It has now been a month since we arrived in India and I have been thinking about what to put up in the blog. Life seems very simple right now. The simple pleasures are filling everyday and I am not sure whether everyone on the www wants to read about my simple life. Still I will write. Hoping that one day my little boy and girl will read this blog or at least the draft versions that I store in my email.
This blog can be said as part 1 of THE JOURNEY HOME. Recollecting the days September 15, 16, 17 and 18
I think that is one of our beds being carried awayThe packers arrived a little past 9 am and we ... though have been waiting for this day for months felt completely unprepared.
How do you close up your life in one place and move ~9000 miles (as the crow flies)?. We had packed our basic necessities diapers (for Isaac and Ziva incase some of you were wondering), clothes, socks, shoes for a few days in suitcases. And still we forgot things. There at least 4/5 instances where we had to ask them to open up boxes. Like
1. Suresh forgot to keep aside the dogs leashes,
2. My mom forgot to keep her sandals out and had to use just sneakers till she reached India,
3. I left my laptop cord in the bedroom upstairs and the movers promptly packed it up. Luckily I remembered to before they had loaded the truck and ran upstairs and opened it up.
Cheerful moversThankful prayer 1: Dear lord we are so thankful for the movers who were so pleasant and did not whine while we made them repack.
Lesson 1: Dear Lord help us be more prepared ... even for your coming!
I had asked a few of you for the gianganto favor a couple days before the 15th ... Bhageera. Bhageera is our cat. We had loved him for 5 years. A very wild cat. He would not have survived India. We had started looking for a home for Bhageera and some how were very relaxed about it. I had tried every arena. Any guest/ visitor who walked in had been asked if they would like a pet cat. Some how deep down I knew God would find the perfect home for Bhageera. So we waited and the clock ticked!!! We finally reached the date September 15 and now were getting pretty desperate. Suresh had reluctantly started calling humane societies. We were not happy with this option. They say right ... God is never late right ... He is always on time. And like and answer to prayers on the Friday morning we called Bro. Dan Beachy. Bro Dan lives on a huge farm and does not want a house cat. Bhageera loves being outside and loves chasing squirels. Bro Dan has a mice problem. It was like chemistry.com... match made in heaven. Suresh drove Bhageera to Bro Dan's place on Saturday afternoon some 24 hours before we left for India.
Bhageera on the top of our MiniThankful Prayer : Thank you God for never being late!
Lesson : Trust in the lord and lean not on your own understanding
Wonderful hosts
On September 17th we cleaned our house. Bade good bye to our cleaning lady Veronica and our wonderful neighbors and drove up to Harleysville PA to 'pile on' at my cousin's place. To introduce Saji Achayan ... He is my father cousin's son... i.e. we are second cousins. An important thing to note about him is he and my sister are born in the same batch.. a little more details about that bit ... Well in 1974/75 on my dad's side of the family among the first cousins there were some 5 kids born . Like a sudden baby boom. As a result this batch became quite famous!
When I reached the US I did know that Saji Achayan was around but I never bothered to get in touch with him. My loss.... not just because he is such a nice guy (;) ;) ) but because he is married to an absolutely amazing wonderwoman ... who has so much energy - it is unbelievable. Sheeja Saji as she is officially known I think has the ability to absorb energy from the air around (Like Frozone from Incredibles!). We really got to know the couple and kids only about a year ago and we have enjoyed the brief fellowship. (Secretly I hope they move to Bangalore!). We arrived at their place to a house full of smiles and wonderful Biryani. Saji achayan and family love dogs and so we were able to pile dogs as well. Their kids Hannah and Joel must have walked Danny and Baloo 6 times in the brief 12 hrs we were there.
Saji, Sheeja, Hannah and Joel with our dogsThankful Prayer: Thank God for such wonderful hosts.
Lesson learnt: A few days before we arrive at their place Sheeja Chechy had as her facebook status the verse Hebrews 13:2(Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.) Now I am not saying we are angels but she definitely showed us how to entertain and do it cheerfully
