children’s home. Saturday, March 5, 2011   We spent this morning visiting a children’s home nestled at the base of the Himalayas.  The director works for our agency and is apart of the team we are getting to know this week. The children who live here are not orphans; their parents have leprosy, and so have to live in leper colonies.  The home is a place for the children of lepers to grow up and get an education and be able to avoid catching this contagious disease (kids are tested for some time after they arrive, and those who do show early signs of leprosy are treated and cured).…

  silliness. Wednesday, March 2, 2011     Today Judah had a holiday from school, so the four of us woke up and walked down the street to the dosa cafe for a South Asian breakfast.  The weather has been gorgeous lately … the kind that makes you want to be out-of-doors all day.  It started to get very warm, but then we had a big rain, and this week we’ve had sunshine and breezes and chilly evenings.  We headed to the Garden Shop to get bigger pots, fertilizer and soil for our growing plants.  My husband the gardener re-potted our four plants this morning and they look fabulous.  The…

  queen bee. Wednesday, March 2, 2011      

  he says. Wednesday, March 2, 2011   Jonathan: “Judah, will you thank Jesus for dinner tonight?” Judah: “Of course.  Ready, set, go!” —————- Judah: “Girls don’t like M&M’s.  They like pasta and carrots.” —————- Judah: “I’m a one-man show.” —————- Judah (to our friend Arvind): “Take a deep breath!” —————– me: “Judah, what is your favorite thing about India?” Judah: “Georgia”    

  gratitude, #435 – 457. Tuesday, March 1, 2011   One Thousand Gifts Ann Voskamp, who started it all “Thanks is what multiplies joy and makes any life large, and I hunger for it.” our family’s bookcase-top gratitude list good health after a month-and-a-half of sickness in our household a new pediatrician, who we love Judah is back at school David’s email update encouragement from friends Dad Gentino cooking dinner in a quiet apartment shepherd’s pie rain hope open windows auto rides through parts of the city I’ve never seen Colleen, Amie and I spent the afternoon at the mall Amie picked out her own new purse (let’s just say…

  church visit. Sunday, February 27, 2011   Three pastors and I travelled an hour outside our city to visit a special church a part of the network we are working with here.  You can read about it in our March email update.    

  last stop. Saturday, February 26, 2011   The last stop of the trip was the city of P., which you will be familiar with if you’ve read The Life of Pi (I’m ashamed to say I have not). We went on from our village church visit, down the coast a couple hours, to see the city.  We ended up spending our time at the beach instead of exploring around town, since all day we’d promised the kids a swim in the ocean.  We ate dinner in a little French town close by … in an Italian restaurant, of all things, feasting outdoors on flat-bread pizza and homemade pasta.  …

  evening swim. Saturday, February 26, 2011      

  and more gratitude. Wednesday, February 23, 2011   “… but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’” – Gospel of Luke 8.38-39 This morning I feel a swell of gratitude in my heart.  It started last night, when I made myself sit and work once again on my list.  And I found, like I have before, that once I start it is hard to stop.  Why do I fight gratitude tooth-and-nail?  Why is it so much easier to focus on what I don’t have?  To live in the realm of “I wish …”  or “I miss …?” I…

gratitude, #410 – 434. Tuesday, February 22, 2011 back on the playground after four days of sick kids tile floors are a blessing during stomach bugs everyone kept their food down today a very healthy family the majority of the time God is protecting our bodies here in South Asia dripping red watermelon in February last night’s rain pictures hung on the wall hand-written letters our Vonage phone a two-hour chat on Maggie’s bed this afternoon the cross-breeze in the Iverson’s fourth-floor apartment I live in a home, in a city where I feel very safe the dream of more kids one day Yogi tea, brought from home discovering new-to-me…