My Visit To The Slum School

Strangely, I posted this post before and I have no idea where it went. So, here it is again.

On Monday I visited the slum school that members of our church started in February.
The children are taught Hindi and Gujarati and Christian songs. They sang in church on Sunday.


They begin and end with prayer.
These children have no future without an education. Their parents don't have birth certificates for them and since the parents don't have an education they don't push for their children to have one. We hope to eventually transition as many children as possible into schools. However, a main problem is that these children's parents are basically squatters and daily wage earners. They don't stay in one place for very long, they go where the work is. This is a major hindrance to putting their children in schools.

Picking Up Dad

O. left this morning to go get my dad and niece from Bombay. They're in the air right about now. Dad and Em are coming to visit til the 17th of this month. They will be here over our Bible College Graduation which starts on Friday. Very exciting!

My Girls

I've never yet expressed how much I love having 3 girls. It's just perfect.

I'm sure if I had 2 girls and a boy or 2 boys and a girl or 3 boys or any other combination of children, I'd think they were just the perfect thing too. But I just LOVE having 3 girls, it's oh so me.

Pictures by Amy. (These are scans the originals are way better.)

A Lite Post

My cousin Amy is exceedingly talented in so many areas, she has recently taken up photography. She kindly photographed my family and esp. G. These are scans, the originals are so much better.

Don't you love the color in this photo (the original - Ah - so much better)

Sweet G.
Crying, but still wonderful, Baby.

The Dreaded Datebook - Burn That Baby

These days I occasionally catch a glimpse of my datebook sneaking out of somewhere or another. My heart starts to pound and then I remember that I don't need to live out of that nasty thing anymore.

Neither O. nor I are schedually people. However, our times in the US revolve around appointments in our datebooks and although each and every one one is important and generally enjoyable, it is binding.

It's so nice to be home again and not have to live from appointment to speaking engagement.

The thing is, I'd much rather be DOING the ministry than TALKING about it.

It's good to be home.

Still Somewhat Jetlagged

I figured it would take about 8 days to get past the jet lag and it did. We are finally getting over it but I think that's why I haven't written much. It's not for lack of something to post. Much to say, much to post. Drowsy Drowsy Drowsy.

Also, My dad and niece are coming on Wednesday and our Bible College 1st ever graduation starts on Friday and runs through Sunday and then school starts for E. and C. on Monday and then we're going on a 4 day vacation with Dad and Em. This doesn't even bring up our house ground-breaking ceremony, G.'s baby dedication or Father's Day.

yeah, lots on the plate right now, running around and getting ready - hence loads to write not a lot of time - well, mostly it's the low-energy thing.

Ready, Set,... Gone

My dad calls O. a "glutton for punishment" and it's really true. Literally hours after arriving home in India he had reviewed all the work and seen the new stuff and then was off to the state of Orrisa for a week long speaking engagement at a youth conference. He'll be home on Saturday.

It's really not bad. It gives the rest of us the opportunity to adjust at a slower pace. I can get the kitchen and living room painted, unpack, visit, shop. (By the way, E., C., and I have all been up since about 5AM, It's a good time to get stuff done.)

Saying that makes me think about the weather, it's HOT, but not nearly as hot as I had thought it could be, we're cooling down in preparation for the rainy season to start any day now.

Another thing about being up this early is that I can see that we have been infested. There is this nasty rodent here that looks like a combination between a rat and shrew and there must be at least 2 in my kitchen because I've been watching them in between typing and scratching my mosquito bites and they're skeeving me out. There's gonna be some killing going on - as soon as my sister-in-law wakes up to take care of it. Yeeee!

www.cherryberry.etsy.com

Just 4 days are left in May if you haven't had a chance to visit yet:

www.cherryberry.etsy.com

The Journey

Let me just say that Delta is going to get a nice long letter from me! The whole thing about G.'s infant ticket purchase at the counter not being a problem - Ha!

We had to stand and wait at the counter for 45 minutes while the check-in girl was on hold with somebody trying to figure out how to sell an infant's ticket. I neared livid, let me tell you.

We did eventually get it and they charged us $30 bucks less than it originally was so that was nice - we all ate dinner.

However, there was no infant seating left on the plane. There are only 3 bassinets on the entire plane and every one was taken. So, lots of babies - like mine had to be held for the entire 16 hour flight. Yeah. I was so - not happy. Hence the nasty letter to Delta, that is just unacceptable.

Once we dragged our ton of luggage and 3 children off the plane we did get ushered through Immigration lickety split - the perks of traveling with babies, but this was the part of the journey I was dreading. E. does not have an Indian visa, she has a visa extension on a piece of paper by the police station. I figured immigration would not like it and I was praying - man was I praying.

He did not like it but he let us go, she is only a 6 year old girl for heaven's sake. I let out a huge sigh of relief and didn't even take offence when he told us to stop increasing the population - he really did.

Back

We're back in India and happy to be here. More on the journey home later. Just wanted to check in.