It all started with my mother. She is a nurse in the biggest hospital in Porto Alegre, working a graveyard shift. On this day, we were all sleeping during the night, and she could not sleep. She decided to check the internet. At the time, the connection was through the phone. So, it was always better to check the internet during the night anyway. She logged in to the computer and there popped up an ad on one page saying: “Do you want to live in America? Click here for more information.”

She is still unsure what made her click on the link since it could have been a virus or a hacker getting all our information. She decided to read through it, and since it was “early” during the night with a printer next to her, she decided to make the time go by fast she would copy twenty-eight pages by copywriting every word of the process on a piece of paper. She finished in the morning.

My father woke up and asked, “What is this?”

My mom explained, “It is for us to get the famous green card to leave in America.”

My dad responded, “That doesn’t work, my friend tried, and he said it’s fake and doesn’t work.”

My mom didn’t take a no for an answer, so she replied, “Well, this means that we will try and see for ourselves.”

The process had started. She sent all the information with my father as the head of the household, my mother, sister, and myself under him, and she also sent one for her as head of the household and we three under her. I did not know that this was going to change my life forever.

I remember this day like if it was today. It was around fall in Brazil. We used to live in a small community where everywhere knew everyone. In the building, I used to live, I remember that my grandma used to live in the next apartment from us, and I remember that my godmother used to live on the first floor in the second column of the building, so I went to visit my godmother. And on my way back home, I stopped at the mailbox to get the letters for mom. I grabbed all the letters, and I remember that we received a big yellow envelope that was thick. Unsure what was in the envelope, I ran upstairs and opened the door super-fast.

My mom said, “Larissa, calm down.”

I replied, “We received this big envelope, and I am not sure what it is. I think Dad signed up for pay-per-view channels.”

She hurried and grabbed the letter from my hand, opened it and it said: “Congratulations, you were chosen to win the green card.” She called my dad to let him know about the news, and my dad replied, “This doesn’t happen, you are playing, and I am busy.”

Shortly after that, she called my grandma, her sister, and her brother, and all of them said that this is not real. They said that she was getting played because winning the green card is extremely hard for this to happen. So, my mother and father took the paperwork to a US embassy in my city. The lady said, “This never happens, I think this is a mistake, but I will call the US embassy in Rio de Janeiro.” They confirmed the same day the next steps that we needed to do.

There are many phases for this process, and we must do all the documentation. We had to get medical exams, and make sure all the immunizations were up to date. Then we scheduled the interview to go to the US embassy. I remember it was around summertime in February, when we went to one of Brazil’s biggest cities, Rio de Janeiro, to have our interview with the USA Consulate.

In the beginning, I felt lost on what everything was going on, but you know how they say I went with the flow and followed and did everything that my mom told me to do. I was not in a good mood that day because I did not want to leave my friends and family. I wanted to stay in Brazil. After the interview, we left and went to eat.

The same day, a few hours later, we when back to the same building, and that is when they said that we were approved and that we had until August 1st of 2003 to move to the USA. They stamped the documentation, put it inside a sealed envelope, and told us, “Do not open this until you get through immigration in the USA.” We went back to our state and started getting everything ready to move.

As days went by, my mom and dad took the time to explain to my sister and me what was going to happen. My sister at the time was eighteen years old, and I was thirteen. My sister understood what was going to happen. I, on the other hand, did not fully understand exactly what was going to happen. All I wanted to do was to play with my friends.

At this point, I am not sure if I was happy or not. I remember telling everyone that I was going to Disney World, and that I would be back soon. In my head, I thought I would be back in a week. I don’t think I realized that my life was completely about to change until I heard the pilot saying, “Welcome to the United States of America.” That was when I looked at my parents and said, “Is this going to be our new home?”

I simply started crying thinking about all my friends back in Brazil. I was devastated because I thought I knew what was best for me. However, now I thank my mother every single day for giving up her life back in Brazil to bring my sister and I here to provide us a better life. It has been 18 years and my life has changed completely. I have realized that I am more American than Brazilian. United States of America is my second home!