HOME SWEET HOME

This is the rental house we will be in for a month or so until our more permanent house is ready. It is just beautiful and spacious, but no air conditioning! January is the hottest month of the year here so we have been melting!

Living area, no dogs allowed!

The kids are loving the pool. They are in and out of it all day long!

Here is the view from the master bedroom. It really is a pretty place, it's just a little hard to enjoy when you are trying to sleep in a sauna :) I think Tim is annoyed more by the security police that drive by on their motorcycles every 20 minutes or so all night long. Not me! I find this very comforting!

Our Adventure Begins!

We arrived at the airport at about 12:30. Tim thought that was ridiculously early. Our flight wasn't until 3:30, but I wanted to have time to let the dogs out one more time to potty:)

When I first came to St. Louis 13 years ago it was Kim and Mark who picked us up and it was Mark who was our Taxi this time also. He made sure all 18 bags and 2 dog crates were in the airport before we said goodbye. It was a sad time. We will miss the Harris family!

Tyler at the St. Louis airport.

One last picture before we begin our journey!

I had planned on taking lots of pictures along the way, but that 11 hour flight was way too long and painful. I'm already trying to block it from my memory :)

We arrived at the Sao Paulo airport sometime the next day with 17 of the 18 bags. I thought that was pretty good odds. Tim would disagree because it was his bag that was lost along the way! I was just grateful it wasn't the one with all the peanut butter and carnation instant breakfast!!

Overall I'm really proud of how the kids have handled such a major transition!

SO FAR SO GOOD!!!!

Jake's Driving

Jake took his driving test on January 3rd and passed with flying colors. He is a very cautious and careful driver, but it is still a little hard to let him take off on his own. I've tried to give him as much freedom as possible since he only has a few weeks before we move and the driving age in Brazil is 18. He has enjoyed driving to seminary every morning (wait maybe I enjoyed that), picking Shane up from school, and many many trips to McDonalds and the Circle K.

Goodbye

It's a good thing these goodbyes are almost over because it's breaking my heart! Today was our last time to go to church here and we have so many super great friends. We have been going to the same church for 12 years. That's a lot of goodbyes. After church on Sundays we always spend a couple of hours at Tim's parents house. Sometimes dinner sometimes just ice cream, but always lots of laughs. The kids play with their cousins and the adults visit. My children live for these visits. As soon as church is over they say "What time will we go to Grandma's". This will be one of the traditions I will miss the most. We have been so fortunate to live so close to family and I've loved the relationships the kids have made with their Grandparents. We hope they visit us in Brazil soon!:)

Tim's goodbye dinner

We had a great dinner with a few of Tim's favorite people from work. I think they will miss him. It was a great time and we laughed a lot as they told funny stories about work. I think they might be having a little too much fun at Emerson!

Good times!

Good people!

BE STILL

Tim left for Brazil yesterday. He is there to nail down a few final details before the kids and I join him. We found out a few days ago that the house we had chosen was rented to someone else so we are scrambling for a place to live. I'm trying to keep calm and enjoy the last 2 weeks the kids and I have in St. Louis. This has not been easy and requires a Tylenol PM to sleep at night :) I know when we are gone we will miss this place and all our friends and family desperately. I am learning that moving out of the country is just one complication after another and have learned many great lessons through this process. Many months ago when Emerson (Tim's employer) was trying to decided if they wanted Tim to relocate we had many days when one day we'd be moving then the next things would fall apart and we'd be staying. It was a stressful time and emotions were very high. On a particularly hard day I was trying to help Jake prepare a talk for church. I was not happy to be doing this. Tim is much better at this than I, but I knew I could not ask one more thing of him. As we searched the scriptures and other materials from Conference talks I came across a scripture in the Doctrine And Covenants and it said "BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD". This has helped me in many aspects of my life. I tend to be an intense, impatient, and impulsive kind of person so daily (or for me many times daily) I have to remind myself to be still and remember God is in control. I am grateful for this adventure and for the lessons God is teaching me!