The farm

We made it to the "farm". The drive was crazy (again), especially since it was raining, and the road was turned halfway into a river. That didn't stop the motorcyclist however.

Traffic is insane! Luckily we have a driver, otherwise we would surely get in a car accident. But everyone just switches in and out of lanes and squeezes in between spaces that don't seem large enough for our car.

The whole left part of the road was a river

Cows wander wherever they want

The farm is a 60 acre spread with mango groves, coconut trees, a school, dormitories, and a new building especially for the disabled. The classes are all taught in English and sizes are small. After school, the kids play in the center of all the buildings. Going in there with my camera, is like nothing else. There's no "sneaky journalistic photography", as they all swarm around you. Then seeing their picture on the camera moments after it was taken, sets off a string of photos to be taken. They all love their pictures taken. Here's just a few

The kids made up a game kjnd of like hop scotch, where they have to throw a stone, and then hop on one leg to the stone.

All pushing to get into the picture

This girl was so shy. When I first came into the play yard, she was making balls out of the wet sand. After taking photos of tons of other kids, she came to show me her sand balls

Incredible India

Everywhere I look, I want to just take tons of pictures (but I really haven't had the chance to do so) We arrived in India in the middle of the night, yet the airport and streets were crowded. Lots of motorcycles, rickshaws, and pedestrians everywhere. Seeing India on a TV show like The Amazing Race is nothing to the real thing. The most challenging element has been the heat. And it's not even that hot this time of year.

After attempting to sleep a few hours, Dr Prasad gave us the tour of the Pathway Center in Chennai. Pathway is a school and orphanage for mentally disabled and abandoned children. The education program they have set up, is quite extraordinary. Each child gets tailored education especially for their individual needs. I can't wait to spend a lot of time in the coming week with these children.

Jagan is a mentally handicapt boy that is learning complex beading skills. Pathway makes and sells beautiful jewelry and decorations, including these beaded butterflies.

Just across the street from Pathway is one of many slums. Extremely poor people build shacks and set up their homes there. The street has public water spickets along the road. Women use large jugs or vases to collect water for their daily needs (pictures to follow soon)

We headed for the textile shopping area in Chennai. The thrill of traffic can almost be compared with a ride at Disney, except with higher levels of adrenaline. Somehow we made it to the store unscathed, and entered a huge 4 story clothing building. The store is set up quite different than any store I've ever been in. Tons of employees are behind counters, and one will be your

personal assistant. You tell them what you are looking for, and they start pulling out stacks and stacks of different flavors of that type of clothing. They are all stored neatly in plastic wrappings and in bundles behind the counters, and the assistant just starts unwrapping tons and tons of packages. After just a few minutes the whole counter has become a mountain of colorful cloth. I bought some few fun outfits for the kids, as well as more functional clothing items for myself and Joe. Unfortunately they don't allow photos to be taken in this store, so after we came out, I just shot a few snapshots of the street in front.

Fresh fruit stands are all over. Unfortunately I can't take the chance of becoming sick by partaking of this delicious looking feast.

Leap of Faith

We took the leap. This is probably the toughest family decision we've made since we got married, yet it was made relatively swiftly. One day I was in turmoil over what team to choose. I watched Conference all day Sunday, and Monday I just felt like "Team Family" should be the winner. After this personal revelation (that's what I think it was), the idea of staying in Europe and staying for a job, just turned me off completely. I couldn't see any benefit in it.

The decision was made, and set in stone with the purchase of plane tickets. It feels like we jumped off a cliff and are currently in a LONG freefall. The bottom is nowhere in sight, but my hope and faith is strong that something soft will catch us. And if it doesn't.. If there are only sharp rocks at the bottom, I'll still know that I was inspired to make the jump. Maybe I have something to learn from the freefall.

The uncertainty of our future becomes most apparent when telling 3rd parties about it. All I can tell them, is that our plan is to celebrate thanksgiving in Texas, pack up our stuff, and start driving North West. Which town it will be, or even which state, is still completely unknown. My hope and prayer is that by the time thanksgiving rolls around, we can start to see the bottom. (and hopefully it's fluffy and soft).

Joe has a lot of skills and education, and previous experiences have shown him to excel in interviews on a personal level. The trickiest part is getting to the interview. Which becomes easier when you are living in the area where the jobs come open.

The next 2 weeks will be devoted to India, after which the preparations for a continental move have to kick into high gear. I'm getting a bit of a flashback to only a year ago, when we had to liquidize another whole household of stuff. At least this time most items can be donated instead of sold, since they were given to us in the first place. I'm not even thinking about all the logistics we'll have to deal with once stateside again… it would stress me out too much!

Which team?

My mind has been busy lately. Considering the difficult decisions lying ahead. Lying ahead, in the very near future! The current score between "Team Family" and "Team Career" is still undecided.

Team Family believes family is the most important thing in life. It needs stability for the kids, and to lay down roots in a community. The location is also important to team family. Mountains, greenery, and 4 seasons are a must. Team Family goes camping, learns to ski, and spends time with extended family.

Team Family is burdened by finances. It doesn't have a plan to pay for food, let alone for student loans. Team family will have to sacrifice buying a home until all loans are paid off. Team Family deals with a lot of uncertainty.

Team Career is more money oriented. It sees the importance of taking the opportunity to advance Joe's career at this crucial junction. Getting an MBA wasn't cheap, and it sees how paying for this, is not only important, but required. Team Career thinks "what are a few years of working hard, and working for a great company, we can always change to Team Family later"

What team career has a hard time justifying, is that we live NOW. Children grow up, and will forever be shaped by these precious years.

The facts are:

-My job is likely to end the middle of November

-Joe's MBA is done in the middle of November

-We don't have a house to live in after December 31st

-Holland has great health insurance, which covers childbirth. The US might qualify us for Medicaid.

-I can't fly from January 1st, until the baby is born the end of February

-Our student loan payments are going to be astronomical for 5 years

-Joe's career network is developing in Holland. It's much easier to find a job in the location you reside

-The kids are almost in their teenage years and need stability

-I'm tired of moving around (maybe my "nesting instinct is kicking in)

-Living in Holland with teenagers scares the dukies out of me.

-Family is more important than money. But having enough money to pay the bills is more important than anything

So which team will win? Which one SHOULD win?

Shopping experience

In preparation for our India trip, I had a long list of things to buy. Things that I could probably find with one visit to Walmart. But alas, there's no Walmart in Holland, so instead, Winter and I spent all day shopping, and still came home without a few things on the list. The advantage of not having a Walmart, is that you come across some pretty cool stores.

-We were transported to India, in a part of Den Haag I've never seen. I managed to find a Salwar Kameez set, as not to stand out too much when we first arrive to India.

-The Den Haag markt has everything from cheap boots and sewing supplies, to a wide variety of well-priced vegetables. It turns out though, that a combination of waiting too long to eat, uncharacteristic heat, and low blood pressure, will almost get me to a point of fainting. It took a good 10 minutes of sitting on a bench with deep breathing to get me back on my feet.

-Den Haag also has an amazing outdoor store, that even trumps the Bass Pro Shop; including rock climbing, ice wall climbing, and deep sea diving facilities.

So the overall shopping experience was superior, but the efficiency much lower. The funnest part: I got to spend all day chatting with Winter

It's a boy!

The second the ultrasound machine hit my belly, the tech told me it's a BOY! It was so sudden, that I wasn't even really ready for it. It's a good thing he asked me in advance if I wanted to know. So now we can stop calling the baby "it", and refer to him in male form. Of course one of the first considerations is the name. It's such a big decision, and our criteria are pretty ridiculous:

-The name has to be rare (as in, you may know one person with it, but definitely not more than that)
-It has to mean something (winter=season, sterling=silver, ginger=spice)
-Can't be shortened to anything - so no david that will go by dave.
-Oh, and the initials have to be okay too. So no names starting with "A" (AA)
-Also, no names starting with "J", since Joe and I are "J"

We have a few front runner names already. One in specific, has been in my mind for years; Miles. But under criteria #1, I'm having doubts about this name. It seems to becoming more popular and widespread. It's a good thing we have another 4.5 months to make up our mind!

A nice day ended with backpack horror

I went straight into the heart of the backpack horror. When school cups slowly start disappeared throughout the week, I usually exhort the kids to bring them up every day. After a while though, the supply doesn't seem to get replenished with the kids' contributions. So tonight I dreadidly went to the backpacks. Those things are scary places! Some of the things I found included.... hmmm... maybe I shouldn't put this on the internet..... or start an anonymous blog......

Well anyways, lets just say I found a total of 5 cups, 3 bread containers, and 2 wet gym towels. So happy with my dishwasher right now! And with my washer and dryer.

On a happier note; we got to pick up our Indian visas this afternoon in Den Haag. Afterwards, the sun was shining through the car window, and I was wishing the weather would have been this nice a few weeks ago for my beach adventure. So the thought came: just go to the beach now. You have to take a nice day anytime you can, and just enjoy it to the max. Sure, I was wearing my high-heeled boots and turtleneck, but walking on the beach should be done barefoot anyways.

It was the perfect afternoon. The kids genuinely enjoyed playing together. Some might say they're crazy for running around without shirts on, but it was all we could do to keep them from taking all their clothes off.
Coco had a blast too, until she felt really brave chasing a big dog into the ocean, and just about froze with shock from the water temperature.