A Few Odds and Ends

Just a few random notes today...

The Heavy...

Thankful for those who gave their lives to serve our country to keep us safe and free. I'm thankful for my brother Ryan and Brian's brother Ben who are giving/have given many years of their lives to the military and so glad they are both with us this Memorial Day.

Driving around today noticing many blue tarp tent houses, children with no bottoms on in the streets, and small children with no parents in sight, makes me thankful for all the many blessings I have that I don't deserve.

The Lite...

Still trying to figure out what really makes sense....when waiting in traffic at a signal...for long periods of time...do you turn off your car/motorcycle or let it run? I always thought that letting your car idle, even for hours, wouldn't consume that much gas but to keep starting it over and over uses more. So many motorcycles, rickshaws and cars here turn off their engines while waiting, then have to start them up when the light turns green which slows things down in itself. Are they trying to save gas, trying to turn out less pollution, just want their vehicle to have a rest? Hmmmm, if you know which is better tell me:) i probably wouldn't turn off my car even if it did benefit something (it has a stalling problem at startup:) but atleast i would know:)

McDonald's, as of last week, now serves chicken nuggets:) Oh the insignificant things that make a mom happy:) I tasted them and they were gross, but still...what is McD's without nuggets? Still waiting for cheeseburgers...but not going to happen. Even Chili's that just opened here doesn't serve beef burgers...how can it be?

Latest pics of the boys. Kai in his "new" hand-me-down train suit. Haddon with his amazing smile. Corban wearing his new "big boy" tennis shoes that he would sleep in if he could:)

Camp

We returned on Saturday from a week of family camp with our church. We traveled by train (the boys and my first train experience in India) and bus to get there and back. We had a relaxing week getting to know our friends and new friends better. And actually learning people's names after a year and a half! I struggle so much with learning Indian names!!

We traveled to KodaiKanal, a peaceful hill station, in the very southern tip of India. We were at 6,000 feet elevation. There were no mosquitoes!! And it was cool.

Some of the highlights of our trip were:
-We were greeted by a 7 ft 2 inch porter (carries your luggage) at the train station in Bangalore. He has to be the tallest person in India! He and another porter carried our huge suitcases on their heads up and down staircases to get to our platform. Just the train station alone was quite an experience. Wouldn't want to be there alone:)

-Kodai is known for its homemade chocolates. We had chocolate stores within walking distance and ate plenty of it!

-Our team at camp won! We were split up into 3 teams to play for the prized trophy. Brian and Kevin, our team captain, dominated the basketball court and we won the skit night. I'm not competitive so I really didn't care who won but it's fun when your team does rock:)

-First time to experience bucket baths:) So many people here bath this way to save water. It shows me just how spoiled I really am that I never thought of doing this before. Can't say that I came home a changed woman though:) A hot shower after the 15 hour journey home sure felt good!

-Experiencing an overnight train in India with 3 children, too much luggage and only 2 bunks for the five of us. I won't fully complain about it like I have been doing in my mind but lets just say if I could have secretly flown to our destination without the other 80 people at camp knowing about it I would have done it in a second:) I just couldn't be that spoiled American that was "too good" to ride the train and the overloaded bus winding down the mountains:) But here again, I'm revealing the true brat that I am:) And now I can say we did it--once:)

-Having lots of leisure time with our family. It's amazing what a week of stress free, non-busy living can do for our spirits.

-Watching the movie FireProof. That was worth the whole trip.

Here are a few pics from the week...

Haddon and Madonna

Last night we went to a local mall to dine at McDonald's. We probably go to this mall once a month and our ritual is that after McD's (if you eat all your chicken burger) you get a lollipop from the candy kiosk. When we were purchasing the 3 lollipops one of the guys behind the counter pulls out a folded newspaper and handed it to the watch salesman from the kiosk next to theirs. He pointed to a small picture (the same one above) and made a face saying, "is this you?"

I smiled and said, "Oh, no, that's Madonna and her son":) Then he pointed to the boy in the picture and said, "That's him" and pointed to Haddon!:) They said they remembered us from before and saved the article for when we came in again to show us:)

So a few things are obvious...there are very few Africans or African Americans in India...so hence if you see one he must be the same one in the newspaper:). Next, these men obviously didn't know who Madonna was to assume that I was her or that she would let me borrow her son to live with me in India:) And third, adoption is not on most people's radars in India so since Haddon looked different from us he must be the same child in the paper.

We explained to the man that Haddon was our son and that he was adopted just like Madonna's child is. As we left, I told Brian I thought that was so funny that they saved the article....he said he thought it was scary:)