Back to normal life...

Fully immersed again in our daily activities: We are back to normal life…

We really enjoyed our holidays in Italy, and what’s more: God worked out Flavio’s visa in an incredible way while we were on the beach! We only had to go pick it up before leaving…
He is faithful!

Edinburgh is changing colours, grey days are coming, and the cold season is approaching. Sometimes this adds to the lack of free time, to the lack of friends around… sadness!! :(

Last week, we celebrated our first anniversary… unbelievable: it’s already one year we are married! It went so fast... it's been a year of blessings and we really thank God for each other!

Flavio cooking the celebration dinner, he is such a great cook!

The end of our Open University course is finally close and we have a very short time to prepare for the end of course assignment.
Overall the course has been very interesting, …only we hope we had more time to invest in it. It was about technology and the environment, and the implications of individuals and governments’ decisions on the future of our planet. Climate change of course has been one of the major themes… Now when we have to plan for a trip, we always feel bad to fly due CO2 emissions! (check it out http://www3.open.ac.uk/courses/bin/p12.dll?C01T172)

Cinzia’s tummy is growing, although she can’t feel the baby’s movements yet… The first trimester is over, which means no morning sickness anymore!!

Only another week and finally Flavio will leave his second part time job as a cook: Too bad for them, they will miss Flavio's food! :) Eventually he will have a little more time for himself!

Flavio&Cinzia in Capri

For now, this is all... We are in the process of decision making, and any prayer for directions would be highly appreciated!

Latest

Time goes really fast, and here in Scotland we almost didn’t realize it is already summer… such a cold one!


During the last 2-3 months we experienced some ups and downs.
Flavio left his ‘time and energy demanding’ job as a postman and joined a Starbucks store as a barista, soon supervisor to be. He is still keeping his second part time job as a cook for Bethany Christian Trust, which means working about 60 hrs a week and most of the time not enjoying an entire full day off a week.
Cinzia instead has been enduring quite a lot of late shifts at work, quite annoying… also considering that this way her schedule wouldn’t quite match Flavio’s one.
But in the midst of this all, a great event took place and we are very glad to share with our friends and family our fantastic news:
We are expecting a baby in the beginning of February 2008! God is good!
We are so excited!!

Finding time for our studies has been quite a challenge so far and lately the motivation really dropped. We need God’s grace more then ever, and His help on discipline.

Although both of us lack of local friendships, which are effort and time-demanding, in the last two months we had some good friends visiting us. We played some games with Peter Cloke and Peter Atkins, who live here.
Also, Chris Keeler came to visit us from Catania just before his return to the States and Mr Kevin Smith on his way to Vicky and Nathan’s wedding also came to visit us for few days. It was really nice to see them all.


Soon in August we are going for our summer break to have a short holiday with Cinzia’s family in Italy, to get some rest and some ‘hit’ on one of the Italian beaches of Abruzzo. Hopefully when we come back to the UK, our energies are refilled and we are ready to start a new season.
And hopefully, we will be back in the UK without problem. Visa related matters are always too complicated to explain and understand... we are still battling for Flavio's visa. If God wants us we will be here!

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Postman or marathon running ‘machine’?
Spring is coming, and our heroes (Flavio&Cinzia) do look so much forward to the summer time in the beautiful, still wet and windy, Edinburgh.
This week Flavio starts his new job, as a postman with the Royal Mail. He is very exited, ...oh yes, he will have to walk 8 miles a day to deliver letters!
Well nothing wrong with that, he wanted to run the Edinburgh marathon.... That’s right! from “couch potato” life style now he decided to become a running ‘machine’… He was even training for that, mind you…, unfortunately he got sick 2 weeks which ruined his training consistency… (indeed there is a training schedule to follow www.edinburgh-marathon.com/?training-programmes) …well, he still hopes to get on track for next year… To run a marathon is one of his dreams in life, he got it after seeing some of his old fellow ex-douloids running the same marathon 3 years ago when the Doulos visited Edinburgh.

Coffee tasting
Cinzia every day is becoming more and more expert in coffee making, every week she comes home with a new pack of Starbucks coffee. Well, perhaps I must tell you that in Starbucks they have a sort of coffee freak ritual every now and again: the staff in circle is presented with an espresso cup sample by the Coffee “Wizard” (the coffee-master), first with closed eyes, they deeply smell it , in silence…uhm, not really, there is a jazzy song in the background, but that doesn’t disturb the ceremony. (exageration by the author). After the smelling, comes the slurping, (can you picture a Chinese having his midnight sup?), then they taste it and eventually they must describe what it tastes like. Now, I know what you are thinking at this moment…: what can a coffee taste like? easy: coffee!!!!! But in Starbucks they say that it is just as with wine… have you ever seen these guys testing wine and describing it…? well, they have to do the same… and I don’t know how, but they do manage to smell citric fruits, berries, chocolate, banana etc…
Well, another day Cinzia made Flavio an espresso. She wanted to introduce him to the coffee-rite at home… but for her disillusionment Flavio couldn’t smell or taste any citrus or berry, neither chocolate in the coffee, actually when he was allowed to put sugar in it, it tasted much better, he said.

Perseverance

Perseverance is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen... (Quote -Oswald Chambers)

update

yeah, despite our silence Flavio and I are still alive and well, actually doing great in our new home and new lifestyle!
after leaving family and friends back in Naples last November 2006, we had a very nice holiday time in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where I got to know Flavio’s immediate and extended (… very extended-to the 2nd generation) family. It was such a blessed time, we had so much fun!
the first week was actually chilly and rainy, (and I had a doubt about the tropical sun) but after that the sun broke out and we often went swimming and sunbathing to the beautiful white sand beaches. Brazil is such a beautiful country! I have to admit that. I never really told Flavio, I let him think… you know, just another country added to the list of those visited… But indeed, Brazil is beautiful… and the people!

on our way back we had the privilege to see a very good friend, Mr Kevin Smith, the teacher. It was only half a morning, between two flights, but it was fun and we could experience the real greasy American fast food, probably not very healthy but testing really nice.

it’s been already two months now we are here in Scotland, beautiful and cold cold, Edinburgh.
The first weeks felt like holidays, probably because of the Christmas season and the time spent with Flavio’s family in Knaresborough, Yorkshire. Back to Edinburgh at the end of the year, it was strange and I wouldn’t feel ‘home’. But as we rearranged the sofas in our cosy flat, slowly but surely we settled down.
friends here are still not many.
we met a lady by chance at the public library over a month ago and she has became a lovely friend since. Her name is Elaine; she’s got some brokenness in her life and I really hope one day soon I will be able to lead her to the Source of restoration.
we have found a very nice church to attend to and a lovely cell group to be part of.
our church is really cool, contemporary style, a lot of young folk and lots of opportunities to be involved.

have a look if you want www.destinychurchedinburgh.com

friend-wise, we are also trying to build deeper relationships with our fellow cell group members, but it requires time investing, and time is a non renewable resource. We are all very busy and so we try to balance our time in the best way.
at times I felt (and still do) lonely, and as I was sharing this over the Skype with one of my best friends, Anita Haas, ...she is crazy, she just made up her mind right there and came to visit me for a weekend, which was cold and rainy but we enjoyed it anyways.

today is my first day off after 2 days of work. Great start. Yes, I got a new job… I am a barista (soon certified.. haha) at the Starbucks in the Ocean Terminal, the one many of you are familiar with. Men, I never knew that to be a barista in a cafè takes so much paper work, tests and studies, probably it’s the American way of doing things… I don’t know…

Flavio is working part time as a cook for a Christian org, named Bethany Christian Trust, and although he enjoys that job quite much, he’d probably prefer a full time position. So he is looking for something else, either part time to complement the job he already has, or a full time one which will force him to leave the current job, but… yeah, that’s life.

in our spare time we decided to enhance our hobbies and future dreams with some more studies and we both started a course called ‘working with our environment: technologies for a sustainable future’. It’s a very interesting course although we need to polish off (or discover in our inner nature) some scientific and technological skills. But it will be worth it as that will count toward a BA/BS in International Studies.
what else to say?
today is Valentine day and it is probably the best one of my whole life. Not that I got any special present. It is just that it is the first one in my life that I spend with the person I love. Last year, i was still onboard, and I can’t even remember of it.
Flavio is such a great guy, and the more I get to know him, the more I love him. I’m convinced all the more we are the perfect match.

The Start

the cause: catania line upthe consequence:

it started in Sept. 2006, and it is really exciting!

You might have already come across to this sentence but ....

'it really was the most beautiful day of my life!' It was really nice to celebrate this fantastic day with our family and friends, and we would like to thank again all those who came from afar to honour us.

and many more...

after that, we went for a wonderful and romantic honey moon in the Maldives...

a true blessing from God!

and from here... off we go...