How 10 people are fitting into an apartment in Brazil.....

If anyone had asked me 3 months ago if I was looking for an apartment to live in, I would have said "No, we are going to have 2 visitors for a few months this summer and with our big family, an apartment just won't work.  It has to be a house."  Actually, I think someone did ask me that and this was my answer.

It's not an unreasonable answer.  Most apartments are not very big.  Compared to the US, most houses are not very big at all either.  So I never imagined that we would find an apartment that would work for our family.

You can read here how we prayed and looked and prayed and looked for a place to live.  It was getting frustrating, then God just blessed us with this apartment, which is really nice sized.  The only 4 bedroom apartment that I have ever been in since we have lived here.

Compared to the house we moved out of, every room is the same size or larger - except the living room which was HUGE in the other house.  We also gave up the outside area which helped with a lot of storage, but I have gotten rid of a bunch of "stuff" and will continue to get rid of some more.

So, here's how it is working out......
(forgive the mess, I'm trying to accept the fact that it will probably be messy most of the time for a while...)

There is one bedroom that is a little more toward the front of the apartment.  The actual owners of the apt. were going to use it as a TV room when they were planning to live here.  This is Stephen's and Weston's room for now.  After they leave in August, it will be Garrett's room.  HIS OWN ROOM!  He can't wait.

Further down the hall on the same side as this room is a kid's bathroom and then the girls' room.  Bronwyn, Ansley and Carys are all sharing a room until August when Bronwyn goes back to college.  Then after our furlough at the end of this year, Ansley will be in Equador, so Carys will have.... HER OWN ROOM!  She can't wait....

Across the hall from the girls' room is the Master bedroom and bathroom.  It is big and has a nice view out the big window.  Our room has the most boxes to be unpacked.  It's kind of been the "dumping ground" for miscellaneous stuff so far.

Beside the master bedroom is Anderson, Giovanni and Garrett's room - until August when it will be just the two younger boys' room.  For now, Anderson is on the top bunk, Giovanni on his little bed underneath, and Garrett at the end of the room on a twin bed.

In August, we will play musical beds.  The bunk beds in Stephen and Weston's room will go the the two little boys' room.  The double bed in the girls' room will go to Garrett's room.  The beds in the little boys' room now will go to Carys's room.  She will have room to put the twin bed underneath the bunk in kind of an "L" shape and the trundle bed will fit underneath the twin.  Giovanni's little bed we will donate to someone who needs it.   Confused yet??

Obviously we have a lot of decorating to do and some boxes to unpack and put away.  But we are making it fine now.  And so far we haven't been evicted from the building because of the noise level or late night movie watching.

The apartment also has a living room with a space for a dining table and a couch/TV area, a dining room, kitchen, laundry area, "maid's room" and bathroom (which will be my craft area), and a powder room.  More pictures to come!