Life Brings Changes...

So, it has been forever since we updated this thing. Please forgive us. A LOT has happened in the last few weeks and we have been a little preoccupied.

First of all- there has been some tension at my work over why I was brought to Brasil and what I am supposed to be contributing. My role is as a program manager and an operations manager for a battery manufacturer. I have two jobs and one paycheck. Long story short- my local boss doesn’t like paying my very expensive American salary when he could hire a local person, bully them more than me and pay them less than a third of what he pays me. So, he’s done his best to get rid of me. Finally after 6 months he got his way and the VP is allowing him to dismiss me. Feeling this tension I was already beginning to look for something else and welcomed the final decision. I can stay here until March 31st. After that, I either have to get a job here or go back to the states. My new job search is going very well; I’ve been approached by a number of companies and even had a phone interview with a company in Atlanta.

All this right before we left for Christmas in the states (more on that in a second). Just before this happened I was called to be a member of the Stake High Council in our stake (this is a council of 12 men that are responsible for assisting the president of a stake – who oversees between 5 and 12 congregations). This also means that I was ordained a High Priest in the church (I was an Elder in the Church). To a member of our church who is looking to go where the Lord wants him, it would seem that the Lord would want us here in Brasil so that I could serve in this new role and help them. But things aren’t leaning that way – so far.



Then there was the Christmas break. We spent a wildly fast week in the United States. We visited Reva’s family in Orange County California. Everyone got to see Solei for the first time. She was a real charmer. Even at 3 months old she is very much an extrovert who loves people. It was SO nice to have a fun family Christmas with our family in California. Everyone was so sweet and did so much to help us feel welcome and enjoy ourselves. The 6 hour time zone difference was a bit to deal with for all of us, but we managed okay.

And now we are back here in Brasil again. We took many of our belongings back to the states and put them with everything else we own in my parent’s basement. If we do have to leave, we wanted to be sure that we could take back to the states all of the important things. If we are staying, well, we are going to have to get used to wearing the same 7 or 8 outfits.

Finally, we put our house up for sale in June when I was leaving for Brasil. In fact, that was one of the very last things that I did before I left. Finally in November we found a buyer. We were SO excited. Over the last 2 months everything you could imagine going wrong with a closing has gone wrong. BUT, our house should close today at 9am! Although we LOVED our little house and feel such a connection to it, it is nice to have the “issue” resolved. Now, wherever we go, we can have a fresh start with nothing to hold us down. Personally I would love the opportunity to build something that is exactly what we want. We will see how things work out…