"Mom. why can't we stay in Auburn forever? I have the perfect life here." I agree Aidan. Our life here is pretty darn perfect. That's why we have to go to Brazil...so we'll always be able to appreciate "perfect". This was all prompted by Camp Chandler . Or I should say, leaving Camp Chandler after picking Aidan up last weekend. Sometimes the simplest things hit you the hardest, like driving out of Summer camp. For the first time, we said good-bye to something for the last time. We'll be doing a lot of that soon, but last weekend it hit me. We're leaving Auburn forever. So I had my teary eyed moment as we pulled out of the camp gate, and I stopped myself from looking back. Of course I had to lighten the moment by wondering aloud what Summer camp in Brazil would be like. Alligator wrestling, piranha fishing, surfing, samba dancing, coconut hunting? It's hard to let go of what you know in exchange for a strange new world. I only hope a few years from now our family is once again wondering why we can't stay in Sao Paulo forever. I'm hoping we've learned that perfect is anywhere your heart is full and goodbye really means "on to the next".
Enough of the emotional stuff, on to the "Policies and Procedures" of International assignment, to be referred to as P&P and IA going forward.
The corporate machine is droning steadily forward with all the necessary preparations for the move, none of which I need to be concerned about. I'm now referring to the team of human resource personnel, attorneys in both Brazil and the US, insurance companies, tax preparers, and assorted others who are assigned our family as the "Wedding Planners". They do all the work to pull this event off, and we just answer a few questions and show up.
Unfortunately the poor kids had to show up for their International Travel Medical Clearance Exams. When given the whole page of required vaccinations to get clearance, I immediately devised a reward system for good behavior when receiving shots. Then I had to explain what a shot was to Camryn. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. For two days, she was obsessed with what a shot felt like, what a needle was, and why would Dr. Smalley poke her on purpose. The great news is that our US children receive almost every precautionary vaccine in the world and they only had to get a Hepatitis A shot and a TB test. They were so excited about their reward that they yelled "Yay, we get a shot" when the Dr. broke the news. Now David and I need our exams , which I'm sure will involve many more shots and no rewards.
The only other area we've progressed in is applying for school. There's only one school I want the kids to go to, The Graded School of Sao Paulo. You can check it out if you Google it. We've submitted the written applications, but hit a snag when paying the application fee. I just assumed the payment page would have a place for MC, Visa, or American Express. Not so easy- we have to wire money to a bank in NYC which will then deposit the money in a Brazilian account. David has attempted this, but our credit union can't convert to Reals which is the Brazilian currency. David's waiting for confirmation of the exchange rate to complete the transfer. Where's our wedding planner when we need them? Sounds like a money laundering scheme.
As far as a move date? We don't have one yet. Things seem to be moving a little faster though. And whatever you do, don't tell Aidan that when he does go to Summer camp in Brazil he will have to get a Dengue Fever, Yellow Fever, Anti Malarial, more Hep A, along with the usual H1N1. He'll really be missing his perfect camp back in Auburn.
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