14 Jul 2013
I
am sure you have heard the saying that anything you do for thirty days is a
habit, that with little effort you’ll be able to continue that activity. Well,
I have disproved this saying more than once. For instance, after years of
running 3-5 miles a day five days a week we moved to West Texas. The first
morning there I got up to run, as was my habit. I opened the door and faced
brutal wind from the North driving sleet like needles. I said, “Well, I’ll run
tomorrow.” Tomorrow never came. It may have taken thirty days to make a habit
but I broke one in a single stroke. Likewise, I have been writing an entry for
our blog every weekend for nearly three months. Last week I had just gotten to
Oregon and we had a lot of family activities. I said, “Well, I’ll write next
week when we are back in India.” I didn’t write yesterday and if I am not
careful, our blog could go the way of my running. So, back to writing!
When last we left our hero, he was battling
kidney stones and wondering if he would be cleared to fly back to Oregon. Based
on the paragraph above, the answer to that is clear. I passed the stone that
was of immediate concern the night before my doctor’s appointment, got medical
clearance, and only had kidney stone attacks four or five more times during the
rest of the trip, as a few of the “several” stones in my left kidney decided to
make the glorious trek to freedom in the outside world. Fortunately, aforementioned
stone attacks only happened once while trapped on a plane.
Enough
medical stuff. As you know, I went back to Portland to see family, to help get
the house ready to rent, and to bring Rae back to India. In all three aspects,
the trip was a success.
Over
the last three months, with SIGNIFICANT help from our kids and friends, Rae had
gotten nearly everything sorted with the house. Nearly everything we own was 1)
given away; 2) sold; 3) put in storage; or shipped on a slow boat to, err,
India. Even with all of her hard work we were doing some sorting and storage
right up to the last day. There will still be some loose ends for the kids to
take care of after Sarah and Jeremy move but that part of the trip has to be
considered a success.
Spending
time with family was wonderful, although it was too brief and limited to seeing
those living in Portland, or who had come there to see us. It was great to see
Emily and Kai. I hadn’t seen them in over a year. Unfortunately, Emily and Kai
had to return to Phoenix on Tuesday. I was amazed at how much Kai had grown in
a year. For that matter, I was amazed at how much Lauren, Julien, Maude,
Quincy, Colvin, Lincoln, Merrick, and Carrigan had grown in three months. Holding
Carrigan for the first time was great, although it appeared to mean more to me
than to her, and Lincoln who had been my good friend three months ago didn’t
want much to do with me for the first few days.
While
home we participated in blessing Carrigan and celebrated an early sixth
birthday for Colvin.
The
last night we were there, we had a true spiritual feast. Ben, Brendon, and
Jeremy (with Brendon as voice) gave me a blessing. Then I joined them, serving
as voice in giving Rae a blessing. I then proceeded to give each member of our
family a blessing. All in all, I served as voice for 15 consecutive blessings.
I felt a bit like an Old Testament patriarch. What I felt most was the deep
love that I feel for each of our family members as well as the even greater
love our Father in Heaven has for each of them. I only wish Emily, Michael and
Kai could have been there or that we had at least thought to give Emily and Kai
blessings before they left.
The
third and final aspect of the trip was to bring Rae back to India. I have to
admit I have felt more than a little guilty as this even has approached. I
really have wanted Rae to join me but I know how hard it will be for her to
leave family and friends. She keeps assuring me she knows this is right and
despite being sad at leaving loved ones, she is excited to be together with me
and for the adventures that await us in India. In any case, with a full three hours
sleep under our belts we undertook the 30+ hour trip to New Delhi by way of
Newark, New Jersey. In some ways the hardest part of the trip was the six hours
we spent in the layover in Newark – not my favourite airport. In any case we
finally dragged ourselves into our home about 10:00 PM Friday night. The next
morning Rae was up ready to clean and rearrange furniture! I have to say her
energy and enthusiasm did not last straight through the weekend. There was a
fair amount of dozing mixed in with organizing, but she has begun to make her
presence known and I couldn’t be more excited. I am now going to turn the blog
over to her. Rae, you have the helm.
Rae
at the helm here. Well, I have to say
that my first few days haven’t been terribly glamorous. To say that I was a bit tired to start this
adventure, is a totally accurate statement. Traveling for 30 hours doesn’t help the fatigue factor. I did spend the first two days unpacking our
four large and loaded suitcases, arranging some furniture, and sleeping. I think I did brush my teeth a couple of
times. After spending the weekend in the
flat it became clear that some serious cleaning was in order, so as Phil left
for work I started the cleaning process.
There is still so much to do but from what I’ve learned so far, there
will always be so much to do. Lots of
people, lots of cars, and lots of dry dust equals lots of black sooty dust
everywhere. We may need to have Christina more hours a day than we have her
coming currently.
India
is going to be an adventure in so many ways.
We have been trying to buy a washer, and even that has been an
adventure. The area for the washer is a
very narrow slab just outside our kitchen door and there is just one (cold)
faucet so we have to be very careful that the one we pick will work in the
space and only has one hook up valve. It
turns out that whatever washer meets all the criteria will be the one we get,
never mind what the brand or other features.
Who knew it would take so many trips to the store to resolve one washer
purchase. There have been some other
shopping experiences that I will share on another blog. I’ve learned how to do a quick general
calculation of rupees to dollars so baby steps for me.
One
last bit of info. I did see an elephant and some cattle on the street the other
day. I’d seen cattle, but not in the busy
New Delhi area before. These were right
there in the middle of everything, and didn’t seem fazed at all by all the
traffic (not even the cattle are fazed by the traffic).
Namaste
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