Good question...

Yesterday A asked one of her great questions-"Does G0d have a belly button?"

Gotta love her!

Why do people...?

Why do people always ask us if they're twins? (Yes, J's on top and A's on bottom!)

Birthday Party

This weekend, we enjoyed a time celebrating A and J's birthdays, together. We had several friends visit us (unfortunately, we weren't able to invite any national friends as the party was across town which takes about an hour to get there on a good day) which made for a great time!

Thankfully, the package came with the decorating included! (I guess one can't completely exclude putting names up everywhere.)

Of course, A loved the fun time.

J and A said this was the best day of their lives!...so we did well!

Two sisters enjoy life in the fast lane!

E enjoying some time hanging out before the games begin...

Having cupcakes and finding candles like these made the trip across town much easier! Thanks so much to our friends for sending the mixes and icing just in time!!!

Being a real sport, A's friend answered the call when I asked for someone who was willing to be a little messy for the picture.

Not at all expecting the luxury of a place like this to celebrate birthdays, we relished the entire time. Thanks to all our friends for joining us for this special day!

Packages From Our Friends

Last week, we enjoyed opening up three packages from friends back in Mule Country. The kids had a blast opening up the packages and are still enjoying (and will for some time) all of the goodies! Thanks so much to our special friends who took time, attention and love to put such a special gift together! We love you!

As you can see, we were inundated with goodies of all sorts!

Thanks again! We love you!

A little fun...

Today, we enjoyed our first trip to ch*rch, with me driving. It was very nice to be able to take the speed bumps slowly enough for V not to hurt and not to have to worry someone showingup late. J loved that this monumental trip coincided with his birthday (I'll post more pictures after we bring out his cake, tonight.)! All was good until we headed home. We were at a stoplight waiting to go and a policeman (very similar look to the man below) said I needed to pull over. He said I had ran a red light. Valerie and I paid attention and know, without a doubt, that I had followed the law. He began to write out a ticket, saying that I could either pay the Rs 400 (approx. $8.15) or go to court. Thankfully, he spoke good English. So, I brought my case before him many different ways. In the end he said okay you pay me Rs 200 and you get no ticket...okay for me and we drove off. V and I know about the corruption, but this really shook E who was asking/sobbing over and over, wondering why did he do that when we didn't do anything wrong...We're asking for wisdom for G0d as we will surely be asked this more in the future.

Valentine's Day

One of the cool things about being here is that we get to celebrate everything 12 hours early!

The kids enjoyed decorating the Valentine's Day cookies after baking them. Homeschooling is great for real life, practical math and science projects!

A is always in a good mood when food is involved!

J cheesin' for the camera!

A's favorite part of the project...

Just like a good mechanic always has grease under his/her fingernails at the end of the day. Andrew always has something to show for his work too!

The finished product (not A's)!

A Different M!nistry

Many times, if stuck at a stop light, people will come up to us asking for money. If you've seen the movie "Slumdog Millionaire", you know what often happens to that money. (We've confirmed this with locals.) After asking some friends, we decided to prepare bags of rice that we would take with us and offer to those people we meet. This has been a very successful m!nistry and one in which the kids can be directly involved.

The kids really enjoyed this initial effort. The rice was one of the few foods the ants don't pounce on two seconds after it hits the floor.

A. was also involved though I must have accidentally deleted his picture:(

I thought about taking pictures while the kids were handing out the food, but I don't want to give them the wrong idea of why we're doing this.

A Little Language Route

On this day, my language route served two different purposes 1) acquire langue 2) find someone who could re-charge the battery on our Toyota Qualis (not knowing that I needed to give the doors an extra shove, I left one of the doors open, thus leaving the dome light on and killing the battery). A came with me and enjoyed the sights for a bit. His favorite part of the trip is just the loud, fast, crazily-driven auto!

This is a common sight...I never really have enjoyed giving the auto driver's friend a ride on my rupee. The comfort with close proximity is another cultural adjustment I may always experience.

I pass this site almost everyday. I hope I never get used to seeing the disparity between this 'residential' area/fishing grounds and our apartment in the background. (Ours is the high-rise apartment complex on the left.)

This package of mentos gave me an 'open door' to practice my language on my route. A and I shared this package (costing about $.10). I had my teacher write out what I wanted to say in case the people on my route couldn't understand my broken Kannada.

This rooster and that hen were perhaps pets of the owner of the garage, right outside his gate.?

We did get the battery charged (for approx. $4), after this attempt to 'jump start' the Qualis with random wires failed.

Breakthrough Challenge course

This week, I had the opportunity to visit a challenge course. This challenge course serves as a m!nistry by a man who used to serve as a chaplain for the Olympics.

Looking up at the drop platform for the large rip cords, like one sees at WOF

The release point for a zip line

This kid is on his way back, not about to hit the ladder, just using it

A picture from the top of of the main building, looking at the release point for the zip line