FROM NOEL IN FLORIANOPOLIS
When I arrived yesterday and spent the evening wrestling with wifi and trying to make some sense of my exhaustion, I couldn't have predicted that today would be so wonderful.

The day before, in the office of AMUUC, Jurema had played a video for me from the Lacos de Amor campaign, which is a TV campaign promoting adoption. We saw one of the videos from the campaign, which featured a girl of around 10 and her adoptive parents. Even without understanding the Portuguese, I fully understood the ad. They had adopted her as a baby and had two elder sons. They love her and are so proud of her, and they can't imagine their lives without her. I admit tears were welling up in my eyes, it was very well done. Jurema had found an organization affiliated with this campaign and had made an appointment for us to meet during my stay.

Today, Jurema, Carlos and I drove down to a beach where Marni's family and Melissa have beach houses. They had agreed to meet with us there so they could learn about Freinds of Children and we could learn about GEAAFA and also about the adoption system in Brazil. They are the President and Vice President of GEAAFA, a volunteer organization that they started 3 years ago to help people with the adoption process. They give support for this sometimes long and bureaucratic process, and include support for after a baby is adopted, a time that is not recognized by the laws but is certainly a time of increased need for support.

We sat down at their table, Melissa's husband was there too, and various adults and children were walking through on their way to or from the beach. Marni mentioned that her daughter, who was adopted, was at the beach.

She also told us about her paid job, which is for a children's shelter. It is called CETE (Center of Education, Training and Hope). They have the capacity for 20 children, who arrive between the ages of 0 and 6. CETE takes care of them and tries to place them in adoptive homes. The concept of foster care is not used in Brazil. Children live in orphanages or are adopted. I couldn't get a full understanding of the different ways that children end up going into an orphanage. The only temporary placement for a child is with a prospective adoptive family, who has an opportunity to take the child temporarily before committing to the adoption.

During our conversation, Melissa's phone rang, and she quickly passed it along to her husband to answer, giving him paper to write anything down. We kept talking, and her husband returned to tell her something. She began screaming with joy, and everyone around also began to celebrate. She had just been told that she got a baby! It turns out that they had been waiting for two and a half years to come to the top of the list of adoptive parents. Melissa had survived ovarian cancer as a young woman and could not bear children, so they had been waiting. Today their dreams came true. Their baby is 45 days old, and perhaps not coincidentally, she has been at CETE nearly since she was born. Marni told Jurema that when the baby came in, another colleague of hers said she thought perhaps it was Melissa's baby. They joked about taking very good care of her for their friend, but they didn't say anything to Melissa because once before she had almost gotten a baby only to lose her to another waiting family; they didn't want to get her hopes up in case she really wasn't going to be next. But they did take a little bit of extra care to take many photos of her first 45 days, and to make sure all her paperwork was perfect and ready. Melissa excused herself to change and get ready to leave -- she was going to get her daughter this afternoon.

We talked a little more, and discovered that in fact Marni is the mother we had seen on the TV campaign the day before. No wonder she seemed familiar -- she is a celebrity! As we were leaving, Marni's daughter came back from the beach and was congratulating Melissa and her husband. What a treat to see her in real life, to know one small moment of their beautiful life together, and the continued happiness of their close friends and family. What a perfect morning. It's surreal to realize that as I write this, Melissa is surely home with her baby Emanuela now, on her first day of motherhood.

Of course, our meeting ended with many bejos and congratulations, and then we headed to a magnificent beach for a short visit. But nothing could top the morning!

I thought you all might like to hear about this spectacular day. Missing you all and sending love from Floripa.