Well, in less than a month, we will be leaving for India.  All this travel drama seems to be never ending.  We  began preparing last June for Chris’s August departure.  January 13th is going to come so quickly, I just know it.  There’s so much to do!  Chris finally received his new visa last Thursday.  So, now the India trip is officially a “go”.  We have resubmitted the tourist visa applications for the boys and me this week.

In the meantime, we’re trying to pare down to the basic necessities…for packing and for this last month we are at home.  The cupboard and freezers look so bare!  It seems strange to be consuming the last of the food in the house.

I’ve been working on my to-do list now that I’ve handed off all of my LLL responsibilities.  The training will be ongoing via email when questions come up.  I have a few different types of lists on the wall in my office: travel purchases, closing up the house, packing lists, homeschooling lists, etc.  It currently seems very daunting.  Planning to be away from home for 4 months and anticipating what we might need seems like an insurmountable task.  I know we’ll manage, though, even if we forget a few items.

Many people have asked me why in the world we are taking the whole family to India.  Of course, to me, this seems like a funny question.  Why not?  Maybe for some, the disruption to routine would be overwhelming for their family.  I’m sure that it will seem overwhelming for the boys and me at first, too.  I think that the best way to answer this question is to retell something in a memoir, Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald, that I just finished about a woman’s 2 year stay in India.  In one part of the book, she asks an Indian fellow why Indians always seem so happy.  He came back to her with another question.  “Why are Americans always so unhappy?”

“I’ll be telling you why you white people are not happy.  We Indian people, we look at the people more poor, more low, more hard than us and we be thanking God we are not them.  So we are happy.  But you white peoples, you are looking at the peoples above you all of the times and you are thinking, why aren’t I be them?  Why am I not having that moneys and things.  And so you are unhappy all of the time.”

Such a difference from Americans viewing those in poverty with feelings of guilt instead of gratitude.

THIS is the main lesson I want our boys to come away from India with.  If we return from our experience safe and sound and with a sense of gratitude for what we have, instead of only seeing what we don’t have, I will be a happy mama!  I often think about how much our family has and how lucky I feel all of the time to be surrounded by such love.

We added a new garden bed this year next to the raspberries.  It’s not very big, but we made a lot of use out of the small space.  Each boy picked out a vegetable to grow.  Ian=broccoli, Alex = snap peas, Erik = green beans.  We also planted some roma tomatoes, carrots, basil and garlic.

Chris built an ingenious fence where the panels can be lifted out to work the bed.  I love it!  We still need to add some mesh to keep out the baby rabbits, though.  We actually found a nest under the great big green bean leaves!  Three little babies all cuddled together.  If I hadn’t been so upset about how much they were nibbling away at the peas, I would’ve thought they were cute.

Now, it’s late fall, the leaves are almost all down (ugh…the raking!) and the garlic and tulip bulbs have been planted.  Hopefully, next spring’s planting won’t be too late.  The bed won’t get planted until late May.

Today is the day that the boys and I should have been returning from our trip to India.  It’s sad to think about, but now that Chris is home and settled in, we’re all fine.  Many family members and friends don’t know the whole story of the events this month, and now I finally have some time to catch you all up.  It’s been quite a rollercoaster ride, but there’s a happy ending, too.

Thursday morning, September 24th, in the midst of a flurry of packing and organizing for our trip, I received a call from Chris’s HR director, Tim Anderson, saying “Don’t worry, but we think Chris might have to come home.  There’s an issue with his visa.”  What?  Chris was 10-1/2 hours ahead of us, so was sleeping at the time.  I have to admit…I was a little dismissive of this phone call.  “Naw…”, I thought, “this must be some sort of snafu that they’ll be able to work out.”  So, I waited for Chris to wake up and ask what the deal was.

Well, sure enough, turns out Chris did have to come home.  Once it was confirmed that the Indian government was requiring all foreign nationals (according to the information they had at the time) to return to their country of origin and re-apply for a visa, Chris took the first flight available and, actually, arrived the same day that the boys and I were supposed to leave to go visit him.  What a disappointment!  But, also, of course, what a relief to see him.  We had been apart for 6 weeks, and we missed him so much!

Why did this happen?  Good question!  I don’t think we’ll ever truly get a direct answer, but here’s what we pieced together so far.  Just like here in the U.S., India has a problem with semi-skilled immigrants coming into the country and taking jobs that the government thinks its own citizens should have.  There has been a lot of negative sentiment directed toward Chinese nationals in India lately.  So, the government decided to do something about it and revoke all business visas (relatively easy to get in India).  Here’s a link with an explanation of the “clarification” of the new rules for business visas to India.

Unfortunately, the state of Gujarat (where Chris was) chose to expand the interpretation of this new policy to include ALL business visas of ALL foreign nationals.  Period.  At the time, they were given a deadline to get out in 6 days by September 30th.  An ex-pat friend of his was threatened by armed police that if they chose to not take this seriously, they would be arrested, detained and fined.  Chris was worried that all the flights would get booked up.  So, he packed everything in 6 hours and high-tailed it out of there.  Here’s an article from the newspaper in Ahmedabad that I read the next day while he was flying.

What a confusing and mind-blowing event.  Whew…so much to figure out and do once Chris returned.  The travel insurance that we had for the boys and I didn’t cover an incident like this, and denied our appeal.  ($$ well spent there.)  I was “on vacation” for the month of October for this trip, so was using all the vacation time I had saved up.  Fortunately, some very generous co-workers at St. Mary’s had shifts they wanted to be covered, so I was able to recover most of that vacation time.  We also learned some wonderful lessons…distance truly does make the heart grow fonder, and I’m not really a great single-parent.    What’s the saying…the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.  That’s our family.  We learned that we all love each other very much and definitely function better as a whole unit.

Here’s the kicker, though…Chris needs to return and fulfill the commitment he made to his company as a technology mentor for the Ahmedabad branch.  This means he has to start all over again and will be returning in January through to May.  The tentative departure date is January 13th, 2010.  We’ve decided that it’s best for all of us to go together…for many various reasons.  I think it’ll be a positive experience all around.  So, we’re kicking things into gear for planning to be away from home for 4 months.  Yikes!  Anybody want to take our fish into their home?

Chris has been taking many photos to journal about his stay in India.  This helps the boys know what he does and what his experience has been like.  He has a neat photo journal of his flight to India.  He first flew from Madison to Chicago.  The next flight was non-stop from Chicago to Delhi, India – a 15 hour flight.  Then, he had to stay overnight in a hotel and take the first flight to Ahmedabad.  It was quite an ordeal. The boys and I will be taking the same flight at the end of September to go visit Chris for a month.  All I can say is thank goodness that there is plenty of movie entertainment for each child!  Whew!

Each photo is clickable to get a larger view.

We’re going to try to keep a journal of our time in India.

Last week Thursday, Chris left for Ahmedabad, India for 4 months.  It was so hard to see him go, knowing that he won’t be back until Christmas.  KJWW, the engineering firm that Chris works for, has a branch there.  They rotate employees from each department (Chris is in Systems) through the India branch, so that the Indian staff can learn about American standards of construction.

The boys and I will join Chris in India for one month on September 26th.  I already miss him so much and can’t wait until we are there.  Although, the plane ride with the boys seems a little daunting right now.

We spent a week visiting my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Kathrine at Lake Okoboji.  The boys had a blast tubing behind the boat, swimming off the dock, learning how to fish, and playing lots of board games.  They also thought it was pretty cool to sleep on cots on the porch of the “little house”, the cottage behind the “big house”.  They were getting lots of attention from all my aunts and uncles being the only kids here.

The boys caught fishing fever.  My Uncle J. gave Chris a tutorial on cleaning fish.  Boy, Chris does not enjoy that job at all!  Too slimy.  But, there’s nothing better than eating the catch of the day!

Within walking distance from the house, was a bald eagle’s nest right on the lake’s edge.  There were a pair of bald eagles and a “baby”.  The baby was also as big as it’s parents, but not white on top yet.

I made this for Kim for her birthday…didn’t finish the project until a month after, though.  I worked a lot on it while Chris and I were in Washington DC.  It was handy to have something small to work on.  I love small projects right now.  They get finished so fast even when I don’t have much time to work on them.

Soap holder

Linen bag

Shower scrubby

Another great offer from Knit Picks!  6-50 gram balls + the pattern set for less than $20.   These were a sport weight yarn knit on size 5 needles.

Wow, I’ve really gotten behind on keeping up on this blog.  There are several entries that I’ve had in mind.  So, now on this rainy day, stuck at home (and not wanting to do other items on the “to-do” list), here I am catching up.

On January 4th, we had a winter storm that layered our city with a coating of ice at least 1/4″ thick.  So, what else does one do but go sledding down the driveway.

Ian and Alex ice sledding

Erik sliding on a garbage can lid

There’s a great sledding hill close to our house, Hiestand Park, that is not too steep, but has a long ride.  The boys’ endurance and tolerance for the cold improves every year.  Here was a beautiful, sunny day in February.

Erik

Ready to go!

Wipeout!

Ian

Ready, set, go!

The tummy slide

Alex - the hardest part is climbing back up the hill.

Another favorite activity is fort building.  This winter snow fall provided lots of opportunity to build caves and forts outside.  Here’s a picture of the rosy cheeks afterward.

Rosy cheeks

Just for the record, I’ve lost my patience with trying to fix the formatting in this post.  Just in case you were wondering.  Ugh!

Alex introduced his grandfather

Talking about brushing teeth

Pops listening to a question

Answering questions

My Dad visited Alex’s classroom today for February Dental Month. Alex’s class is Kindergarten and 1st grade, 22 5-7 year olds. Alex introduced Dad as his Papa and said, “He helps fix people’s teeth.” They all enjoyed commenting about how many teeth they have lost or if they had gotten any cavities yet.

Dad demonstrated how to brush properly, not just the tops, but along the gum and inside, too. Don’t forget to brush the tongue! He emphasized how bad soda is for one’s teeth, too. Coke has almost the same pH as battery acid! Yikes! Each child received a small tube of toothpaste and a new toothbrush.

Blueberry felted oven mitt

I was inspired to felt something, anything, after seeing Charlotte’s “Barack My World” bag that she finished last year. So, when I saw a free felted oven mitt pattern, “Out of the Frying Pan” by Amy E. Anderson during a deliciously child-free afternoon before work one Sunday at Lakeside Fibers on Monona Bay, the light bulb went on. This one is in the color “Blueberry”. I’ve also wanted to try needle felting, so I added the designs using that technique to make it a little more fancy and prettier.

New Mexico

Blue/green variegated

Apple Prchid

Unfelted hot pad

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The last two knitted items are unfelted. They still need to go in the wash for the fibers to “felt” together and become heat-resistant for pulling items out of the oven. This color is name “apple prchid”. Strange name, but beautiful result! I decided not to give these two away.