richness

so....life is so so so rich right now. so sad but so beautiful and filled. am starting to feel the restlessness of waiting for a change to come along with the deep deep sadness about leaving this place.

i have been savoring the little moment. yesterday a lady who isn't usually that affectionate sat down next to me at tea time and put her arm around me and just sat. It was so sweet. and the ladies always tease me about this guy at the hospital who they want me to marry. They keep telling me its my "last chance" to marry him. They keep wanting to take me to the hospital so they can have a chat with him...then if i marry him I will stay.

I know that a day is coming soon when i will have my last day at sari bari. i will close sari bari and walk away and won't be coming back for a long time and i am not looking forward to that day.

so until then i am here, trying to finish strong, pack, decide what to leave what to take, prepare to go home, prepare for new things, trying to spend as much time with beth and sarah as possible and laugh alot.

and i am sorry but i had to post another picture of Olivia....she has a SB baby blanket!!!!! she is just so beautiful.

i love being surprised, i love letting go of control and enjoying how that feels. i love that I can make gita laugh. i love having my teeth freshly brushed...all the time. i love my carribean workout pilates video.

more of olivia

Oh my gosh!!! isn't she soooo cool!!! she's sooo cute. i can't wait to see her.
I love that Olivia is part of our family now. i love that i will be home and get to know her. I love that Ann is in heaven because she has a granddaughter (she had all sons). I love that beth gave me a purse so i don't have too buy a new one a month before i leave. i love that i got to talk to my friend david who always makes me laugh.

i am an aunt!!!!!

This is Drew olivia's dad and ,my step-brother) and his mom Ann.....He looks soooo proud and Ann looks in love.
This is my sweet, soft-hearted dad. I can already tell who will have the power in this relationship!!

Yippppeeeee!!!!! my sister-in-law just had her baby!!! its a little girl named Olivia. i wish i was

there to greet her into this world, but it looks like she is getting enough love. My step-mom said that Olivia already has my dad wrapped around her little finger. My dad is a grandpa!!! He is going to make an amazing grandpa. Ann and my dad will actually make such beautiful, loving, and giving grandparents. I can't wait to see them in action And i get to be an aunt. I get to play and know and love Olivia. wahooo!!! i am so excited for drew and becca. Gotta run. am feeling a little teary eyed.

i love babies. i love being an aunt....I can take the kids, have fun but when i don't know what to do with them anymore i can give them back!!! i love that i will get to babysit soon for Olivia. i love how kids makes a lot of things more fun....ex. bush gardens and disney world....went there with my mom and brother about three years ago...and we were like "i think we remember this as being more fun when we were under the age of 10." i love that beth shared her coffee with me this morning.

a taxi adventure

so sarah and i were coming back from our usual monday meeting. it was around 8:30 and we were in a taxi. We turned the corner on a street near out house. In front of us we saw a car screech off and the police man that was trying to stop him fall on the ground.
the police man pops up and gets on his walkie talkie!!! and then runs to our taxi, jumps in our taxi and gives the taxi man a signal and the taxi man goes off after the car that escaped. Sarah and i are in the back seat kinda looking at each other "is this really happening??" We were going top speed chasing after this guy but eventually we lost him. (mind you top speed was about 5 mph because it was bumper to bumper traffic and we actually only tried to chase him for about a block) Then the police man got down, defeated. So that is my involvement in a high speed chase in kolkata. it was intense.....kinda.

i love the monsoon mix court sent me years ago. i love that denise sent us a huge package that had gum in it. i love my ipod. i love being surprised. i love that the sb ladies laugh at me. i love that sometimes my pride flares up at stupid things and i am starting to be able to laugh at myself.

america through another person's eyes

so i have not been writing on my blog at all!!! i have been a tad distracted here in good ways.
yesterday i had lunch with my pastor and his family. i have been going to their church for the past 4 years and i admire them so much. they are an exceptional family.
I was talking with the mom shrilata because two years ago she was able to go to america. the circumstances she had to go over there were horrible. her daughter was visiting america and got deathly ill, but she is able to talk about it now. and laugh. she has some hilarious stories and it was so interesting to hear about america through her eyes.
first, no one helped her. most of the time she had to beg people to help her. she couldn't get someone to help her down the escalator at the airport (she had never flown or gone on the escalator before). eventually she just grabbed this huge muscular man, pretended she didn't know english....he held her by the shirt cuff and sulked the whole way down the escalator.
shirlata didn't know how to work a copy machine at the grocery.
she didn't know how to go grocery shopping at publix because indian doesn't have grocery stores.
she would pretend that she didn't know english so people would help her. it was kinda sad to hear how our country treated her. not so well.
and then she said something....she asked me why we had separate black and white churches? she assumed that is was the why everyone with different skin color went to separate churches because that was a rule in the church. isn't that so sad and convicting??? i mean the separation based on skin color is still so prominent in our culture especially in our church. it makes me sad and wonder what i need to change in myself to see change happen in the church. our segregated sunday services are sending a message that i don't want to send to the world.....i feel like she saw our brokenness.
I love that denise sent us a package that had american gum in it!!! i love that i found the printing paper i had been looking for the past week. i love that i getting fun text messages. i love french. i love that tonight sarah and i get to go out!!!