Heading Back to the USA

Joaquin is crawling now, but you will just have to see that in person!!!!





Where to begin????????? Everything here has been soooo difficult. We knew it would be hard, but I never would have imagined that it would be this difficult. I thought that coming down here with Jaime would help him with work because he would be able to concentrate fully on work and dedicate all of his time to getting things going. I was totally wrong. Having us here was hard because I was not able to do ANYTHING alone. I didn't have the documents that I needed to do much of anything. Things were constantly coming up and I couldn't handle them by myself. It definitely was a challenge for me because I have always considered myself to be a pretty self-sufficient person and be able to hang with the kids and do my thing in whatever environment I was placed in. I was wrong again! Every part of my independent self was challenged here. Did God place me here to learn how to depend more solely on Him??? Quite possibly because I literally couldn't make it a day without Him. Was I here to learn contentment and be thankful for what I had in Georgia before we came? I am certain of it. Through this experience I have learned that no matter where he places me, he has a purpose. We are to look for Him in all things and lean on Him for everything. I know, much easier said than done.

When it all boils down to it, we are heading back. We haven't been able to get health insurance, our driver's license process is going to take a few months, our renters are moving out, etc., etc., etc. We are a liability to NABC and they decided along with Jaime that it would be better for us to move back.

I am excited to be going back. I didn't think that I would miss Ga, our family and friends as much as I did. The kids are excited as well. They keep talking about our friends, family, our house, Dante and everything else back in the US (the cereal aisle at Walmart and Krispy Creme doughnuts included).

When I look back on our months here in Brazil, it really does seem like it was just the blink of an eye. It's exciting to see that all the kids now know 3 languages and their Portuguese is almost fluent. That is cool. I can't say that much for my Portuguese. We will definitely have to keep on practicing it. I don't want them to loose that. We were able to make a few friends and learn about another culture and how it is very different from living in the US. Even though I grew up in Colombia, I couldn't believe how easily I had forgotten how the US really is the land of opportunity and life there is "easy". I now really appreciate my dishwasher, garbage disposal, my washer and drier, being able to go and get things at the store fast, being able to go and get things done in one day, etc.

Jaime is going to be doing A LOT of traveling. He will be spending one week in Ga and the next week in Brazil. We are all going to have to get used to him being gone a lot again. That is the biggest downside to moving back. We loved having him home at night. This way though, I know that he will be able to concentrate on work and not be worried that we are not OK. On the bright side, I have already hinted that I am expecting a trip to somewhere exotic with all of those miles he will be racking up and since Joaquin is our last baby, we could really do it and leave the kids with family.

Anyway, I know everyone had questions as far as what happened and so that is why I wanted to give you an update. I am attaching the last pics that I took in Brazil.

We spent Christmas here. It was weird just being the 6 of us and we definitely missed being with family, friends and even going to church. New Year's I really wanted to get out of the city so we headed to the beach. Let's just say it was packed and we stayed in a very small hotel room. It rained pretty much the entire weekend 24 hours a day. We did get to go to the beach jan 1 for 2 hours before it started raining again. here are the pics of the beach trip. I loved the beautiful scenery. I had never seen beaches that are right by mountains. Breathtaking.







This is the market that was a 5 minute walk from our apartment. You could buy fruits, vegetables, meat, etc. there. It was every Saturday. The market was open everyday of the week in a different area of the city.





I don't know if I will continue to blog, just because I started doing it to keep everyone informed on our latest here. Now hopefully I will be seeing you and talking to you on a regular basis. We will see.