Our Anniversary

Tony and I recently celebrated our 16^th wedding anniversary.  We don’t always do a very good job of celebrating our special occasions.  We have also been super busy the last several weeks with guests and helping take care of five teenage foster children.  So, I assumed that we would spend the day at home just trying to get back into our routine.  Well…Tony surprised me with an evening away.  He arranged with our neighbor and our friends from the mountains to watch our kids so we could go out.  Then he left a note for me on our bed saying to pack an overnight bag and be ready by 4:30 pm.  He took me to our local “mall” where we enjoyed foot massages, a lovely dinner, and a Hindi movie.  Then we spent the night at nice hotel.  He had a flower arrangement made and waiting for me in our hotel room. 

We had a wonderful evening, Indian style.  I say Indian style because it’s just so...well...different doing anything in India.  We feel a little like celebrities or aliens wherever we go because people are always starring at us and wanting us to pose for pictures with them.  Well, our night out really topped the cake!  At the restaurant, we had a “private table.”  It was separated from the rest of the restaurant by a sheer curtain and we had a bell to ring if we needed anything…but we never had to use the bell because the staff of the restaurant kept coming to check on us.  When we were getting ready to leave, the staff opened the curtain while the manager asked us to pose for a picture for him.  Of course, we obliged. :)

When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by the hotel staff wishing us a happy anniversary.  After we got to our room and changed into our pajamas, the hotel manager and a few staff came to the room…to give us a complimentary cake.  They came into our room and put the cake on our bed and then, of course, the manager asked us to pose for a picture with it.  We had a wonderful evening out; and we praise God for our marriage.  We hope you enjoy some pictures from our anniversary celebration.

This last photo was sent to us by the hotel general manager.  I'm not sure what made this a "wow moment"...maybe the free cake, or the fact we were in our pajamas, or the shock of having three strangers in our hotel room...Either way I'm sure this photo made it on the hotel website.  At least they gave us a great discount on the room! :)

Local Tragedy

Dear Family & Friends,

First of all, we want you to know that our family is fine.  We are all healthy and doing very well.  But, we wanted to inform you of a tragedy that has occurred in our community that you may or may not hear about from the media.  Last night an American cross cultural worker, who lived just down the street from us, died unexpectedly.  He was hiking in a mountainous jungle area with his friend several hours from our home when he slipped off a cliff and fell to his death.  The young man was here apart from his own family, working and living with another American family.

We are very uncertain about how or even whether this accident will affect our family’s presence in this area.  The local police, and of course the media, are involved and a full investigation is taking place regarding this tragedy as well as the young man’s and his associates’ purpose for being in the country.   

We are asking for your prayers for the young man’s family back in the States, for the friend with whom he was hiking, for the family the young man was living and working alongside, as well as for us.  We are confident that we are in absolutely no danger by remaining where we are.  Right now, our hearts are simply broken and we are shaken by this tragedy…but God is faithful through it all.  We know that: sab kuch Uper Vale ke hath men hain…All things are in God’s hands.

Monsoon Season

It has been raining here since May.  We lived in Delhi last year during the rainy season.  In the six months we were in Delhi, it only rained about four times…so we had no real basis for understanding what makes monsoon season monsoon season…until now. Hehe!  Our monsoon season is supposed to be June and July, so when it started raining a lot in May, we thought that monsoon season had started early.  It rained much of May, June and July...but come to find out that wasn’t monsoon season…that was just rain. 

We are now in the midst of monsoon season…maybe in the tail end of it…but NOW we finally understand what gives this season its name.  Monsoon season brings many unpleasant things: 1) torrential downpours that cause flash flooding; (The great thing is that the flooding goes down very quickly, as the ground can really soak in the water!) 2) days and nights of ceaseless rain; 3) humidity so thick that all your paper is limp, all your salt is soggy, and the minute you open a bag of chips or cookies they are stale in minutes; 4) mold forming on walls and clothing; 5) the inability to dry your clothes; (There is no such thing as a clothes dryer in India…it’s either a clothes line or a drying rack.) 6) frequent and lengthy power outages; and 7) landslides on many of the mountain roads.

We’ve been told that the monsoon season is almost over.  We look forward to some dryer weather but we feel very fortunate that we have a secure roof over our heads to keep us dry and healthy.  Our own issues with monsoon are really just minor inconveniences.  There are so many around us who struggle much more than we will ever dream of during this season because their homes are in no way waterproof (roofs, walls, doors all let the rain and flooding in).  They have no means of dealing with the humidity and mold.  They bath and wash their clothing in the river, which is dangerously full of human and animal excrement, especially during monsoon.  Flooding also causes many jobs to slow or cease which results in malnutrition and starvation.  Please keep those around us in your prayers as they struggle to make it through another monsoon season.