the day to day...

These days...

Graham just finished speaking at a college retreat in Rajpur for students from Nagaland.  He had to do a lot of prep and present four 1-hour sessions.  He enjoyed being around a group of smart, deep thinking students.

I have been enjoying running the trails with a new friend Kaaren.  We have found some beautiful routes that traverse the Gharwal villages in this area.  It has been exhilarating to combine a love for this area and the people with running.

Hudson and Priya have both just had language explosions.  Hudson in Hindi and Priya in English!  It happened with Hudson last week trying to communicate with a Hindi speaking friend in our car.  He just started pulling out so many Hindi words and putting them all together.  It happened with Priya one night before bed.  She just started telling me about animals and her birthday and every thing that was on her mind!  

Everett is still not walking much.  He is far too stubborn and zippy at crawling.  He has a new black eye this week.  I have lost count of how many he has had in his short life.  He is on the move.

As a family we are looking forward to another trek into the Himalayas this coming week with dear friends Tommy and Sarah coming from Oregon to visit.

Memorable moment of the week...

We walked as a family to get our weekly food at a local store.  Hudson and Priya were waiting on the front step of the store facing the street and people walking by.  They were both singing at the top of their lungs, “there is no place like Nebraska...GO. BIG. RED.”  We both looked at each other and smiled.  They have not idea.

A couple of snaps of life this month so far...

Date night run.

Sweatshirt weather.

"Lizard on Priya's shoulders!!!"

Nap time.

3 in 1.

Working hard to speak.

Last night Priya's teacher said "She followed my instructions from clear across the world!"

Thanks to a generous donation, we were able to get a direct internet line at our house.  For the past 8 months we have struggled with a horrible connection.  This has made it difficult to stay "linked" to our family and friends at home, but the biggest impact has been on Priya.

We were so thrilled when the MOOG Center in St. Louis(a very well-known, leading program for deaf education) agreed to take Priya on as a distance student via the internet since there are no programs north of Delhi for children with cochlear implants.  We attended one of their conferences in the summer of 2009 with a 6 day old baby(Everett) and were extremely impressed with their program.  We were assured and at ease moving to India knowing that they would be following her closely, helping me know how to teach her and giving input into her progress.  Then we arrived and unexpectedly experienced 8 months of slow to no internet, horrible skype connections and many sessions with her teacher Laurie cut short or cancelled due to our technology failures.  This has often left us questioning our purpose and decision to move here.

I am relieved to announce that with a new internet connection we have had 2 one-hour skype sessions with no problems and very positive evaluations from Priya's teacher.  I am almost afraid to post this for fear that the internet will again become problematic, but for now we are delighted.

Parent Summer Seminar in St. Louis.  Everett is 6 days old.

 Barb taught Priya at our house in Omaha since she was about 3 months old. 

Visiting with Laurie (Priya's instructor at the Moog Center) clear across the world.

Laurie helps coach Carrie through the intricacies of encouraging Priya to speak.