Connection

Connection. It is such a simple word, but it holds so much inside it when you really think about it.  We left our home and our country and we left so many of our connections with friends and family.  Some of those connections stayed the same, some strengthened, and some faded, but they were all different. And new connections are hard, especially with a new language and a new job.  They take time and so you really rely on the connections you bring with you.  We knew that coming to Brazil would give us more time to connect as a family, but we had no idea just how much when we started.  And then you throw in a global pandemic, and suddenly family time becomes your all the time.  But despite the occasional fraying of those same connections, we more than survived and I am a little sad to be heading home knowing that I am going to have to share my family again.  Yes I know that everyone needs their space, myself included, but it is going to be strange to shift gears again back to a world full of connections.  

So as folks do when things are coming to a close, I have been pondering our first days here and remembering what those times were like, especially for Hannah and Lila.  It seems a lifetime and several inches of height ago when those two landed here in Brazil, and they will not leave the same people, or the same sisters.  A lot has happened for both of them.  Struggles, successes, happiness, and sadness; usually in the same twenty minutes these days.  All joking aside, deep down I hope that these two years are a source of connection that they never lose.  I will be the first person to say that not every moment in their relationship is rainbows and unicorns, but that is part of what makes it amazing to watch.  One moment they just need some alone time, and the next moment there is nothing but giggling coming from a pile of arms and legs and blankets.  And I don’t know how their connection will change when we return home, and I don’t know how their connection will be in the future.  But for now, in this moment, they are sisters who have been there for each other.  My dream is that they will always be there for each other.  So as part of the official record of our time here in Brazil, I present my pictorial homage to two pretty amazing young women who just happen to be sisters.  May this moment be a connection for you always.