a breather.

We were able to take a little breather from the seemingly unending and time consuming list of "to-dos" to set up a house and enjoy a quiet Christmas with our eMi family.  It was all so very simple.  The kids and I didn't even get around to baking and decorating Christmas cookies.  I am hoping for New Year's cookies.  We have got to use the red and green sprinkles and cookie cutters that we carried here from the US.

We were singing Christmas carols before bed one night and admittingly, I often sing Christmas songs and enjoy them for their catchy tune and for tradition's sake getting into the "Christmas spirit".  This particular song struck me for it's deep and spiritual significance.  As we were singing the lyrics I was moved not to get more into the "Christmas spirit", but by the reality of this message.

Joy to the world with truth and grace.

And makes the nations prove.

The glories of His righteousness

And wonders of His love

And wonders of His love

And wonders of His love.

                    Isaac Watts.

Rather then winter snow for Christmas we get winter fog in Delhi.

Our new table arrived hours before Christmas Eve dinner.

Hudson enjoying his new "cycle".  Shortly after Christmas it got exchanged for a smaller size.  Never-the-less,  we are bound and determined to haul this and Priya's new cycle and Everett's tricycle down three flight of stairs every day so that they can ride in the park across from our flat.  A garage has never sounded so good.  

This outfit is a hand-me-down.  It was Graham's from 1980.  Vintage at it's best.

our beloved turns four.

What Priya did when she turned four...

She woke up early and came into our room asking, “is it my birthday?"  Peaking at the array of pink balloons and banner hanging from our living room entry way.  She spent the rest of her day spinning around our house as her dress circled her little body, pointing her toes, prancing, humming, and singing unknown songs in dreamy birthday spirit.  She was excited to tell everyone whom we encountered that today was her birthday.  We took her on a little mommy/daddy/Priya date.  The three of us rode in the auto rickshaw hand in hand.  The highlight of the drive was when the auto driver came to an abrupt halt in the middle of an empty road.  Graham and I both looked at each other wondering what was the problem and we all looked out and saw a pack of little newborn puppies crossing the neighborhood street with their mother on the other side.  He didn’t want to hit them and of course and Priya was ecstatic to be a part of the puppy rescue.  We presented her with a requested hello kitty cake at a small party in the evening.  These little innocent girl moments seem to be fleeting as she matures more each day in height, language and concerns so we grasp on to our little four year old daughter in a house full of boys.  You manage to maintain your feminine side even when most imaginative play includes, “bad guys, shooting, wrestling and bombs."  I still catch glimpses of you cuddling and nursing your baby doll named “Llama” and mothering your little “kitties”(brothers) if you can get them to comply and crawl around the floor with you meowing.  You love pink. You sit and look at books for hours.  Often when there is a quietness in the room I ask, “where is Priya?"  I then find you on the floor quietly pouring over the pictures of a book.  You love William and often snuggle up to him with an adoring and motherly voice responding to his coos and babbles.  You charm us with your sweet spirit, your lovely face and stamina to overcome obstacles.  You run, scream and laugh at the top of your lungs until your implants fall off and you put them right back on and continue.  You deal with impairment not phased.  May you continue to keep running, screaming and laughing even when set backs come.  Here’s to another year with our beloved Priya. 

Birthday cake success thanks to the help of my dear friend Dannah.  Cake was in the fridge by 11PM rather than, like last year, 3AM the night before!

a new India.

We went up to Oaklands to see our dear community of friends and load our belongings onto a truck headed down to the plains.  When pulling up to the main gate, Priya yelled enthusiastically,  “We’re in India”!  We chuckled and realized that Oaklands, Mussoorie, the Himalayas and the people there have been our India.  I don’t think that their little minds understand yet that Delhi is India too.  As we continue to unpack, explore the new sights, smells, sounds and people of this area, I trust that they will come to accept it and that it will influence, enrich and shape them just as life in Mussoorie has done.

Some photos of our journey to a “new India”...

oh hills how I will miss you.

it was bliss for these two little kindred spirits.

thanksgiving potluck.  way more laughing then eating going on.

our front yard has been a place full of play.

oaklands doesn't look like this everyday.

empty family room.

our well-wishers.

will not miss the drive down the mountain.  little E losing his lunch.

the truck or lorry(thanks to the British!) showed up at 4AM to unload.

welcome chai from our landlady.

Our flat is the third floor of this building, but in India they call it the second floor because the first floor is called the ground floor...confusing I know.

a known address!

After a lot of learning and negotiating, we finally have an address and keys. It has been a long three weeks of searching.  We thought that finding a flat in Delhi would be fairly easy. We thought we would find something in our price range with all our preferences quickly.  But, south Delhi has a very inflated market and we have white skin (skin tax as some call it).  I don't know what we were thinking as most processes in India are very twisted and take a long time.  It was a grueling three weeks for Graham "the searcher" and for the kids and me as we waited in our temorary flat one hour outside of Delhi with little to entertain them.

To break up the time for the kids, we decided to have family outing one night in search of a store to find some crayons and coloring pads to keep them busy.  We also decided to visit McDonalds to get some flavors from home (even though we rarely go to McDonalds in Omaha).  The fries taste exactly the same.  The only thing missing is the beef burger and the replacement for this is a spicey chicken tikka or vegetable burger.  We accomplished our errand and dinner run and made it back to the apartment via bicycle rickshaw in time to put the kids down and enjoy a nice King Fisher.  We got out of the rickshaw and realized that we had left our precious craft items on board.  Graham took off sprinting into the night only to come back empty handed.  After the kids shed some tears about the lost bags, they went to bed.  We took the King Fishers out of the fridge only to notice that they actually read "King Feemer" in a King Fisher bottle and turned out to be a knock off non-alcoholic horrible tasting beer.  We had been scammed!  Trying to keep things light and humorous around here:)

Off to the mountains tomorrow to visit with the rest of the eMi family and friends and gather our belongings.  No doubt it will be bitter sweet as Oaklands still feels like home, but we will have a nice empty flat waiting to be furnished when we return to Delhi.

On the house hunt.  William and Graham ponder this location

The guest bedroom of our new place.  Anyone for a visit?

an unknown address.

I felt my heart being pushed on and weighed down as we gave final hugs and kisses at Eppley airport to Lark and my parents.  Even though we have been saying good byes a lot in the past couple of years it doesn't seem to get easier.  After having checked all our bags, we gathered and had a little team meeting, making sure we knew how many bags and children we needed to keep track of as we boarded the planes.  Okay...one kid strapped onto Graham.  One baby strapped onto me.  Hudson and Priya and their backpacks holding a hand and then six other carry-ons to haul.  Our trek through the airports felt a little disheveled and we turned many heads some with grins and some quite confused at our ship moving through. It was not uncommon to have atleast three kids crying at the same time or a couple crawling around on the airport floor, but we made it to Delhi with no real set-backs.  We occupied a whole middle section of the plane and the kids slept nearly the whole 13 hour flight.  In Delhi, the customs official peered up very curiously through his spectacles after Graham places six passports on his counter to be stamped.  We managed to stuff our family and all our belongings into just one taxi van.  It was a puzzle to be solved.  We then took off into the darkness to find our flat. The emailed address printed out and folded in Graham's pocket.  "Why is India so rusty and old?"  Hudson asked.  He asks this every time we arrive in India from Omaha.

The taxi driver asked Graham to repeat the address multiple times.  As soon as Graham used an Indian accent to tell him, he seemed to understand where we were going.  We arrived, dismounted and unloaded.  The kids and I sat surrounded by high towered concrete apartments in the dark by our bags as Graham went to locate the key.  As we waited they played with the left over fire cracker trash from the recent Diwali holiday, their hands covered in black soot.  I surrendered my initial reaction to their dirtiness and let them play while trying to console a fussy William.  The key was located and Graham ported our bags up to our apartment which is luckily only one floor up.  The tenants have been away for some time now, so the whole place was covered in dust.  We found the beds and prepared for a long night of broken sleep.  Jet lagging with four kids means atleast one is awake at all times.

We were all awake by 0400 and hungry so snacked on the fruit snacks and peanut M'n'M's that LaLa had given Hudson for the journey.  By 0800 we were out the door looking for food.  There was a little tea stall open across the street next to a large temple and dusty deserted fair ground.  We fed the kids some biscuits and mango fruities.  Needing to locate a more substantial market with more then just snacks, we were adviced to go to the sector 6 market.  A group of thin men and their parked, tattered bicycle rickshaws were gathering and getting ready for a day of work.  We negotiated the price for two man-powered rickshaws and proceeded at a very unhurried pace being passed by trucks, buses, motorcycles and cars on the busy highway.  We reached the sector 6 market and dismounted at around 0830 arguing about the final price which had doubled from the intial negotiated amount.  Shortly after this, we remembered that most things in India don't open until after 10AM.  We should have known.  Now, needing to kill some time, we asked the only store that was open for some chai and sipped it as the kids ran around playing with some trash that they picked up off the ground.  I again surrendered my reaction to the dirtiness of this and we were approached by a young boy selling his shoe cleaning and repair services.  With tools and new sole material strapped to his back he pointed out the crack in the rubber of my chucks and said "glue".  I denied the need for the repair and looked over at Hudson who was taking the whole encounter in.  

We left the market shortly after 10 AM with two grocery bags full of food and managed to squeeze into just one cycle rickshaw on our way home.  We took a different route home which was under construction and had to get down a couple of times due to an extremely bumpy road.  These bicycles and carts do not have proper shocks.  The different route revealed a wonderful mother dairy shop and grocer with basic fruits and vegetables right next door to our apartment towers.  Our trip for food now is not so involved as the first experience.

We are grateful to have a place to land as we begin our search for a flat of our own.

looking back.

Arrived in Delhi last night.  These photos tell the stories of our time in Omaha.  Lark marked the kids' heights on her kitchen wall in July and then right before we left and they grew a 1/2 inch!