Stuck in Germany

Our air shipment with our beds has been stuck in Germany. Apparently something got packed into the shipment that wasn't supposed to. I guess it was an aerosol can of some sort. Possible Hair spray or a can of Lysol. When they were packing it up they made me get rid of a lot of things that I had for the shipment so it really is a surprise that there was something there that shouldn't have been. I guess we'll be in the hotel a little longer than expected.

Vijay's house

Vijay also invited us over for a meal at his house before we left. For anyone who has been here and been to his house, you will notice from the pictures that he has moved into a 2nd story home.  He too had Indian food for Alan and me, and ordered pizza for the kids. He went all out with gifts too. Each one of our kids ended up with an Indian dress and a toy. 

 This is Vijay's aunt and his brother. (The one who climbed the tree when we went to the village.)

We are really going to miss Baby and Vijay. They have made huge impacts on our family. 

Shravia

Shravia, Srinadi, Annie

Alan was trying to get a picture with me and Baby, but as you can tell, Vijay has to be part of the attention at all moments. :)

After dinner we had to say good-bye to both of these families.

We are very excited to come home, but it is hard to say good-bye.

Baby's house

On Sunday Baby invited us out to her house for a farewell dinner. After church we went out there before we headed to the hotel. She served us Mutton Biriyani, chicken kabobs, eggplant gravy, and a curd with onions and cucumbers. She knows what our kids will eat, and what the won't eat so she also ordered a pizza just for the kids. She had asked for Saturday off so that she could get ready for us to come out. When we arrived on Sunday she had cleared out her entire house, painted, and set up a dining area for us. This was also in preporation for her new bed. We had decided not to ship back Ethan's bunk bed and we gave it to her. She was very excited and told me the next day how comfortable it was and how excited Ester was to sleep on top.

As we were eating my kids kept handing me their plates. Because the table was being used for serving there really was no place to put them down. I was holding 3 plates when Vijay walked in the house and started laughing. I asked him what was so funny and he said he didn't realize I was so hungry.

Baby also bought gifts for all of us. This is the outfit that she bought for Annie.

Annie really loved the biriyani

After we ate, Alan decided to teach them a game with a rope. We spent about a half an hour playing "try to pull the other person off their feet."

In this picture is Baby's family and her sister Maggie.

Maggie came to work at our house for a few weeks.

Time is up!!

Wow!! I can't believe our 2 years here is over!! I have a lot of activities that I haven't had time to post about yet, but I'll come back to them.

It took 2 days and 2 truck loads to get our Sea Shipment ready to go. We sent it off the beginning of June so hopefully we won't have to wait too long for it on the other end.

Again our kids were awesome during the whole packing and shipping process. I can't tell them enough how much I love them and how proud we are of them for hanging in there through the moves. I know it was hard on them to come and live in a foreign country and to leave behind all of their family and friends, and now...to do it all over again is a hard thing. Our kids adjusted quickly to India and made friends really quickly. Now they are all having to say good-bye again. We have had a few nights full of tears as we have moved back into the hotel before our flights home.

Graduation

At Indus 5th grade is the last grade in the Elementary school. They had a big graduation ceremony. Ellie was very excited and rode out to school with me that day instead of riding the bus. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic on our way and she ended up being late. Luckily the students hadn't gone into their seats yet, but were all dressed and lined up ready to go. Ellie quickly ran to her classroom and grabbed her cap and gown and made it with seconds to spare.

Tanisha and Ellie

Tanisha was one of Ellie's very first friends in India

Ms. Mohua and Ms. Smithokshi

The graduating class

Ellie and her proud mom

Ellie with her teachers

Tarang, Drisha, Myuka, Girija, Ellie

 Shagun, Drisha, Myuka, Carol, Ellie, Jasmine

Ellie, Karolina, Drisha

Ellie and Molly

Ellie had a great year and has made many friends while here. She will definitely miss her friend from India.

Ellie's Piano recital

The 5th grade music class at Indus had a program on May 20th. Ellie played 2 duet piano pieces with her friend Carol.

Vijay's Village Trip Post 3

I left this picture out of the last post. This is in front of the house that Lakshmi grew up in. In the picture is our family with Shravia, Lakshmi, Shrinadi, Lakshmi's Father, and a random girl in red next to Alan.

We left Vijay and Lakshmi in her village and drove with the driver to Nellore. We arrived at our hotel at 3:00 in the afternoon. The kids decided to check out the pool and the gym. We then headed to dinner at the hotel and went to bed early. The next morning Vijay came by bus to Nellore and we picked up our car at the Toyota Dealership. Of course they couldn't find anything wrong with it. We started off and got about 35 km out of Nellore and the car started having troubles again. We pulled over and waited for a while. Luckily the place it quit working had a little stand with some snacks and next to that was a mechanic.

 While we waited Annie found a couple of tires that she threw rocks into for about 20 minutes.

 Maddie and Ethan sat in the car for a long time playing Sleeping Queens. Then they realized that it was too hot and got out of the car.

 This is the little snack stand and that we stopped by and ate ice cream and drank some sodas.

After being stopped for about an hour the mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with the car, and it started running OK so again we were off. We started talking about what to do if we couldn't make it home. We talked about getting bus tickets, staying at another hotel and trying again tomorrow, riding the train if we found a station, ect. Well, another 39 km and again we started having problems. Vijay found a spot and pulled the car over. Again next to a snack shop. Alan got out of the car and started walking around. Vijay went to the shop owner and started talking to him. All of the sudden I started seeing Vijay running down the road. I told all the kids to quickly get their shoes on and grab some water bottles. We got out of the car quickly as Vijay chased down a bus. We quickly jumped on the bus and we were headed towards Bangalore. Vijay stayed behind eased the car back home.

 Once we were on the bus we found the only 2 empty seats and crammed into them. They decided to let Alan sit up front by the driver.

P.S. Ellie felt bad that she wasn't mentioned in the last 3 posts and wanted me to make sure everyone knew she stayed home from this trip because she had a school project and couldn't miss Thursday or Friday. Thank you MacDonald Family for letting her stay at your house.

Vijay's Village Trip Post 2

The day that we spent at Vijay's village was fun. It started at about 5 a.m. and we left at around noon. We walked around the village and saw the cows and goats. They really wanted to make a breakfast that our kids would eat. Vijay knows how our kids are and told his mom that we brought cold cereal for our kids. She got the milk from the local water buffalo. After milking the cow she boiled the milk for us. Then Vijay told her we like it cold. She sat there for about an hour pouring milk from one pot to another trying to cool it down. She was trying so hard to make it how we like it. They don't have refrigerators or ovens there. All of the cooking is done over a fire.

While she was making the breakfast, Vijay took us on a tour of the village. The tour took about as long as it would take to take someone on a tour of Woodruff. :) We were able to see quite a few things. We went to his brother's house who is the rice farmer. At his house he had a grinder that they use in the village. The let Ethan take a turn.

Vijay's brother's house. The one who is the fix-it-man in the village. He is also the one who climbed the tree.

Vijay's other brother's house. He is a rice farmer and he is a cook at a hotel.  Here they call restaurants hotels.

In the background of this picture there is a building that is the only grocery store in the village.

Vijay's other brother also took us out into the rice fields and climbed the trees to get us this fruit. I'm not sure what it is called, but it grows in a tree like coconuts, but looks like the color of eggplant. It has 3-5 big seed things that you eat inside.  You can also pop the seed thing and pour the juice out.

Vijay helping Ethan cut the top off of the fruit

Annie drinking the fruit juice. She really liked it and wanted more.

This is a toy that they made out of the fruit. They were running up and down the road with it. It reminded me of when you see kids running with a rimmed tire and you push it with a stick.

After his brother got the fruit for us Vijay had to show us that he can climb the tree too.

After Ethan played with the kids in the rice field for a while we got back into our car and drove to Lakshmi's village. We got there and they were having a village festival.

Next post...Vijay's Village part 3