A Change in Attitude

You already know that I am a big whiner. And our past troubles haven't helped much with that -- have they? Take typical posts like this one, for example, written only a week or so before K got his "big job offer" last year and thus making all those "impossible" things I was pining after seem very possible and real -- those were the things I worried about: the visa situation, wanting to settle down, be able to afford things.

When K lost his job back in October, it was a huge reality check, and I complained grieved a lot. Of course things turned around and we were able to put the whole situation into perspective. A great benefit came from the extension, even if temporary, of K's job -- the permanent residency. Now that we can stay here and work, we can breathe more easily, and the enormity of that benefit is only now dawning on us. During the trip to Brazil we thought about this long and hard, particularly because we had a very rare experience -- a window into the past, the eerie opportunity to confront what could have been and never was (I need to be cryptic here because we haven't discussed this issue with many people, in very general lines, K missed an opportunity that would probably meant that we would have gone back to Brazil a year or so ago and it was quite shocking to be faced with that possibility) -- this experience put our whole lives into perspective once more and we decided that a change in attitude was/is what we need/ed right now!!

We do not want to be pessimistic, whiny or fatalists anymore (one example was K's comment -- mirrored by my own negative attitude, after last year's troubles -- "we'll never settle down!"), we want to face the challenges presented by life with a positive attitude, looking after solutions to our problems, being proactive, creative, and -- yes -- happy, no matter what. It is with this in mind that I want to write next (later today, hopefully) about the new decisions that we have made and the challenges that face us as we move forward in life.

I can already imagine that my friends Articulate Dad and Rocket Mom will be very happy for us -- you two have been an inspiration, let me tell you!