I used AI to generate what I had in my head — not as the final product, but as a visual brief so the illustrator knows exactly where the storytelling needs to go before she puts a single line on paper. Self-publishing lesson number one: if you cannot show an artist what is in your head, you will spend weeks describing something that could have been a two-minute conversation with a reference image.

I woke up to a voice message from Julia Kerscht Squassoni — intercultural facilitator, TCK, and President of SIETAR Brasil — saying she loved the Ruth Van Reken post and that I write beautifully, just in case nobody had told me that. Then I saw that Papa Balla Ndong, Human Migration Expert and Executive President of SIETAR Europe, had left a comment on the post about Parenting Unpacked. Parabéns. Wonderful. Congratulations, Jessica Gabrielzyk. In two languages. By name. I was not ready for any of it.

My book showed up in a Brazilian newspaper — and not just as a mention. It was understood.