The title for this week’s entry comes from the
musical stylings of Enrique Iglesias and of course in honor of the birth of
Isabel Skye Brown. Clearly the most important, most exciting thing that
happened this week. We can’t let the moment pass without comment.
We were among the first to know as Becca went
into labor and headed to the hospital about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon, which is 3:00
in the morning in Oregon. Needless to say, we were on pins and needles
throughout the afternoon and evening. We didn’t want to fall asleep – we were
sure the phone would ring at any moment. Well physiology overcame excitement and
we finally fell asleep a little before midnight.
About 2:00 AM, I woke up and then couldn’t fall
asleep. Why hadn’t we heard? Certainly the baby had come by now? Was something
wrong? So, I sat and stewed and worried until the phone rang. About twelve
hours after the initial call we got the confirmation that Isabel had arrived
and mom and baby were doing well. From then until about 5:00 we exchanged
emails with family in the US and talked excitedly about our new family member.
It ended up being a short night, but definitely worth it.
Here are some pictures of Isabel courtesy of Ben
and Becca. Can’t wait to meet her in person!
Now back to India.
This week Rae and I were invited to a reception
hosted by the Embassy of Senegal at the Taj Hotel (beautiful in and of itself,
actually). It was the fifty-fourth anniversary of Senegal’s founding. We have
quite a few students from Senegal, including the son of a former ambassador to
India and some of the spouses and staff members of the embassy. The most
important part of the evening was watching the mini-alumni meet as our
graduates greeted and hugged each other. The second most enjoyable part of the
evening was seeing all of the beautiful, colorful, West African dresses and
headgear.
Here are two pictures of the evening.
The worst part of the evening was the food. Don’t
get me wrong. All of the food was delicious but it was a combination of Indian,
Chinese and salads. No Senegalese food. Not a bite. How disappointing.
Well, here’s Nana (interesting side note, in
Hindi Nana means maternal grandfather, not grandmother. So Indians who have
seen our family picture wall thinks it is funny we have a sign that says, “Some
of greatest blessings call us “grandfather” and papa.”
I’m going to start by sharing a bit about
church. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m
in the district Young Women presidency.
Our district is planning a youth conference April 18 & 19. We are bussing the youth about 5 hours to the
mountains north of Delhi. The youth will
spent one night camping. They will river
raft, hike, have some spiritual classes and end with a testimony meeting. We are expecting around 100 youth. The plan is to have the buses leave Delhi at
5am, make a couple of stops on the way and reach there about lunch time. Getting people to arrive in time for the
scheduled departure is pretty much impossible so a few of the expat families
that live by the Visant Vihar building are hosting the youth the night before
so we have them in our grips and can depart at the scheduled time. I say we like I’m going to be part of this,
but since I had booked my trip to the US prior to the scheduling of this event
I will only be going “in spirit”. Maybe
my old bones will be happy about that.
Here is an interesting thing that we have
encountered in trying to get the youth registered and getting a count. There are some of the youth that will not be
going because their parents will not give their permission. It is very difficult for parents to trust
anyone else with the care of their children.
Some parents think that their 14, 15, 16, or 17 year old is not old
enough to go off on an excursion like this.
Some parents are worried that their child’s studies may suffer if they
let them take the time for this. There
is no school on Friday, Good Friday, but school and education are the TOP
priority and nothing should interfere. I
had to have a meeting with one mother and her daughter where the daughter had
to promise me and her mother that she would still make studies her top
priority. Two of our YW aren’t going (both
14), because their parents think they aren’t old enough. One of these girls really wants to go, the
other is a bit more timid about it so is okay with her parent’s decision. This was an eye opener for me and another
example of our cultural differences.
Now, on to house adventures. We’ve mentioned earlier about the water in
our basement and the mold that was a result of that. For weeks they’ve been going to clean things
up and repaint. That has finally
happened and so we have a basement again with the potential of being a useable
space. I took a few pictures of it in
process and a few of the finished, not yet entirely cleaned up space. I wish
I had more confidence that we will not have a reoccurrence of water and that I could actually use that space
for exercising and art projects liked I’d originally planned. I hesitate to put much down there only to
have it get wet. If we make it through
the hot summer and no water then maybe I’ll feel more comfortable putting some
actual furniture and other things down there.
Time will tell.
Let me just finish by saying that having little Miss
Isabel Skye Brown join our family was definitely the highlight of the
week. We are so grateful to have this
new little addition to our family and that both Becca and Baby are doing
well.
Namaste.
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