yes. it's true.

So, what is the big change on the horizon, the momentous decision that has allowed me to endure fires, bureaucratic incompetence, even no Internet, with such remarkable, unflappable grace?

It's the prospect that, in three and a half short months, I will no longer have to endure these things.

That's right. We've decided to go home.

As you know if you've been following the blog, we've had our doubts. It didn't help when our boss was a complete jerk to us when our baby was in the hospital. Plus, our boys have been unhappy, and I don't see that changing if we were to stay.

Safety has always been an issue for us here, and in this way I think the school wasn't completely honest when they recruited us. Only after we arrived did we learn that the director had been held at gunpoint, a student had almost been kidnapped, and parent from the school had been shot, all in the span of a month.

After we'd been here for a few months, there was an armed mugging in front of our condominium at nine in the morning. Just a couple of days ago, a friend's tires were slashed.

People who've lived here for awhile get innured to the crime. I guess you'd have to be. And if you can be happy living in the peaceful world of the enclosed condominium, maybe it would work.

But I want to be able to walk my kids to the park or the library. I want to be able to drive them to the pediatrician without worrying I'll get lost in a dangerous part of the city where there are no road signs, or end up stuck in traffic for two hours in 90-degree heat in a car without air conditioning.

It's not just crime. I want to feel like I can negotiate my own life, whether that's walking to the drugstore, or calling the telephone company, or trust that my house will not be unpredictably filled with smoke.

Here I feel completely at the mercy of strange and mysterious gods.

For awhile we thought we'd stay and stick it out. But we know we wouldn't stay longer than the two years of our contract, anyway. So why be unhappy for an extra year?

As my dad put it, a year of your life is worth a lot of money.

Indeed.

So, even though we have to pay the school back for visa expenses, and buy our own tickets home, we're happy about the decision.

It feels right.

On June 21, thirteen years to the day after Dan and I tied the knot, we'll be back in the City of Brotherly Love.

There are things that we'll miss, certainly. The beach. The blue skies. Sitting under the trees with our neighbors in the evening. The friends we've made here. Dete.

The freedom the boys have to explore and play outside on their own.

But we know what we're going back to--the good and the bad--and know that it's the right thing for our family.

Readers, I'm sure the next few months, and beyond, hold plenty more excitement of all sorts.

So, Brazil, bring it on.

We're ready.