Fun Family Stats

To celebrate living in India for two years, I thought it would be fun to share some family stats:

Starting with Gray and I...

Acquaintances/Friends--1 year, 5 months

Dated--6 months

Engaged--3.5 months

Married--8 years, 7 months

Almost 5 children

Total time pregnant--3 years, 4 months

Total time pregnant and/or nursing--6 years, 4 months

Thoughts considered on pregnant/nursing since we're embarking on this right now!

Gray pointed out that I was pregnant longer than the times we knew each other, were friends, dated, or engaged combined!

Moves in our marriage: 12

Raleigh

Virginia

Slovakia--house 1

Slovakia--house 2

Two months--totally nomadic--but homeless--with family, friends, vacation (never again)

Bluffton--house 1

Bluffton--house 2

Clemson

Virginia

India--house 1

India--temporary apartment

India--house 2

Two criteria to be considered a move:

if all of our things were with us or not in "our home" elsewhere

if we were in that place for at least two months

Our family's time in the US:

Gray--27 years, 2 months

Brandy-- 27 years, 6 months

Sarala--2 years, 10 months

Jackson--2 years, 5 months

Sam--1 year, 11 months

Parks--0 months

Only counting time when we were living in the US--not visits home from living overseas (which was only 1 week for Brandy).

Our family's time overseas (includes India and SK):

Gray--5 years, 2 months

Brandy--5 years

Sarala--4 years

Jackson--3 years

Sam--2 years

Parks--1 year, 5 months

Only counting time when we were living overseas--not short-term trips/visits or summer trips.

Just a few for fun...any other things to count up? I love statistics!

Our Place of Transition

After moving from the mountains, and before moving into our house, we stayed in an apartment while we were house hunting, traveling and waiting on our house to be ready. We're thankful we had a place already set up for us to live. It was a fun location, and I miss all the happenings going on there on that street. Here are some things we miss about "our place of transition."

This was taken off the balcony one morning. You can see the street down below with the cows walking. There are 3 temples on the street, right across from the apartment.

I enjoyed watching the temple activity. It was fascinating to me. It was also a time of prayer for me to pray for many of the people we live among. This particular day was a holiday. There were 2 young boys sitting out in front of the temple selling vegetables for the people to buy to offer to the gods as they visited the temple.

Our washing machine was on the balcony, and I often got caught up into people watching when I went out there to do laundry.

See all the shoes...it's customary to take off your shoes when entering a temple or mosque or holy place here (or someone's home too). One day, I watched a man look all over for his shoes--someone had stolen them. I actually didn't see them get stolen, but I saw the guy looking all over for them. I wonder if he was late for work. It happens.

The same holiday, here are some ladies walking to the temple with this plate as their offering.

One day there was one of these "merry-go-rounds" going down the street. The kids hop up and sit in the chairs and the guy spins them around and you pay a quarter or less for the little ride. It comes right to you...right on the street. Fun!!!

One of the things I'll miss the most is a very fun park that we could walk to. There are fun parks in town, and I'm thankful for them. This is much different from the other city we lived in. This park was awesome and so easy to walk to. I might just drive across town to play there. It was fun to meet neighbors and hang out.

So much play equipment!!!

and big swings for adults too!

Of course, the kids would rather climb on the rocks in the corner,

so the gardener could yell at me and make them get down.

Don't they look so cute up there!!

And, who needs playground equipment when there are brooms?

Seriously, they played with the brooms and swept the park somedays more than playing!

See! And, we've been asked a few times why we don't have a sweeper at our house.

Who needs to pay a sweeper?

One thing I don't miss is the internet connection we had. Here, I'm leaving my computer outside to download email. Our friends that are living there now, waiting on their home got high-speed good internet!

I miss seeing SO many things from the balcony--like the milkman delivering milk!

Another favorite thing I'll miss is all the walas!!! You might remember from other posts that you add wala for many occupations. Like a press wala (that presses your clothes), a veggie wala (that sells veggies), balloon wala (that sells balloons), chai wala (one that sells chai). You get the point. They yell and call out what they have and what they are doing. And, I miss hearing them yell. They really yelled on this street. It was so fun. It was like our first weeks of arriving in India. I would run to the porch to see what that wala was yelling. Then, eventually, you know their call and you know what is coming. In the above picture, you'll notice a young boy going behind an older man. I bet he's in training.

In the afternoons, especially when it's hot, everyone naps. These veggie walas parked their carts right on the street and laid down here for their afternoon naps. So fun!

Here are the press walas right beside them temple. I went to the lady in the back. They are probably husband and wife. She was sweet and it was fun to chat with her.

Now, this neighborhood was very exciting. Lots of action going on. Our new house is at one of the busiest intersections and a main part of town, but we live in a neighborhood, and our house is all the way at the back and in a corner, so we miss out on the action. I do love our neighborhood and especially our yard. The only thing I miss is the action and ease of being out in India by just walking out of the door.

I don't miss the action when you want it to be quiet. Every Saturday evening, one of the temples across the street had a pooja--time of worship. It was loud and lasted 2-3 hours, usually ending around 11-11:30pm. Listen to a sample of how loud it was.

House Update

Our house is the second one through the gate (actually through 2 gates).

We did find a house, and we’re waiting….waiting on it to be ready for us. We first saw it mid-February, and we loved it! But, the landlord wanted to redo all—ALL—the floors. He told us we could move in April. We agreed because we had so much travel in the months of Feb and March and we are blessed to have a place to stay in the meantime. I was nervous and skeptical at first because my experience in India so far is that everything takes longer (often much longer) than you expect or are told and even after just a few weeks of transition, living out of suitcases with a pile of our things I was longing to be settled!

The dirt floors--but our kids have a bathtub--that is AWESOME and so unexpected!

One day, we went by the house to check on things (this was the last week of Feb), and all the floors were torn totally up and our house was a big mess. We were walking around on “dirt.” But, more than that, the tiles were removed from the bathroom walls, the sinks, toilets removed. The kitchen countertops were all ripped out and the cabinets gone. The marble stairs were gone and “dirt steps” were there and the banister was gone. The windows and all the doors were ripped out. The house had been gutted—totally gutted--and they were redoing everything! I was quite worried at the time, because I just knew our house would not be ready by April. Our family is used to moving around, used to transition and temporary living, but this time around has been hard! We’ve now been living in transition for 3 months!!! It’s been hard!

Fun porch--the second floor

Well tomorrow we should get the key! Gray's been by there daily, and I've been at least a couple of times a week to help make decisions and see what has been done. We are so excited!! We cannot believe how fast they have worked. Our landlord has a contractor that just stands at the house all day everyday and makes the workers work and work fast and hard and not slow. I’ve not seen anything like it in South Asia! Ha! He's become a friend to us over these couple of months! It’s a wonderful house for us. It truly is a blessing from the Lord--good landlord, fun neighborhood, and I just love it! I love the little yard, the porch, the BIG kitchen, how they redid the entry porch and space outside that wraps around to the back. It's so fun. It's basically brand new too, yet in an established community. I'm glad my hubby was holding out to find the right house while I was ready to just get one and make it home fast. I do believe this one will truly be worth the wait (the hard wait, even). I can’t wait to make home and serve the Lord here!!! For now here are a few pictures of the "dirt." Can’t wait to show it to you as we get settled over the next week!

I am not surprised at how the Lord has provided. Everywhere we have lived, EVERYWHERE, we have had wonderful, wonderful landlords, wonderful neighbors (Gabi!!!) and a great home. I'm not surprised at all at how our Father provides. I am thankful, very thankful, and pray we'll use this gift for His glory!!!

Stay tuned...even if it takes me another week (or two) to get up another post!

Another Move...Another Transition

I've had that same blog title a few other times! It is our life!

I was all on top of blogging and had many posts scheduled to pop up for you, and my mother was especially happy about that! But, alas, I got quite busy with something else....and it's been moving! We're living in another city now! We said good-bye to those pretty hills and lots of good friends we've made this past year. Now, we say hello to warmer (and super hotter in a few months) weather!

There it all is...our worldly possessions!

We've at least doubled them this past year!

getting all wrapped and packed up

This is how it's done here!

and stacked

and loaded up on a truck!

Now, we're waiting on that truck to get to us.

Meanwhile, we're looking for a new house!!!

So, until you see pictures of us in our new city, our new house, our new life...I have scheduled some more posts to keep popping up daily--more from Thailand, more from our time in the mountains and friends we'll miss there. Enjoy!!!