Tuesday, March 29, 2011

We have arrived safely and are in full swing!

Hello, everyone!

Finally, we have arrived safely in India and have started our work here at the orphanage. Let's rewind back in time, just a tad. We began our journey from home on Friday, March 25th and arrived here at the orphanage on Sunday, March 27th. The time here is about 9.5 hours ahead of the time at home. As we arrived in India, we were immediately met by 100 degrees of HEAT! We were expecting it to be hot but didn't realize the intensity until we arrived --- we've adjusted well. When we arrived at the orphanage on Sunday, we were greeted by an abundance of friendly faces that helped to create a very welcoming atmosphere for us. Monday was our first real day of interaction with the children and it was quite exciting, to say the least. The orphanage currently has about 76 children on-site, ranging from 1 day to 10 years. There's an additional 30 children placed in foster care through the orphanage, currently awaiting adoption.  We helped the children trace letters and numbers before drawing shapes for them to color --- They were quite excited to have some new faces and bodies to cling to. There are so many of them and they are all so unique in their own little ways; they truly are magnificent. We're still feeling our way around and are beginning to plan for the next couple days. Through our interaction with the children, we realized that the Indian culture is very much drill, drill, drill with educational skills. We're working to plan activities and lessons for the next few days to help the students become engaged with some sensory stimulating materials such as play-doh, uncooked rice, cotton balls, and things of that nature. It's certainly going to be a new experience for us, because most of the children speak little to no English --- it should be an exciting challenge for us. We recently learned that there are going to be 5 adoptions in the next two days, so I think we'll experience some heartache a little earlier than we anticipated, but it's certainly a wonderful time for the children. Because of the adoption regulations, there are very strict restrictions on photographs and, unfortunately, we aren't able to post photos or videos of the children to the web. We're still planning to post as regularly as possible to share our experiences with you.

The food here has been pretty fantastic - a little hit and miss, from time to time, but very good overall. We have internet here from 9am-5pm our time and we purchased a phone today, so we should be able to contact our loved ones soon.

Blessings!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Where There's a Will, There's a Way

Final greetings from the USA!
                Hello everyone! As our departure approaches with visas in hand, we wanted to offer a fond (and hopefully final) farewell from this side of the globe. For us, the adventures of the past week have been exciting, overwhelming, productive, and enjoyable, all at the same time. From Sunday into Monday, we traveled to the India embassy in New York City to complete the application for our visas. While there, we decided to explore a bit and discovered M&M world, the extreme presence of the NYPD, and the wrath of windy, New York weather. Nonetheless, we are extremely pleased to share that our visas have arrived and our flights are set to depart from Pittsburgh at 2:40pm tomorrow! If all proceeds as planned, we will arrive at the orphanage on Sunday morning. With a 10-hour time difference, we hope to update again once we have arrived and are settled. Please keep us in your prayers, as show-time has finally arrived.

Blessings to all!
The journey to obtain our visas begins

Traffic? Yep, we have certainly arrived.
NYC Signature

NYPD

Rain. Wind. New York.


Sweet Success!


Saturday, March 19, 2011

God's Will is God's Will

Hello all!

Our day yesterday was eventful, to say the least. As we prepared to depart, we received a call informing us that the coordinator of the trip had forgotten that we needed visas to enter India and we would have to postpone our departure until we obtained them. As we all know, it's relatively impossible to obtain a visa in less than an hour, especially in Pittsburgh. So, we've spent the past two days researching and rescheduling flights and completing applications for our visas. We are prepared to travel to the New York Embassy from Sunday into Monday to finalize the application process for our visas. Our flights have been rescheduled for one week later than the original departure date, so we will now by flying out on Friday, March 25th. This has been a stressful and eventful time, however, we know that God has a reason for all He does. Prayers for working through these new bumps in the road and getting everything to work out so that we may fly out on Friday would be greatly appreciated.

Blessings!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Departure time has arrived!

Hello ladies and gents!

             Our plans have been solidified, and our trip to India is right around the corner! We will be flying out today at 3pm and returning on Tuesday, May 3rd. We have gotten all of our vaccinations and medications that are necessary for the trip. The outpouring of support from those at Cal-U, friends, and family has been amazing, and we have been given a plethora of supplies for the orphanage, as well as monetary donations to buy supplies for the children once we are there.
On March 11th we completed our first student teaching placements here in the U.S. Our days have been full of planning lessons and activities, creating behavior systems, and trying to figure out how to best reach our students. The past 7 weeks have been very busy and at times overwhelming, but we both loved our students and had a very difficult time walking out on our last days. Before we knew it, our first placement was completed, and our journey to India was less than a week away!
            This week the nervous excitement has set in as we tie up all of the loose ends here in the states. Applications for substituting, summer jobs, and teaching positions in the fall have been completed and sent out, giant packing lists have been made to make sure nothing is forgotten for us or for BSSK, and visits are being made to friends and family to say our last goodbyes. We are so grateful for those that God has placed in our lives. This trip wouldn’t be possible without each and every one of you!
           As our journey begins, we continue to ask for your thoughts and prayers. Prayers for the children at BSSK and those we will meet along the way, for the unknown as we go to orphanage without set details and plans, and for us that we may be at ease and let God work through us to complete His plan.
                India here we come!