Milestones

365 days have passed since we boarded an American bound flight, leaving behind our 2-year home in Brazil.  That season of our life is gone, but definitely not forgotten.  I often marvel how Brazil has changed us as individuals and as a family.  There are some decidedly Brazilian influences in our day-to-day lives and there are parts of who we were then that I wish we still had.

The last picture in Brazil...little travelers waiting patiently at the airport.

Where are we now?  I really wanted to know, so I started a little conversation over dinner this week to find out.  We talk about it from time to time.  And since the grass is always greener, the list for Brazil continues to grow as time passes.  Interestingly, M told us that she wants to move back to Brazil. (...but wants everything to be English.)

What do we miss about Brazil?  Here are a few of the answers:
The food (specifically: churrasco, pastels, fruit--mangos and $1 pineapples, little bananas, chokkito)
Our house, our pool, our lime tree
People...Loriane our maid, teachers, classmates
Our Brazilian diet, and the way the big people effortlessly lost weight!
The weather
The PUC science museum
Restaurants...D'Forno Pizza, Divina Gula, Aromas
Half-day school
Lazy weekends
DaddyHealy's motorcycle--"the tornado"
Having everything (work included) close to home

I loved the answers that were so contrary to what we big people consider reality...
H still misses our red house," because it was so big." It was actually a fraction of the size of our current home.
Someone said (and they all agreed) that they missed Parque Centro (Central Park)  This is humorous, because I haven't seen such a run down park in the States since we've been back, but they loved it because it was what they had. 

Couldn't we all take a lesson from that?  We spend a lot of time trying to teach our children (and ourselves) to be content.  In this world, especially in this country, we tend to strive for  (as DaddyHealy puts it) "bigger, faster, more."  But wouldn't it be a shame if we live life and never reach the point of satisfaction.  Sometimes we would be better off to think 'smaller, slower, less.'  And that kind of sums up our life in Brazil.  No wonder it still holds our hearts.

I will always remember the slow pace of life we enjoyed there.