Enjoying Life and our Terrace

I've enjoyed sitting out on our terrace each morning, and sometimes in the afternoon, as Elijah plays. For me it's always seemed to draw me closer to the Lord when I'm outside seeing nature and feeling the breeze whip through my hair. It's very peaceful in the mornings with few motorcycles going by blowing their horns, so it's a great time to read my Bible and talk to the Lord. 

Lately I've had such peace in my soul and a joyous feeling thinking that this is my home. I delight in living here and I feel very safe, familiar, comfortable, and happy to be in this city. With the cooler weather it's been wonderful leaving our doors open with only the screen closed and all of our windows open to let in the outside air. This is the first place I've ever lived where I've slept with all windows and doors open. This is also the only place I've ever lived where I have a big iron gate with a screen on it in front of all of my doors. 

The sky was so beautiful right before the weather got cold at night and the poor started making fires all throughout the city. Now it's foggy looking because there's a smoke cloud covering the sky. So glad I took this picture and the two at the bottom when I did.

Elijah loves to run around and look over the side at the vehicles passing or the children playing across the street. He waves and yells at the people below.

Elijah knows he's not to touch Mama's flowers or play in the pots, so he gets as close as he can - standing between them, laying between them, holding onto the pot and looking at the dirt that he's not to touch. I'm sure he stuck his hand in it right after the picture.

Cleaning with the little broom and dust pan is something Elijah's come to enjoy. Sometimes he even follows my cleaner around our house with the broom cleaning like she does. It's so cute!

Visiting our Friends

About once a week we go over to visit the family we lived with when we first moved here. 

The baby in the picture is the moms sister's baby who is two or three months now. Elijah was so interested in the baby because she's someone smaller than him. It's weird seeing the two of them together because I realize just how big Elijah is and honestly not a baby anymore...sad but wonderful.

I always enjoy visiting, especially when the whole family is home and therefore Neal can visit with the dad. The dad brings such a different dynamic to the family because he's such a funny guy. He (the dad) adores Elijah and wants to hold him or play with him whenever we're there. And, of course, Elijah is playing with the cell phone, which is his favorite, especially when it's playing music.

Here's two videos of the kids playing with Elijah.

Elijah's Dance Moves

Elijah's got all kinds of good dance moves...not sure who he learned them from:)

Videos of Elijah Learning to Walk

When Elijah first started walking it was very hard to catch it on video because each time was so brief. However, I did get a few on video that are so cute. It's precious watching him waddle around. He's so courageous because he gets back up to try again every time he falls - I'm so proud!

Elijah Playing with Friends

All the kids in our building periodically come up to play with Elijah. The girls usually try to spend time with Elijah, holding him, playing chase and toys with him. The boys, however, mostly enjoy playing with Elijah's toys because he has a pretty big variety that's different from what they have.

Visiting Friends

Some of our friends came to visit from America, so we went to another city to spend a few days together. It was so wonderful to visit another city that's very beautiful, and especially spend some much missed time visiting with people from back home. I love the way I'm known by my friends and there's no need to explain anything about myself because they know who I am. 

In our city we don't have many places with nice beautiful grass for Elijah to run in. We have a few parks, but the grass isn't quite as nice, and we're always super crowded by people taking photos and wanting to talk to us and hold Elijah. Here, for some reason, it was very different in that not many Indians took a lot of pictures or smothered us like we're used to...it was nice:)

This day we went right beside the lake you can see in all the previous pictures. There were all kinds of boats going on the lake and a group of ducks you could feed. It was a lot of fun...especially watching Elijah watch the ducks because he's never seen them before.

This big train engine was randomly beside the lake, so everyone had to get their picture made in front of it. 

This is random, but this is the station you go to in case of a fire. Neal and I thought the buckets of sand were just too funny...only in India.

And of course when the hotel found out our last name they had to put us in this room number:)vc q

Neal Taking Care of our Cleaners Son.

Our cleaner's (S) sons show up with her almost everyday and play outside our front door as she cleans our home. Elijah loves to stand at the door and talk with them or watch them play with the cars we let them borrow. This particular day the youngest son showed up with a cut on his knee. Neal immediately went to get some alcohol, neosporin, and a band-aid. S's boy was a little scared at first, but he loosen up as Neal talked him through what he was doing. 

Only in India #31

Only in India is this considered a "housefull pack"...notice the size compared to Neal's hand.

The Craziness of India's Vise President Coming to Kite City

India's Vise President came here to Kite City to visit the University. We heard that he was coming and we were excited knowing that was really great for our city, however, we had no idea the problems it would bring. Everything is an adventure here!

Neal came home and asked if Elijah and I would like for him to take us out to the coffee shop. We, of course, were delighted to go. It was a beautiful day with a great breeze, especially on the motorcycle. As we turned down the street heading toward the coffee shop we noticed a lot of traffic that was stopped at the intersection, which of course doesn't have a red light. We drove up to see what was happening, and remembered the vise president coming. So, the traffic was stopped for his people to supposedly be able to drive through. The only problem was the traffic was stopped on both sides causing nothing but a big standstill. 

After trying to travel on a different road that had the same problem, we ended up coming back and waiting probably 30 minutes. Periodically people would push their way through the traffic, but with Elijah and I sitting side saddle it was way too close for us to do that. So, Neal turned around to park the motorcycle while Elijah and I walked to the coffee shop through all the traffic. It was so funny...I've never seen anything like it.

Elijah Praising Jesus

Elijah praising Jesus with some friends!

The First Bond Brownie's in India!

We finally got one of the main ingredients that goes in Bond brownies, so we had to make them. This was Elijah's first time to help...and of course taste the mix, which is the best. The video shows how he turns away from me to eat some of the batter knowing he wasn't to be eating it...so cute! He learned fast!

Seemed like everyone enjoyed the gooeyness!

Elijah and Daddy Playing at the Park

The park where we like to go walk also has some grassy areas where kids play cricket, men play bad mitten, women sit and talk, and then there's an area with slides and other fun things for kids. Fun, yes, but not very safe with the metal broken in places and lots of rust...but that's okay as long as you're careful. Elijah loved playing!

Our Landlord's Niece's Birthday

Shortly after Elijah's birthday party our Landlord had a party of his own. His niece was turning three years old, and he (our landlord) was moving into his new apartment (the one directly below us). So, he decided to turn our garage into the big party area. All day long the ladies were working on preparing the food while the men draped the tapestries. 

There were probably around 100 people at the party.

Left - our landlords son with Elijah. He loves to tease Elijah.

Right - the birthday girl... isn't she so cute!

Both of these kids, along with the others who live in our building love to come play with Elijah in our house.

This is our landlord and his mother. 

We saw the strangest thing during the party. Whenever someone would come to greet the landlord's mother they would lift the bottom of her saree and touch her ankles. We'd never seen this before...I guess it was a way to honor her as their elder. Not sure I want my clothes lifted when I'm old to show honor to me:)

Like everyone else, even the littlest girl in the building (the birthday girl) wants to hold Elijah. It's the cutest thing, especially since they're almost the same size.

Below is the birthday girl's mom. I see her a lot more often than any of the other wives in our landlord's family because she gets out and drives the scooter, etc. She's so sweet!  

The DJ finally stopped singing and telling jokes around 6 in the morning. Since there's no insulation in our building, and the stage for the DJ was direction below our apartment...you guessed it...we could hear him all night even though we're on the second story. 

Here's a video at midnight from our dining room with the sound of the Hindi music ringing through our apartment.