Here I am (in cheesy spanish accent)

(Zorro the Gay Blade) So we are in India now and got here mostly smoothly. The flights went well and we were able to stay on the same plane the whole way which was nice. We also got to have a bulkhead seat so Anna had a little bassinet to sleep in which was also nice. She did have a hard time on the last leg of the journey (the 45 min flight from Mumbai to Ahmadabad) and pretty much screamed the whole second half of it. Immigration was a little tricky because we didn't have our address here with us so we had to give them some other information to let them let us in the country but they did. Also, while most of our luggage made it through just fine, our stroller that we checked at the gate did not (the car seat did though) so we had to file a claim and are waiting to hear about that. On the plus side, with the delay that that took, getting through customs was really fast because the rest of our flight had already been through.

We are mostly moved in and settled in our apartment. It's a nice place and I will post pictures soon. So far this week we have mostly been getting our bearings, sleeping, settling in, and working (in Jason's case). Jason's office is being great with getting us stuff like any housewares that we need, plug adapters, an internet connection, advice on where to go and how to do things, a reference for a cook, offering to go shopping for us and other things like that. Also, our first day here, two different people invited us to meals which was good because there was little use-able food in the house.

We have noticed that the people here are all very friendly and great about helping us with things. And, of course, everyone loves Anna. Jason and I went for a walk one morning before work (he leaves at about 9:15 and gets home at about 7) and we were definitely stared at as we went down the street. Jason said it was more than when he walks by himself to work. We're thinking of exploring some of the city this weekend and have already had a number of people from the office offer to go with us. Isn't it funny how when you live somewhere you can't seem to go site seeing unless you are with someone who is visiting.

Small Hands, Smell Like Cabbage

(Austin Powers- the third one I think) Anna has discovered that her hands can do things. Not only are they fun to suck on but they can also pull out her binkie and on occasion put it back in. Although more often than not she ends up just sucking on the binkie tether (ribbon that attaches it to her clothes) or even sucking on the back of it. She can even grab onto her foot and hold things that have been placed right in front of her. She has a toy moose that she likes to bat at the feet then discovered that she can grab them and put them in her mouth.

This morning Anna was discovering what she can do with her face and discovered the pout. It was really cute to see as I was getting out of the shower. Yet another thing that is very cute now but won't be so cute a few years down the road.

It seems that either she learned a bunch of new stuff at once or else she was being neglected for the past little bit while we were moving and we didn't notice what she was doing. In that vein, she has started to crunch up her tummy like she is trying to sit up when she is lying on her back. Any day now she will just sit up all on her own.

Change in Plans

Well, we were supposed to be in India right now. However, we are not. Due to a few visa problems, we have had to push our flight back a week. At first, we were pretty upset but after a little bit of time thinking about it, we realized that it was for the best.

Here are the reasons why it is better that we are still in the states (in no particular order):
-It gives my anti-malarial drug a chance to kick in (we went with the one that takes a week to work and were just going to hope for the best.)
-It gives us time to finish up some logistical things before we go.
- We are able to spend some time with family (my brother Josh and his family are letting us stay with them and we are really enjoying that along with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins who live down the street).
-It gives us a little bit of a vacation after the craziness of packing and before the craziness of flying for 18 hours (the previous plan would have had us finish packing, drive 2.5 hours to my brother's house then 5 hours the next day to the airport then get on the plane. What were we thinking?)

Unfortunately with all of the good things, there is one bad thing: it gives me some time to freak out about the fact that I am going to India where we can't drink the water with a baby who will be at the put everything in her mouth stage. Not to mention the fact that we will be in the airplane for a long time and don't even get me started on dealing with the time change while trying to stop feeding her in the middle of the night. Mostly I've been trying not to think about it. I think it's time to go eat a cookie.

You will be happier

There is nothing quite like the experience of having a baby to start to get an inkling about what God must feel about and for us. Not only the love but the frustrations and the counsel. Just now, as I am putting Anna down for a nap, she doesn't seem to realize that she is tired and if she just goes to sleep, she will be happy. Instead, she seems to think that it's best to cry. When I go and check on her and put her binkie back in her mouth, I tell her to go to sleep, that she will be happier if she does. I don't know how much of that she understands but it reminded me of the Lord. He sees us struggling in whatever we have going on and tries to tell us what we can do to make us happy. From His perspective, He can see what we need much better then we can. Unfortunately, how often do we not hear what He is saying because we are too busy crying for what we think will be best for us. Or even just crying because we know something is wrong but don't know what it is. Our job here on earth seems to be to listen to what the Lord tells us and follow it to achieve the happiness that He knows will come when we do. It is my testimony that He does know what is best for us and what will make us happy and we can be happy as we follow His counsel. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Many Tanks

I want to be sentimental for a minute and thank all the people who helped make the move out of our house possible. We hate living in boxes so we wait until the last possible moment to pack and find the help of others to be invaluable. We had two different sets of missionaries help, one in the morning and one in the evening. Then there were the Young Men in our ward along with our leaders (moving is a great mutual activity). To help pack as well as move big heavy things were the Knickerbockers. Amanda worked with us on our kitchen and basically kept me company and motivated to do the dreaded task of packing.

And last but not least there was William Duresky (I think that is how it is spelled). He is an older guy from our ward who used to be Jason's home teaching companion. He said he wanted to help and I must admit I didn't know how much help he would be as he is older and has a hard time breathing. But he came in Wednesday morning and helped. Then in the early afternoon we took a break and saw a movie and he wanted to come back after that. Naturally we didn't quite finish up that night (it always seems to take one more day than you think it will) and he wanted to come the next morning as well to finish up the packing and help clean. Not only was he there a lot, he was a really good packer. He would tie up the cords and keep hardware together when he took things apart. He didn't even need a lot of direction. Jason could point him in a direction and he just did what was needed. He was a great blessing to us and really made the move possible. I have been sufficiently chastised for judging someone based on appearances.

Enmity

I have discovered something that I like even less then making phone calls. Up until now, calling has been the bane of my existence but this morning I found myself making calls to avoid, wait for it, PACKING (cue scary music). Yes it seems that packing is the new bane. This would explain why I put it off until the last possible moment. Sometimes I wait until past that to the point so I can't do it all on my own and have to bring in help. The problem with that is that I'm then embarrassed at how much I have to do so close to the deadline and feel bad asking people. Fortunately I have Jason who doesn't seem to have a problem asking people to do things for us. I think the next time we move, we should get Jason's job to pay for professional movers.

She Likes Me!

Now that Anna is getting older, she is starting to show recognition and it's so cute. I love getting her up in the morning and having her smile when she sees me. To go with that, she seems to miss me when we are apart for a long time. Today at work, Jason came by for lunch and I was able to feed her so he didn't have to deal with the formula. Then a little while later, he was still in the area when the time came for her to eat again so they came back and I fed her again. The funny thing was, the second time, she had a hard time eating. She ate on the first side ok but was not very interested with the second side. She would eat a little bit then let go and just smile at me. Then I would get her back on and the same thing would happen. If I smiled at her, her grin would get bigger and she would sort of laugh. At first this was pretty frusterating but then I decided that she wasn't going to eat and just enjoyed her smiles. It occurred to me that maybe she missed me as this was the second day in a row that I was working. It's nice to be missed as long as it's not too much.