Good post. Thanks for sharing.

Work on your green card application. Once you have that, your life and your daughter's life will be much easier no matter what happens to the economy.

To help build a better relationship with the German colleague, you might want to learn some simple German phrases such as Danke, Guten Tag, Guten Morgen, Guten Abend, Gute Nacht, Auf Wiedersehen, etc. When you want to talk to him about your ideas, you might say "Ich habe eine idea". Just a thought.

One muggle.