hand, foot and mouth disease

Emma has been battling a fever the past two days and now the rash is in full bloom.  She has trouble eating and nursing because her mouth is sore. Poor dear.

beach babe

The following pictures were taken minutes before a torrential downpour.  If ever you see a cloud over the sea, take heed, it is closer than you think.  This particular storm had a lightening bolt in it that reminded me of the movie Sweet Home Alabama.  Emma has never had a shower before, but the pelting rain was like the massage level of a shower head.  As we ran from the beach to take cover, Emma looked up at me startled and soaked.  I chose to laugh as I ran with her to shelter... She looked at my like I was a nut, as though to say, this really is a strange way to have fun, Mama.

baby dedication

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."

3 John 1:4

Emma our prayer is that you would trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not upon your own understanding, and that in all your ways you will acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

All of Emma's little buddies here were dedicated to The Lord together. One by one, families introduced themselves and their babies, explained their baby's name and why it was chosen, and vowed commitment to raising these babies in a Christian home with hope that one day their baby would become a disciple.

We chose the name Emma because when we were expecting we referred to her as our Little M&M, and Emma has two m's in it. The meaning of Emma is "universal" and that "she looks on everyone equally and without prejudice". Her middle name, Kate, means "pure" and is a family name. Matt's mother and sister and my maternal grandmother had the middle name Kathryn/Catherine.

Emma takes in her 15-minutes of fame.

Two of our local friends stood with us during the prayer time and prayed for Emma: "Aunt B" and "Aunt Whitney". It will be so sad to have Whitney and her husband return to Louisville in January. Ours is a life of transitioning relationships, it seems.

Pulling Whitney's nose while Brenda prays.

Patting Brenda's hand while Whitney prays. 

I am so thankful we have friends here who feel like family. It makes rites of passage like this and even the day to day a less lonesome experience and a joy, too. 

Holiday in Goa -etc

The volunteer who watched Emma several times in childcare this week was baptized a couple of days ago in the ocean!

This was Emma's first time in group child care. It was pretty rough. She cried a lot. It breaks my heart to leave her. I ended up keeping her with me the last three days because her crying was too crazy. Both mommy and baby were happy after that choice was made! 

This is one of the bright spots in childcare... Emma loves music!

Emma loves to be in the pool! Today, we took some videos which we will upload later. 

She likes to go to the 3" area and crawl through the water. She likes to smack the water and splash it, and she also likes to kick her little feeties! 

Holiday in Goa (day 1)

Today was Emma's first day in a swimming pool! She is quite the little fish!

Emma also enjoyed fresh pineapple mashed with basmati rice. MMMmmm!

South Asian vacation elements:

• Goa airport looks like it is falling apart and is really small. They are building a new one, though.

• Slum lean-to's and hustlers/peddlers on the beach. Hey, if you have to live in a lean-to, set it up where you can sleep to the sound of waves and by day sell necklaces to yuppie tourists!

• A bovine creature (gender unknown) [cow/bull] licking sea water between the volleyball court and the beach tide.

Packing for our retreat...

Emma is so happy to help pack today!

I think she has a great talent of unpacking things, though. So we had to shut the bags and let her circle around them instead. :)

Immersion ramblings

Culture is like those rose-tinted glasses that my gramma always referred to optimists wearing. You see the world tinted by your culture. You understand conversation as it is tinted by your first language. You interpret body language and signals as good or bad because of the warm-fuzzies or baggage related to what accompanied those signals in your past.

Immersion and cultural exchange is where the shock of culture becomes comical and the rosy glasses I didn't know I had became the elephant in the room.

My family used to listen to an old record of two comedians pretending to be vagabonds and gossiping together about companions they had lost track of, "where is ol' Floyd these days?" "Oh I heard he was in... Where you have to take a bath ever' day!" "Eh, I couldn' live like that!!" This was akin to seeing my red-white-and-blue practices through green-white-and orange glasses:

Friend 1: We don't really take showers so when our friends set us up where we would stay, they made sure we had a bucket and cup we could fill up and stand in the bathtub to dump the bucket water from the cup over our head to take our bath...

Friend 2: When I visited America to do some talks, I remember going outside and I was so shocked thinking where are all the people?! 

Friend 2: We don't have the habit of this toilet tissue. How can you get truly clean that way?! So when I married my wife, this is from her culture you know, I would use the tissue, then get into the shower and wash off my backside with soap and water do I could be fully clean, like I'm used to being after I go. 

Friend 3: Do parents really not arrange marriages for their children? At all?! How can you find a respectable partner, then?

Friend 4: When we ate with this foreign family, they gave us mashed potatoes and beef. There was beef at every meal. It is too heavy! One day we saw rice and were so excited wanting to buy it, but when we converted currencies we found it would be too expensive! If we don't eat a lot of rice every meal, we feel we haven't had our dinner at all.

Friend 3: How can you stand how lonely it is in your home town with neighbors who live that far from your home?! If they go to the grocery all at the same time, you will be the only person in walking distance! How lonely!!! 

Another shock is that the things that really irritate me about this place are generally irritating to most people, but it is home and that do you do?! For example, we hate the traffic on the Waterson Expressway when trying to get to work and know that there are creep characters who could mug is on 4th Street, but we love Louisville in spite of its craziness. South Asia is the same. We all hate the pollution, the traffic and over-the-top loud honks... It was fun to feel these things aren't necessarily desirable for anyone. 

Photo shoot for her Grandparents

...and some encore shots, too!

Random sights

I wish the camel would deliver my pizza!

Quite possibly the sweetest lady I've met by chance here. 

Jungley Emma

Mehendi daalna (putting on henna)

Today I got to prep a friend for a wedding she is going to tomorrow. 

If you would like to do henna at home, just visit your local Asian market and they should have mehendi (henna) cones. Buy them and go to www.hennastories.org to find great designs and to know how to host a henna party!

7 months!

Emma is still a mover and a shaker! She crawls all over the place. She also pulls up to stand everywhere now, even the wall or mirror!

She can also turn away from the coffee table while standing, grab the chair and let go of the table, changing directions.

She has started to point with her index finger at small patterns in the rug or pictures in a book.

If you sing "if you're happy and you know it", she claps her hands with you.

She is beginning to understand the meaning of "no."

She can say "mama" and "dada". "Mama" means she is tired or hungry. She can make the sounds, but doesn't yet call us by name.

She got her first two bottom teeth!

Hobbies: she is a foodie/loves trying new foods, peek-a-boo, playing Daddy-fetch-the-toy, mirror games, pulling hair and beards, impressionistic purée art.