Blessed

Well, here I am again! It has been a very full week since I was last here. Unfortunately, Austin has the camera with him so I am not able to upload photos of our last days in Kolkata. They were such good days, full of special times with our friends, last minute shopping and, the highlight of all for the boys, a morning spent in an arcade. We had planned to go to a water park but, by the time they felt up to it, the weather had turned and it was cold and wet. So our host took them to an awesome arcade and treated them to hours of fun. Jensen declared that it was better than going to a water park! By the time we left Kokata, they were all glad that we had come, in spite of the tough days of being sick. For me, it was such a humbling experience to be served with such love and generosity. Our host family went out of their way again and again, taking us places, feeding us delicious meals, going out at all hours of the night for medicine, bringing pizza in to the hospital, watching the boys so Austin and I could finish our shopping, doing loads of laundry ( and some of it really gross too, I won't go into details), brewing pots of coffee, talking, listening, laughing, encouraging. I am more comfortable on the giving end; it is hard for me to let someone serve me without trying to pay them back. The whole experience ended up being a real blessing.

Our trip home was another blessing. In the middle of our sickness, we realized we would not be well enough to travel home by train. We had spent hours at the station, buying these tickets. Hours! The train only runs from Kolkata to Dhaka Saturdays and Sundays, so Austin and our host spent a couple hours again at the station, and were able to get most of the money back. Since we didn't want to wait till the next weekend to go home, we knew we would have to take the bus, a 12 hour minimum journey, with a couple of those hours spent at the border, lugging all our bags around, standing in long pushy lines. We were feeling better, but still not 100%. During this time, we had an email from a friend, wondering if we had any needs. When we let her know we would love to be able to fly home instead of taking the bus, she made that possible. Again we were so blessed by friends and were so very grateful! We spent a couple of hours at the airport but there were bathrooms nearby, as well as a coffee shop where the boys enjoyed chocolate donuts ( I have a good photo to post later). The flight itself took 40 minutes and immigration was a piece of cake. It was good to be home again!

That was Tuesday. The rest of the week fly by in a blur. The boys were very happy to get back to school again. It took me a while to get rid of the layers of dust that had accumulated here, as well as catching up with everything else. At least we are healthy again.

We are so blessed!