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.