Home.

We are so glad to be home. We've spent lots of time unpacking, visiting with friends and family, and eating a lot of meat.

Samuel and Everett have settled right back into life in Dallas enjoying their old toys, bikes and bunk beds. They weren't home for 24 hours before they asked if they could go to McDonalds!

Going from here to there and there to here is an experience that I hope I won't soon forget. It is difficult to boil it all down to one last blog post, but I will just say this...

Over and over again as we drove through the streets, one thing came to mind. It was C S Lewis's quote describing a "child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea." Lewis uses this statement to describe people who are so taken with the things of this world that they find their satisfaction and joy in them instead of heavenly things.

This statement echoed over and over and over again in my head as every day for 6 months I watched children literally squatting in the street playing with dirt as content as they could be. It still resonates in my head as I look back on our experience and I am convicted.

Am I convicted because I didn't love these people enough? Yes.

Am I convicted because I didn't do enough or give enough to help them? Yes.

But those reasons are not what truly convict me. What truly cuts to my heart is that when I remember the sights and smells and sounds of driving through those streets, seeing the slums and children, I realize that I look at that life in the slum and believe that I came home to a holiday at the sea.

I would ride through the streets and be saddened by the idols built all over the city. Men, women and children worshiping the "creature rather than the Creator," but then I would go home and throw a hissy fit over not having hot water. We may not line our streets with temples but we might as well. Living without made me realize how much I worship cleanliness, comfort, and companionship.

In Jesus Christ and through His blood we have the greatest hope. And do not get me wrong, every single citizen of the United States of America is graced with the ability to live here but our hope of heaven is just as great as a naked little child sitting in the mud. We may dress better and have clean water but we are all just as poor, just as needful of a Savior and have just as much reason to hope in so much more than what we have in this world.

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
"The Weight of Glory"

Thanks for reading.

Here we come!

Happy Father's Day

*********UPDATE....we're ending our Father's Day celebration with a surprise trip to Germany for a couple of days! We will leave in a few hours. We are so excited....especially Everett who is thrilled about all the sausage!
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We had fun celebrating Father's Day with breakfast in bed for Carl and a new t-shirt that the boys picked out for him. I was so proud of Samuel for writing the whole father's day card himself.

Breakfast in bed is a Father's and Mother's Day tradition in my family. In all the years I've done it, I have to say that ordering room service in a 7 star hotel is probably the easiest way to pull it off.

We'll celebrate the rest of the day by running up and down the halls of said hotel terrorizing all the other guests and making our daily call to Continental to see if any seats have opened up on a flight back to Dallas!

Happy Fathers Day to all our favorite fathers!:-)

Hotel Business

My blogging days are about to come to an end. As much as I would like to think that my life in Dallas is interesting and amusing enough to warrant a blog....it's not.

So while I still have everyone's undivided attention (ha) I thought I would just post a little self indulgent prattle.

And here it is...

WHAT must hotel staffs think of us?

There was the first few days at the first hotel, where we loaded our room with groceries and household goods and carried it all out in plastic bags.....like 30 plastic bags.

There was the second hotel where we lived for 2 months. I can't even begin to list the things that we gave them to ponder over a two month period there.

There was the hotel in Delhi and the "incident" that I don't even want to talk about because it makes me itchy.

And now here we are on the last leg of our journey with a few more hotel days. We've had a stomach bug run through the family which has been.....messy. We've barely left the room and we've been surviving on pretzels (thank you kate) and sprite from the minibar. And we've sent out a bunch of laundry which has been....well I don't really want to talk about that either.....

Don't Cry For Me Bangalore

So, Kate happened to be here for "pay day."

Once a month we pay our household and the PMI staff. Carl happened to be out of town for this particular pay day so I was in charge on both fronts. There is a lot of distributing and labeling of money. Some had be put in a bag to be delivered and some had to have notes attached to it because household staff can be frisked upon exit from the compound and they need proof that they are carrying their salary. It's a hoopy as our friend LaDonna would say.

So after Kate watched me pay all these people, she said, "Wow, quite an empire you have here Grace." (We did have her over for her sense of humor)

It's true. I really do. And it will be hard to say good bye to all of them. In truth they are all honest and reliable and very kind to our kids and that's why we love them. We also love them because they take some of the burden of daily chores off of us (let's be honest, me) which is great when there aren't any modern conveniences to help with those chores.

So yes, I will miss my little empire when I get back to Dallas and have to start doing all the chores myself. No one to do the dishes, no one to run errands for me, no one calling me madame.

Also no poo in the water though....so you know....home sweet home.

Good

We are having such a great time with Kate here and I think she is enjoying experiencing Bangalore.

I knew I would enjoy having her here, but I underestimated how much the kids would enjoy it as well. Even though they are young I really think the most difficult part of this move for them has been missing the other adults that they usually have in their lives.

They actually told me today that they wanted me to go to get a job like Daddy and that Mrs. Byrd would take care of them while I was at work.

Yesterday at the pool, Samuel got out of the pool to give Kate a hug and kiss. He looked at her and said, "Mrs Byrd, you smell so good."

He jumped back into the pool and I told Kate that she must smell like America.

Homesick...

Also actually sick. Both boys are sick right now which is just more difficult to deal with away from home....particularly this far away from home. As I have said many times before, knowing what your kids need and being unable to provide it due to your circumstances is very frustrating.

Tonight at bedtime Everett said, "Mommy, I love you all the way to Dallas, Texas."

Me too buddy...me too.