The Day Came

Today I had to bring myself to tell our housekeeper that we are leaving. I told myself I had to tell her before June (the month we are leaving) so I of course waited til the last day of the month. It was as sad as I thought it would be. There was shock and then tears...from both of us. That set the reality of moving in motion. There's a little pit in my stomach when I think about having to tell her goodbye...along with all the others dear to us.

Mountain Trip

We returned from a week in the Nilgiri mountains on Sunday. We went with our church for its yearly family camp. Then we stayed in the town of Ooty to meet my cousin Brittney who flew in from Texas with a group from her church for a week of missions. It was so fun to get to see her in India! Also on her team were our friends Kevin and Kerry...he was the pastor that married Brian and me and she was my matron of honor. So fun.

Ooty is a hill station city up in the Nilgiri mountains, and Kotagiri, where we stayed for camp, was not far away. The elevation was about 2000 ft and it felt so nice and cool...we needed jackets. It was refreshing to breath fresh air and bond with friends. Ooty is famous for homemade chocolate so we stocked up on it.

It was a fabulous week minus the whole family getting a stomach bug at camp--messy! Haddon also fell off the top bunk during the night:(:( Tramatic. And Kai got his fingers slammed in the car door. All things to be expected with a family of 3 boys:D

We were able to go with my cousin and two other of her teammates to visit a slum village in Ooty. She is a designer of children's clothing and she was able to give away dresses to the little girls of the village. It was overwhelming to see the conditions of the slum (running sewage on the pathways and tiny, dark huts for homes) but so sweet to be able to meet the whole village and cross language barriers with smiles and hugs.

Here are some pictures from camp, Ooty and a few other things we've done lately...visiting an organic farm with our playgroup and Kai playing with a birthday toy.

It's hard to believe that our time here in India is coming to a close. I had to force myself to write this because I'm trying to avoid the thought of goodbye's and the finality of almost 3 years here. I'm pushing it aside and hiding it behind other in-the-moment tasks such as finishing school and going to family camp with our church.

I haven't even had the heart to tell my beloved housekeeper that we are moving!! I can't do it. I will eventually have to bring myself to that point, but I am going to wait a few more weeks because I know every day after that will be a sad one. I admit the biggest reverse-culture shock ahead for me is no longer having house help:D:( , but the real reason I don't want to tell her is because we love her and she just adores the kids. After 3 years, she has just started to call me the more affectionate term "Amma" which means Momma (I take it as a sweet term meaning I am a Mom rather than meaning her mom:) after calling me the more colonial/proper title of "Madame" for years.

The boys and I will be heading to the States next month to visit family and friends for a few weeks while Brian finishes his job in July.

I thought I would try to take a look back at some of the first blog posts to relive the culture shock, confusion, and the comedy (now, not then) of what we experienced when arriving. We have learned so much since then so I'm sure to get some good laughs that I will share with you in upcoming posts. And saying that, even though we've learned some ins-and-outs about living here, it is just the tip of the iceberg. If we lived her our whole lives we still would not know all there is to know about the culture, beliefs and traditions of this vast and amazing country.