH--in my own town! I'd been wanting to visit one in Lisbon someday; I've been missing the Flohmarkts of Germany!

Twenty six euros of birthday money bought one side table, an old mirrored medicine cabinet, an old polk-a-dotted soup tourine and a handful of beautiful hankies. (Wish I'd included the cabinet below for you to see too!) I've already got plans for all of it!  Maybe the old chandelier if it's there next month :).

Birthday Blooms

Last week my husband and girlies blessed me with a wonderful birthday : special homemade cards, a new polk-a-dotted dish scrubber (that I wanted!), $$$ (no, actually Euros), eating out, messages from friends and family, and phone calls from others!

These were the first Gerbera daisies I've had since living in Portugal. My girls wanted to have 2 pink ones included, and Dad obliged! They are awesome, except they didn't come with the little wires for support like I've had in the States. So you can guess how they were looking after a couple of days!  Then I remembered a great new vase set that my friend Tanya (a professional decorator) had gifted me with. It was the right thing for the job:

No more droopy daisies! Will this encourage frequent visits to the local florista?

Posting the Numbers

I have wanted something to hang with a favorite picture on a blank wall in our living room. I remembered an old cheese box lid I'd kept. I think the box got crushed in a move.

I have wanted to incorporate the numbers/letters look somewhere--see The Shabby Nest blog for some great examples. Also, Susie Harris has a tutorial to make a names of God painting--similar in technique to what I tried, but so much more amazing! 

First I decided on a font we liked (I chose Modern No.20), and then what numbers. One of my favorite Scriptures is Psalm 126, so we thought that would be worth hanging on the wall. So I printed it out as big as I could get on one page, then cut out the numbers.

Next I had to determine where the numbers would look good. There is a crack/line in the middle of this lid, so I had to think through what part of the numbers would look OK going across it or not.

Then I taped the paper to the lid and traced inside the numbers with a pencil. You can see the traced numbers in the following picture:

Using black craft paint that I bought in America, I carefully painted the edges of each number with a tiny brush before filling in the middle with a larger brush. It reminded me of "cutting in" that we do when painting a wall near the trim. The small parts of the numbers became a little thicker than the original. It was not an easy or quick task with all the texture of the lid, but well worth the effort.  Don't look too close or you can tell it's handpainted!

It's new location in our home (along with the Tinker Toys!):

Psalm 126:2-3 Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

Fresh Portugal Squeezed

We received a thougtful present from a newly-met neighbor at Christmas--oranges from her yard!

I am the only one eating oranges at our house right now, so I got a bit concerned they'd go bad before I got to them. Then I remembered we had brought our citrus juicer from the States (a garage sale find as you can see!). It works great on a converter thankfully.

So I've not been buying OJ at the store in a carton or their fresh squeezed version at the cafe for a couple Euro a glass. Great gift, huh?

Rainbows, Reptiles and the Retreat Center

This morning we walked outside to see this, our first rainbow in Portugal.

Quite a great reminder after days of intermittent rain (but thankfully not too cold!). The end of the rainbow in a field down the way:

We also had a run-in with an enormous reptile--well, the biggest frog I'd seen on this side of the ocean outside of a zoo! My husband put him in a flower bed by the street, but he made a quick run back towards our house! I was trying to anticipate his fast gate, thus the off centered picture! Nevertheless, he has a new home (we hope) in the park next door, rather than our entry way.

Next, we were down at the missionary houses, looking to see what the proposed paint colors looked like. The colors are not exact in the picture (more brown and gray than yellow and green), but we both felt these two were a little dark with the terra cotta floors.

The upstairs room colors were better I think--here with the laminate flooring. What do you think?

Ringing It In with Leftover Candy Canes

Happy New Year! Or "Boa Ano" as they say around here! We celebrated the New Year with some Candy Cane Cocoa from allrecipes.com. I think I even said, "Who needs Starbuck's?"

I've had a new eagerness to use up leftover candy canes I've been keeping since they are getting goopy here in Portugal (it's not as dry as Germany). It's also encouraged this new season for me in the living overseas experience: use up my American (or German) foods stash and not hoard it for who knows when! I know the holidays are officially over, but this is worth it any cold night! And whole soft candy canes melt really well too!