We're Coming Home

(This is Debbie)

I'm doing the happy dance. We're coming home. God Bless America!

We leave this evening at 10ish, make a stop in Mumbai, change planes in London and then our last stop before home is Dallas. Then we fly home. We land at McCarren at 7:25 pm on Monday evening. British Airways, flight 5065.

I'm pretty curried out and can't wait to eat some beef - I'm not even a beef eater.

See you all soon!

The Taj Mahal

(This is Debbie)

Yesterday we made a trip to the Taj Mahal. I can really see why they call it one of the seven wonders of the world. We woke up early and left to drive to Agra at 6:30 am. It was a 3.5 - 4 hour drive.

This is the entrance gate to get into the grounds of the Taj Mahal.

Waiting to get in.

Wow! It was magnificent! You can't really tell in the pictures, but it isn't completely white anymore. Because of the pollution, it has turned a creamy white. To get into the Taj we couldn't even drive near. We parked nearby and took a battery operated car near the Taj.

The king buried his queen in the Taj. We saw the replica tombs inside but the real tombs are located several feet under the structure. They can only be viewed by VIP's like the president.

Inside, is all white marble that is inlaid like what we saw at the Red Fort. Matthew hired a guide for us to share the history and take us through the Taj. There was such a long line to get in and our guide took us around back and took us in the back entrance. That was a blessing, since our little one was losing it fast. We're dealing with a few separation anxiety issues right now.

After the Taj tour, our guide took us to the place where they still inlay marble with precious stones (like in the Taj). They say, it's still the same family who does it and it's been handed down through the generations. Very interesting.

We do have a lot better pictures of the Taj Mahal trip but they are on Vic's camera. We will try and upload them later on.

The Mosquitoes Know I'm Here.

(This is Vic)

Word has spread, Vic is back in India. Last time I was here, I was gourmet food for mosquitoes. This time, I have been under the radar until yesterday- I had a pretty good 'bite-free' run going. Suddenly, it's like they all know I'm back and have moved in for the kill. This wouldn't be so bad except that I react badly to these bites, with every one turning into a giant red lump on me that just constantly hurts. I will spare you pictures. It's gross.

It is REALLY hard not to itch.

Hanging Out In New Delhi

(This is Debbie.)

The last couple of days we have had a chance to hang out around New Delhi or "Delhi" as the locals call it. On our way to the embassy two days ago, we made a brief stop at the India Gate. It is massive and was built in honor of all the soldiers that lost their life in a war (the name of the war currently escapes me). Although honestly, I would have probably gotten it wrong anyway. So many things get lost in translation for me. I'm having a hard time with the language barrier. It's much easier to just let Vic do the talking since he's more used to the accent than I am. I smile and nod a lot.

You can get an idea of just how big the gate is by seeing how tiny Sammy looks.

Although based on the above picture, it's all about perception.

Yesterday we went to the Red Fort which, the property itself seemed to just go on and on. I'm not really sure what it was used for (but plan on researching it when I get home). When we asked our guide/translator, Matthew (who is a local) he also wasn't sure. One thing I do know is, it was magnificent.
Within the walls of the fort, like many forts, was the emperor's palace. It was amazing, with all the marble and water ways (minus the water now). Matthew told us the water would flow through the palace and with all the marble, it would cool the rooms and act like a fan.

Here is some of the marble on the inside. It was very detailed. Long ago, it was inlaid with pure gold, but has since been taken out and replaced with painted gold.

A palace dog.

This is one of the marble tiles. Each color on the white marble is a different stone. I can't imagine how long that would take for the artists to create.

An update on our little Maddy: She loves playing with her big brother and will often smile big and laugh for him. (Of course, this is when Vic is not around - so he hangs out around the corner so he can see it). She has her appetite finally and loves to feed herself (I'm so happy!). Today we went to the mall. She won't walk anywhere in public (she's probably never done it since she's spent the last two years in an orphanage). While in the mall I just couldn't carry her anymore - she's a little heater and can get quite heavy. So we made her walk around the mall for like 45 minutes. We were the crazy loud Americans that was letting their kid throw a tantrum (wow, did we get looks). She finally broke and walked the rest of the day - and looked happy about it. You just don't realize how new everything is to kids who have lived in an orphanage.

I just want to thank everyone who reads our travel blog and is supporting us. Every night we have fun reading the comments and being able to share this experience with you.

Vic and Sammy have gone native!

(This is Vic) So we went to this restaurant, and what we thought were banana leaf place mats turned out to be the plates. And the lack of utensils was on purpose- they primarily ate with their hand (the right one). There are parts of India in which eating with your hand is normal. So I showed Sammy how to do it, and we 'went native!'

A Little Embassy Faux Pas

This is Debbie. We arrived in New Delhi yesterday and little Miss Pretty Pretty (her name that we call her) did great on her first plane trip. She is a real trooper. Because of how the day went we had no breakfast and no lunch when we boarded the plane at 1:30. Yeah, a real trooper. (I know: bad parents!).

Today was Embassy day. We needed to go there to get her traveling immigrant visa. We did medicals in the morning, where we found out she doesn't like the doctor at all (she knew immediately where we were when we walked in) and that she doesn't like shots. She had to get four and I'm pretty sure the whole clinic heard her. In fact there was another family there doing medicals for their son they were adopting and he started crying when he heard her. We like to make an entrance.

We stopped at McDonald's for lunch. We had to eat at an India McDonald's one time while here. I got the veggie burger and Vic got the Chicken Maharajah Mac. Yep, no beef here. The only beef they have in India walks alongside the road. The fries tasted just like home. I miss America.

We made a stop at the India Gate and then it was on to the US Embassy. Side note to the other India adoptive parents out there, they have a new policy that you need to make an appointment before you go (of course check with your agency about this). It was a quick process; we were in and out with her visa in two hours. From what I understand that's not bad. We have her visa. She can go home with us now. I was a little disappointed not to see the marines guarding the entrance but it was still nice to technically be on American soil. (Especially the AC when we walked in).

Now the faux pas: I kept telling Vic that no cameras were allowed. Like three times. When we turned the corner and I saw the American flag I was so moved that (remember I miss America) I'm ashamed to say, I took a picture. Oops. Yes, we were stopped and I was asked to delete the photos. Yeah, Vic isn't going to let me forget that.

One last thing to add. We may be suffering from a little malady called "Delhi Belly". Yay for Immodium. Don't worry we'll be fine.

I can't turn off my power!

This is Vic. I think I figured out what the problem is. For the past 12 years, I have been in the back of church looking at little babies, putting a 'shhhh' finger to my mouth, and trying to telepathically will them to be quiet and calm during service. Apparently, I have developed mutant powers to this effect, and now can't turn it off. This is why my daughter can be laughing, playing and talking in the room, but as soon as I walk in she goes all super serious and doesn't move. I just have to find the off switch to my power. Why couldn't I fly instead?

She is talking and smiling!

She is talking and smiling! Primarily around Debbie, and she talks around Sammy. When I (Vic) walk in, she gets stone cold serious. I think she is slowly getting used to me, though. I grow on people :) Plus, considering that in the orphanage she was probably surrounded only by women and children, this is more than likely par for the course. So the new prayer is that she trusts me and loosens up around me :)

Her smile (recorded by Deb) and laugh is sooooooooo cute. I can't wait until she does that around me. She fell asleep on me yesterday while I was holding her, it was awesome.

Speaking of being 'stone cold' serious, this picture is something I saw on the streets and it made me laugh. Wrestling fans in India!

Our girl is talking! Well sort of...

So our little girl is very serious. There have been no smiles, just a lot of serious looking around, or crying if Debbie walks away for any reason. We know she can talk, but she has been very very timid and cautious. Once, yesterday, she was crying and while crying said something while pointing at a door that was closed (she wanted it open to go find Debbie, but I have no idea what she said or if it even was in English). Two nights ago, Debbie told me that she was talking in her sleep- once again, unintelligible as most sleep talking goes, but still really cute and musical and dainty. Just now, as I am working on posting blog stuff, Debbie came out and told me that she was sitting on the bed and looking at a book and then said something- but then realized she was talking and then stopped and looked up at Debbie. Debbie isn't sure of what she said, but how cool!! That means she is starting to trust us more and let her guard down! The orphanage is located in Chennai, India, where they speak Tamil. So I got our driver and the fellow that are helping us to give me some Tamil words which I spelled out phonetically, so now I have a ultra basic vocabulary just in case she learned Tamil as well as English (they told us they spoke English to her, but I think it was probably a mixture). Common words a two year old might know, like eat, drink sleep, mommy, daddy, brother, come here, open, and so on. So keep praying that she continues to open up and that she becomes a little chatterbox, hopefully in English! And keep praying that this little cutie will finally smile! Thanks everyone! -Vic

Inside St. Thomas Basilica

So, basically the Catholic church had strong influence in this area where the remains of Thomas were buried, and they built a big cathedral church over it, and granted it 'minor Basilica' status. When you first walk in, you see a lot of pews and the front has a statue of Jesus on a cross in the middle. As you walk to the front, you see a little window in the floor. I looked down in the window and saw the top of this guy's head. I zoomed in, and saw that it was a priest conducting mass, or a service. Down there is the actual area of Thomas' remains, and the entry to get down there was in a little building behind the basilica, so that's where we went next. More pics to come!

St. Thomas Basilica

Here are some pics of St. Thomas Basilica, the church that was built over the site where Thomas was buried. More pics to come...

Just Like That!

This is Debbie. All the posts that have been made since we actually started the trip have been from Vic so since he's sleeping I thought I'd put my two cents in.

It's weird to think that on Friday we went to just meet our daughter for the first time and "just like that" she's a part of our family. Because of the way it happened, and they told us to just take her home with us that day, the whole trip back to the flat where we stayed, we all just kept looking at each other and saying "just like that we're a family of four". We were bringing this beautiful little girl home with us and knew nothing about her.

Now, two days later we still don't know much. We've yet to see her smile or hear her little voice (although I heard her talking in her sleep last night and it sounded very cute & musical). Things I do know? She LOVES milk (and it must be warmed). If you give her a toy she won't let it go the entire day - seriously, yesterday when we went to St. Thomas's resting place (pictures and post to come) she hung onto two toys and never let them go. She's extremely shy. Even though I seem to be her favorite, she still doesn't really look me in the eye (I think I may be just the best in a bad situation at this point). She's very dainty and girly. When we feed her, she takes small bites and eats so slow and cute. Very much something we're not used to in our family!

I'm a girl and I love to know all the details, so for all you girls out there - there are the details.

One thing I do need to say about Chennai, is that it is hot! I much prefer a dry heat, like what we're used to, than the humidity. The humidity yesterday was crazy and I don't know if I have ever felt that before. It was comical really. Here are the original three of us (Vic, Debbie & Sammy) all sweating profusely and all the Indians (including our little Indian Princess) not even showing a drop of sweat. It must be something you get acclimated to. So with that, I just have to give a disclaimer - if you see any pictures of me, please remember that when you see my face red and a little shiny (unfortunately I'm not dainty and girly and glow in the heat, I sweat!). Yesterday we also blew a breaker so I had no hair dryer or curling iron. An especially attractive day for me - not!

Walking into the orphanage

These photos are from yesterday. Here we are walking into the "Foundling Home" as it is called here. As we went up the stairs, the anticipation was tremendous. At the top of these stairs we would meet our daughter that we've been praying for! Prior to this, all we had seen were photos and videos.

Okay, here's the deal. I don't think we can actually post pictures of our daughter until the adoption is finalized. Our agency strongly cautions against it, so we will abide by that. We will continue to write stuff and throw up pictures of everything else though. You all will get to see her in person soon enough!

Some scenes from the Streets of Chennai: The ladies often wear this dress called a Sari (pronounced sahree). When they do, they have to ride side saddle on scooters and motorcycles. That little yellow car is a three wheel taxi type thing, and they are everywhere. The streets are a seeming land of lawlessness, packed with pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, motorcycles and cars, where right of way is granted to the bold, and 1/2 of a centimeter is deemed plenty of space when passing other vehicles- even when they are coming right at you. If playing chicken was an Olympic sport, India would dominate.

Magic Masala. An explosion of flavor.

This made Sammy laugh. Achy (pronounced Ah-chee) is what he calls Vic's mom.

For David and Dan.

Jeep.

Hey Paolo!

This is from Sammy: Too bad Season 2 is over. I got a new Transformer in an Indian market. His name is Divebomb. He is scout class. We haven't gone to St. Thomas' mound yet. I got new Star Wars the Clone Wars comic books. They are volume 1, 2 and 3. Volume 4 is at home.

See you later,

Sammy

We have our daughter!!!!!

So today (Friday) was the day that we left the hotel and went to the place that we will be staying for the rest of our time in Chennai. It is a beautiful flat that my friend arranged through his good friends here in India. We end up calling the director of the orphanage to coordinate when we would visit our girl tomorrow. She informs us that we can come today, and she would go with us the first time. Then we could go back tomorrow by ourselves, since it is a government holiday tomorrow (and the Prime Minister is visiting tomorrow, so streets would be slow due to security). Then we could visit again on Sunday or Monday, and on Monday the director would release the girl and her traveling documents to us. This would give Maddy time to get used to us.

So we go to the directors office, meet her, then we all go to the orphanage. Words can't express what we felt when we saw our daughter (and sister) for the first time face to face. She actually allowed Debbie to hold her while her caretaker was there, although she was really holding in her emotions. They finally came out and she started crying (her little voice is so cute) although there were no tears, just crying and sniffling. She didn't want me to hold her, but eventually let Debbie hold her. We gave her some M&M's which she liked. The caretaker left us alone with her for about an hour, and during that time the turning point came when Sammy gave her a bright blue caribiner that he had. She held onto that thing for dear life, but really warmed up to Sammy and all of us. So then the director tells us that rather than go through this drama again tomorrow (her crying and getting used to us), would we like to just take her right now? OF COURSE WE WOULD!!! So we were able to take her back home, where we will spend the next couple of days with her, then on Monday, the director will issue her travel documents to us. On Tuesday morning we will be flying to New Delhi to arrange for her medical checkup and immigration visa at the Embassy.

She really loves Debbie, she likes Sammy and lets him walk her around holding her hand, and she tolerates me (Vic). At one point I had her so she was used to letting me hold her. By bedtime, she really wanted only Debbie, and when Debbie left the room she started crying. Sammy didn't want to leave her alone for one second, he loves her so much. We all do. The caretaker was clearly emotional about seeing her go, and gave us gifts that her church had gathered for us. She also told us that she would alwasy say with Maddy "Thank you Jesus", and she didn't want her to forget that. We gave a giant suitcase full of donations to them, and they were really grateful (thank you to all who helped!).

So later today I will try to post pictures, which takes forever (thus the text update this time, that is a lot quicker). Today we will try to visit the St. Thomas mound, where he was killed, and the St. Thomas Basilica, which is where he was buried.

The food is definitely spicy, but Sammy is doing much better with it. He is a trooper, and plus he's half me, so his latent superpower of loving really spicy food might be slowly coming to the surface.

Our flat is gorgeous, on the third floor of a building and right on the water. There is AC, and a guy named Mr. Vincent who is here with us to help us with everything from getting food to getting around town. Sammy thinks he is really cool.

More to come later!

Brussels shoots straight

Saw this in the store at the Brussels airport. No beating around the bush here.

In India!

Here's an Update: The flight to NY was uneventful, but the at JFK in NY, we were told TWICE the wrong terminal and gate to go to... and there was a woeful lack of information on screens telling us anything we could use. As a result, we ended up running at top speed to literally be the last ones on the plane to Brussels- I think they were waiting for us.

So we get on the plane, and I realize I don't have my phone. I close my eyes with the sinking realization that in our extreme rush to get through security and run to the right gate and make this plane, I had to put my phone in a separate tray for the x-ray, and I never picked it up. We just ran off. I tell one of the flight attendants, who tell security, and they take my boarding pass and jog away (presumably to the security checkpoint which was faaaaar away). Now they can't take off since I don't have my boarding pass. At the very least, they need that back. So once again, the whole plane sits there waiting. We all were praying, and miraculously, they show up with my phone!

Brussels was great, we made our connecting flight to Chennai, and even had great seats. The international flights were really nice, although the closer we got to India, the spicier the food seemed to get. I and Debbie were okay with that, Sammy not so much. We got out in India and got stuck at customs since we didn't happen to have the exact address we were staying at. Finally producing a local address, the customs lady (who was very annoyed and possibly drunk with power) decided that she would let us pass since we had a small boy with us. Thank you customs lady.

We didn't get our bags rifled through, and it wasn't super crowded since we landed at about 1:30 AM Friday morning. We met up with our contact, but due to some miscommunication we had to figure out where our driver was. So we waited, sweating for a while in the warm and humid area right outside the airport, and finally ended up catching a ride to a hotel for the first night. Starting tomorrow we will be at the place we were supposed to stay. We are okay with this hotel for tonight though, the AC is ice cold and it is very nice.

Tomorrow we intend to go to the place where Thomas (doubting Thomas from the Bible? That guy) was killed and/or buried. The next day, we go for our first day at the orphanage, and meet our daughter!

On a side note, it is about 4 AM here, and as I type this, Debbie just sat bolt upright in bed and said, "I used tap water when brushed my teeth." We are supposed to use bottled water. Eh, she probably won't get malaria, right?

I knew there was a reason we were all taking malaria medication :)

I will post some photos of some stuff up to this point. We miss all of you, thank you for your prayers! They are making a difference!

We're Off

We're on our way. We fly out at 7 AM and after 27 hours we will be there. While your eating lunch Thursday we'll be in Chennai.

Yay!

Donations

One thing we are very excited about, is that, through the blessings of others (this is one of those miracles that has happened for us along the way) we are able to bring donations to the orphanage where our daughter is living. It seems so little after all they have done for us in taking such good care of her for the past two years. Because we can only check in three suitcases on the way to India, we only have one suitcase to put all the donations in, so we had to find stuff that wouldn't take up a lot of room or weigh a lot.

The orphanage told us what they were in need of. We were able to buy 66 new dresses for girls ages 3 months to 5 years old.

They also needed underwear for toddler boys and girls. We were able to get 112 pairs of underwear.

And we were able to get some toys, games, a few school supplies and candy (not shown) for the little kiddos.

I sure hope we get a chance to play with some of these toys with all the kids. I'm probably going to fall in love with all the kids and want to squeeze them into my suitcase and bring them home. Maybe the airline does know what they are doing, in only allowing us to bring three suitcases to check in. At least we for sure get to bring one of those adorable little kiddos home with us. :)

Travel Date

We finally have a travel date.

We leave on Wednesday morning. Early! After traveling 27 hours we will be in Chennai where our daughter is. We will arrive on Thursday night midnight (early Friday morning). Our agency told us we will most likely have our first meeting with our little cutie on Saturday morning. So, on Friday we'll be able to relax a little (get adjusted to the new time change) and maybe look around Chennai a bit.

We have had so many miracles happen this week in planning our trip. God has blessed us in ways we never imagined with all of our travel arrangements.

Thanks for all your continued prayer.