I've created starting over mini moments, the sweetest bits from some favorite episodes for you to listen to while I'm on my summer break. So grab these tips, strategies, and mindset shifts to help you with your decision to relocate to the USA. Welcome to starting over in the USA, the Expat Woman's Guide to overcoming Homesickness, embracing cultural Differences, and creating a new home away from home. On this podcast, we talk about leaving behind the familiar, the pangs of homesickness and culture shock to the journeys of reinventing yourself. I'm Yolanda Reshemah. After relocating six times, I know firsthand what it's like to start from scratch feeling like both a foreign child and an adult in a new world. Today's story is one of unexpected grace of sacrifice. I really feel that it's a lesson in resilience because chris is going to share what it really means to uproot a thriving business and to leave behind your people and rebuild your identity in a new land. So expect woman, if you've ever felt torn between two homes, or wondered how to hold onto your dreams while starting over this episode is for you. My name is Christiani Diaz. I am from Brazil and I'm here because that's where I found love. And my husband, he's an American and we met in Brazil 11 years ago. I met in Jericoacoara, more known as Jeri, We met at a party in this beach town. He asked if I wanted to teach him how to dance forró, but he asked me Portuguese and I was intrigued. And I know how important it is to be able to try when you're learning a language, it's a big effort. After a week of love and fun and just being very light he had to leave. I thought, I'm sorry, I'm staying here nice to have met you. See you later, yeah, totally. No expectations. And then he left. He knew I was staying there and he had more time. He was on a long trip around Brazil, and so he decided to go back to Jeri. He took a bus from his city back. It's like, I don't know, 10 hours. Well, you left a good impression. You made him happy. I think so. He came back and then he stayed with me in the house because he fell in love with you. That's what it sounds like. I'm just propelling this story. i'm saying what I'm thinking. I'm imagining he fell in love with you. I think he fell in love. Yes. But so we stayed another week together and then it was time to really go back to America In 2016, he sent me a message through Facebook saying that he was going back to Brazil on another trip. To find you. He didn't say that, otherwise you would probably think there's a stalker, but it was really fun. I had no idea what was going on in his life, his emotional life. He didn't know anything about my life. You decided to get married what was that decision like to move here? Because as you just said, you've got a business over there. You're an entrepreneur, you're highly successful, you're well established in Brazil with your ceramics business, the whole graphic design, you've got a bit of an empire going on. Yeah. I'm still working on that, on this transition it took me a long time to really understand that I was moving. Because when we were dating, I was always on a tourist visa. To finally have my green card and the permission to work and live in the U. S. And like I said, I have so many ties to Brazil. Cause I feel so fortunate. I've always had really great clients, great projects but being here now, I feel, Oh my gosh, how do I manage? So I'm still figuring out. That's the next thing that transition, making life here. You had worked so very hard to establish a very successful life. You chose love, to be with a man that you absolutely adore. So you're having to Reinvent yourself again, I've made you cry. I'm sorry. That's okay, I moved here for love, but what I left there, it's just so much. All my friends, all my family, all that I've built, which is really tied to Brazilian culture. Yeah. And I'm still trying to figure out how to transform that into something that I can do here and how to make that connection. Is it connection with people? Is it connection with yourself? What's stopping you from rebuilding what you had over there? I think first of all, it's connection with people I do have friends who are chris friends and wonderful people from different backgrounds and doing different things. So I feel like I need to build my own network again. It's a really a new beginning, but yeah, it gives me, it makes really divided. I still feel very divided. Do I need to close my chapter in Brazil? That just sounds so radical, so what I'm trying to figure out is how to bring some of that life that I had in Brazil and connect to some life here. I'm trying to figure it out right now. I'm going to start to work with a professional coach We'll see. Dive into myself and figure it out with my new passions, my new purpose, or how to transfer this purpose. Cause I've always worked for a purpose from a very early age. That has been my focus and my hope, using communication, advertising, graphic design, the creativity, visual creativity to promote this culture. I feel like the Brazilian culture, as you've said it's rich, it's challenging, i'd love to momentarily experience it through your eyes. What Is it like to be in Brazil? When you're there, what are you eating? What are you listening? How are you moving around? Take me there for a day with you. First of all, I think Brazil is a very social place. People, I learned that by being abroad. of how the serious Brazilian people take their social lives. It's so much about meeting friends and there's the party aspect of it because we're very musical I think people are very social. And when you say Brazilian music, you're talking about samba. Could be samba, bossa nova, samba rock. We have our rock and roll. We have our reggae. We have, there is the country music. We have the forró, which is a genre as a dance and a rhythm. We have frevo, which is another type of dance very common from the Northeast, from Recife, from the state of Pernambuco. What else? Oh my gosh, from the north of Brazil, the Amazon, they have other rhythms like carimbo, which is beautiful as well. I want to be there now. I want to hear it. I want to dance too. I'd like to be there. Chris, thank you for your vulnerability and your honesty. I feel like I've learned from you that starting over isn't a single decision. It's a series of brave choices we continually make in the face of uncertainty every day. Yes. Even highly successful expat women struggle with identity after moving abroad. And whether you move for love or opportunity or like me chasing the sun, you have taught us expat women, that we are allowed to grieve what we have left behind, embracing what's ahead. So my expat woman, if today's episode resonated with you. I would love it if you would share it with somebody who's navigating their own transition. And remind yourself that we are not alone. You are not alone on this journey. That we are building a community together. One story at a time. That's it from me.have a lovely day and enjoy whatever you do.