What I am thankful for...

The 24 days I have been able to spend with my new daughter.
Matthew participated in a school concert for the first time and did great.
Provision during a tough economy.
Spending time with Kyle.
My family.
All this food!!!!

Amisha absolutely loved Thanksgiving. She loved the company and the food. She spent at least 45 minutes eating. You can see if she doesn't like something she will hold it out on her tongue until you can remove it for her. When she is full she loves to play with her food. After dinner we went out in the cold and dark and played ball. She loves outside and was the last one to come in after I had to drag her in. She is the light of our lives right now.
It couldn't of been a more blessed Thanksgiving.

We are all girl.

Yesterday, Friday, we had our appt. at the International Adoption Clinic. The first appt. is just a general check over and developmental testing. Nothing to report right now because labs won't be back for a while. She is all over healthy and the physical therapist was really impressed by what she is able to do. Amisha had an uncooperative attitude understandably. They had Kyle and I, 2 therapists and the interpreter-an Indian interpreter for her appt.....she looked at him as if he was nuts and so did I. Oh, I hope I don't have to pay above insurance for that-all in a small room. They were asking her to stack blocks, sort items etc. Every time they would ask her to complete a task, she would just stare at them and then pause and push it back at them. I knew she could do everything she was asked but didn't want to. I say good for her.
She is so determined. She wants to put all of her own clothes on. She can put on her pants, socks, and shoes and even her coat. With one hand...seriously I don't know if I can and we have set the bar high for our older brothers. It was so sweet when we got home because she was so happy to be here. She just kept on hugging Kyle and I. She has a serious sassy attitude when she wants to. Yesterday when she went potty and wiped she threw the tissue and it hit my face. Oh, we're so cute. There is a definite femine side to her. You'll notice in the pictures that she is sleeping with her purse. We don't go anywhere without it. When the boys leave a mess she stops and picks it up and puts it in her purse and moves on. She was brushing her teeth today and I saw her look at herself in the mirror and she stopped and fixed her hair and then kept on brushing. OK, we could not be any more adorable!!

Mom is just so proud of me!!!!

Amisha's little sad heart is slowly healing. She only cries briefly now when I have to take her from Kyle. When he is not around she is actually borderline happy. I decided on Wednesday I needed to switch her clock around because I could not get up at 1 or 2 a.m. for the day anymore. So where do you go when it is freezing out...the mall. She loves the mall and the stroller. We have spent the last three days staying awake at the mall. Today we even made our first trip to the Mall of America. I don't recommend it on a Saturday- she, of course, loved it. She even ate a whole dish of ice cream which will hold her for the entire day I think. She slept until 4:30 a.m. last night and it was so nice. I can stop watching the clock and telling myself it is an OK time to start making coffee. She wants to do everything the boys do. Her left side is weak and she can barely grasp with the left hand but she figured out how to hold the stick horse with her right hand and run around. She was thrilled and mom was even more thrilled!! She also loves to color, not necessarily on paper, so I am going to post a picture of that also. Can she smile big or what? When she is happy, she is happy. Life will never be the same here. I just want to thank everyone again who has commented on the blog, emailed, called or stopped by. I can't put into words how much it has meant to Kyle and I.

Don't let the smile fool you.........

We are slowly finding out all the beautiful talents that Amisha has: she can laugh, cry, scream (very loudly), tease, open bottles, run, is potty trained, smile a lot, climb stairs, feed herself, has fantastic motor skills with her right hand (already colored all over a phone) and has a decided sense of fashion. The poor little dear is really homesick. When she is awake all she does is cry. Seeing that her days and nights are mixed up the crying starts around 2 a.m. and just ended at 1:15 p.m. She does rest when Kyle is holding her though I am still the evil culprit who snatched her from her home. With all that said, she is sooooo perfect. All I want to do is hug and kiss her, but won't let me!!! Little does she know I love a fight!

Our first day home!!

After an incredibly long series of flights we arrived home with some sanity and a ton of excitement. Our trip was one that will not ever be forgotten. I couldn't of imagined so much poverty and depravity in one spot.
Amisha has her days and nights confused for now, but was still thrilled to meet her brothers in the morning before sleeping all day. We went in for a quick Dr. visit and we don't have anything but jet lag and longing for home bothering us now. When we got home we did a lice treatment on all of us since we discovered on the way home she was carrying the little critters. She is a little bitter toward Allie and I for abducting her, so for now she is glued to Kyle. She slept with Kelsey for a while last night. Thank goodness for siblings. She can't wait to meet everyone.
Abundant appreciation is to be passed along to everyone who supported our family through prayer and in many other ways throughout this trip. I can't wait to see you in person and give you a great big hug and introduce you to our precious daughter.

We're coming home!

After a very, very exciting week, we are on our way home!!

Amisha's warmed up to us again, so we're hoping her good mood lasts at least for part of the flight :)

We can't even put in words how excited we are to see all of your lovely faces again!! I can sincerely say that I've never missed home as much as I do now, and I hope that this new attitude of being thankful for everything I have (as cliche as that sounds, it's true--you don't really ever feel it until you are completely separated from it), and I hope that at least part of it stays with me over time.

We're going to sleep soon, so we're at least a little fresh for London...Britain, here we come!

Love to you all,
Allie and Mom

Our last day in India...

Our view outside our window...that's smog, not smoke, by the way!

We are so, so excited to come home and see all of you.

My mom and I both woke up today with "Delhi Belly"--for those of you that don't know what that means, Google should explain it to you :) Amisha also has a small fever and is very likely to have scabies, a contagious parasite that lives just under the skin, so we're anticipating American medical care all too much. And American food!! I haven't had a fresh fruit or vegetable for what seems like forever...I have to walk by at every meal and look at the locals' plates brimming with whatever they want...and look at my own pitiful plate of a donut and toast. Well, their donuts here are excellent, on the positive side!

Amisha has been very restless today; we were friends last night, but friends no more. We're back to being her abuductors :) It's really hard watching how many ways she tries to tell us to take her back--she'll point to the door, point out our window, pull on our legs to get us to stand up, and make noises--but she seems to understand that we aren't swayed, so she's just been sobbing. She's slowly breaking down, as her episodes are less violent and she's more distracted by toys for longer periods of time, but we're looking forward to being on a plane so there is nothing to remind her of the orphanage. It's kind of cute seeing how she's dealing with this like a little girl: "It's my way, or the highway". She'll break this facade sometimes if my mom or I do something funny, but she'll catch herself smiling and quickly scrunch up her face and howl. She's definitely attaching to Mom, as a plus. I offered my hand to her this morning when we took a walk (which I'll tell any of you about in animated detail when we get back, it was probably the most epic culture shock ever) to give her additional support to my Mom's grip and she shoved it away. Well, at least she likes someone!

Mom and I have most of our things packed, and are getting ready for tonight. We'll fly into London sometime during the night, and be on our way back to the good 'ol USA!

I don't have time for pictures right now, so I'll try later...sorry! Internet's been spotty :(

Love you all <3
Allie and Mom

First group of pictures

Here's our first short slideshow, from our flight from MSP at 7 am to most of our first day and a half in India :) We'll add more later!

A last visit to the orphanage

Mom and Amisha with some of the resident dogs

Hey all!

Things haven't slowed down at all here in India.

Amisha woke up after a long night's sleep to be greeted by my groggy face looking at her from another bed. Understandably, she wasn't very happy. We think she's opened up a little from yesterday, though, because she was bold enough to let my mom know that the dress she had in mind wasn't to her taste, and she'd like another one instead (and she picked a different one!). She loves putting on baby powder (a version of getting a bath over here, and making yourself presentable) because it means we're going out. She usually likes to look at herself in the mirror when we get the oppurtunity, so I think we have a true little lady on our hands! I think Kelsey and I are going to have fun indulging in girly activities with her :)

We ate at the breakfast buffet downstairs with Kristi and Amanda and their two kids, Shaili and Prasun. She was fussy on and off, so Amisha and I took a short journey to the bathroom. She looked a little doubtful that someone other than Mom was taking her to the toilet, but any suspicious feelings were settled when I showed her how to splash in the sink, crunch up as many paper towels as you want, and put it in the wastebasket. I got my very first smile and laugh out of her when I dunked her hands underneath the faucet, so now if Mom needs help it's my #1 back-up strategy to make a beeline for the ladies' room and let her explore the sink. Hey, every girl likes hanging out in the bathroom, right? :)

After breakfast we relaxed in the room a bit until we left, for the second time, for the orphanage to take pictures--this time with Amanda, Kristi, Prasun, and Shaili in tow as well. It's muggier and smoggier today (my mom compared it to sticking your face in front of an exhaust pipe, and I don't think I can put it any more appropriately). We went to the special needs building today, different than the one that we picked up Amisha at, and saw where she has lived for the past 3 years. Words can't describe what that sad little building was like. The orphanage is much smaller than Jonathan's orphanage, with probably around 30 kids total in both buildings; I have a new respect for the Internet that we were able to connect with this tiny place thousands of miles away in a city this big and with the orphanage with as little resources as they had. Seeing those poor kids was the most heartwrenching thing I've ever seen. Some kids there were healthy, and some of them were so sick....the thing to remember here, though, is these kids are only a handful of the blessed kids that actually have a place to wait. Many more don't, or grow up begging in the streets, only to die. Please keep those kids in your prayers, that they'd find a home.

We've been trying out some of the Bengali words that Anju, the orphanage director, gave us to make a little contact with Amisha (ones we've used so far are "Jal", water, and "Tumi ghummabi", go to sleep). She reacted to both, even with our questionable pronunciation, so it's comforting to know that we've breached at least a little of our communication boundary.

Mom just put her down for a nap, so we're going to seize the oppurtunity and rest up. A very loud (and very LONG) wedding procession last night made sleeping hard, so we're resting up...and glad that tonight is our last full night here already. We're going to lay low tomorrow, I think....gather our wits a bit.

Again, thank you for your prayers and care! We appreciate each one of you! :)

We're going to try to do a huge picture post later if we have time--until then <3
Allie

Now we are a family of 7!!

This morning we woke up and moved over to the Peerless to be near Amanda, Kristi and Jason. Our hotel room in the Kenilworth was in the older part (if there is one) and our room was overlooking the road. The windows had wooden frames that didn't close all the way and the street pollution and the street vendors fires all vented into our room. To make it even more comfortable there was no A/C in our room. I don't want to discourage anyone who is planning on staying there because besides the room the staff bent over backwards for us, the cost of everything was substantially lower than anywhere else and it is right next to the consulate. When we left the Intercontinental in Delhi they charged us 2225 rupees for the taxi. The taxi from the Kenilworth to here was only 50 rupees. Enough about accomodations...

We were able to visit with Jason, Kristi and Amanda. They are all doing great. Tonight Prasun even smiled at us.

We had trouble with the phones and couldn't get through to Ms. Roy or the consulate until after noon today. We were supposed to talk to her at 9 a.m. When we got a hold of her she told us to be there at 1:30 and our consulate appt. was at 2:30. We thought we would be spending half a day at ISRC at then doing the consulate the next day. We were late getting there because our driver had to ask 5 or 6 people where it was located. When we got in we caught a glimpse of Amisha walking around. We were taken in the office and Ms. Roy received three phone calls while we were in there and then we signed 2 things, held Amisha shortly and had to run out to make our consulate appt. We didn't get to see where she has lived or much more than the office. Ms. Roy said she would catch up with us at the hotel. We went out to the car climbed in the back and they put Amisha on my lap and shut the door. She was scared to death. She cried so hard that our driver pulled her into the front seat, stopped at a roadside vendor and got her a ice cream and then gave her a little stuffed animal that was in his car. We had trouble getting the US Consulate our driver insisted we get out at the British Embassy at we refused. He didn't understand any english, but finally after a few calls to our hotel we arrived at the US Consulate. We were brought right in and found out they were not at all happy with us because our paperwork was all done in Kyle's name. After talking to a few people they were OK with it and let us proceed. Amisha was crying so hard they had us wait outside the building. We left with packet in hand so we are ready to travel home!!

Day 2

After a splotchy night of sleep, we've already charged into Day 2!

To make up for lost ground yesterday, our journey to India was a very smooth one. My mom and I arrived at the MSP airport at 5 am (nasty stuff) and were on a mission: check bags, Starbucks, plane.

New York came into view pretty soon--we were both

 really excited to be off, after months of anticipation. As we dipped below the cloudline in New York, we were even able to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty (we agreed it made the trip for both of us). After we got settled at the JFK airport, there wasn't much to see or do, so we did what we could...wandering, snacking, and shopping (got your postcards, Katie! :)) 

Our flight to India was a pleasant surprise--it was a very new plane, and each seat had its own personal TV and we were given complimentary ear plugs (tactful), a blanket, socks, pillows, and breakfast and dinner. Mom and I gave the American movie selection a workout, and then tried to sleep. We failed. 

We arrived in New Delhi with immense relief to stretch our legs after a grueling 14 hour flight. New Delhi was an old face to my mom, but was a culture shock for me as soon as we hit the airport bathroom. A woman was lying on a cardboard box waiting for someone to enter; when we did, she showed us which stalls were available and then politely handed us paper towels when we had washed up. We didn't have any rupees yet, so we couldn't give her anything; she was still very nice. Not exactly something you see every day in America, and I stayed extra close to Mom after my first encounter with Indian culture. 

We absolutely loved our hotel: "The Intercontinental: The Grand New Delhi". We were able to shower up, put on green tea lotion, lounge on the huge puffy beds, and eat down at the restaurant (the black coffee got an A+ from my mom :)); in the morning, we could choose from anything from honey dripping off the honeycomb to bacon to donuts (freshly made) to muffins, which we ate with gusto. This was in retrospect, smart; I don't think we'll be eating familiar food again for a few days...

Our rickshaw driver, Kuldeep, picked us up bright and early, and brought us to the Embassy. He was very sweet, and told us about his American friends "Mistah Paul" and "Mistah Jason" (who he described as 'veery funny mahn. Nevah serious!'). We got to the Embassy at around 9, and I was grabbed by an Indian policeman (with a GUN) because I had my camera out. Photographing or videotaping the Embassy is a serious thing, apparently, and he wouldn't leave me alone until I scrolled through my pictures to show him I hadn't taken one of the Embassy (yikes). The rest of our visit there was nice, and we were even able to chat with some other couples that were completing their adoption process as well.

After a day of shopping and sightseeing, Kuldeep dropped us off at the hotel and said goodbye. We took the hotel taxi to the airport, and took off for Kolkata at 5. And so began a brand new adventure.

Kolkata is...a class of city all in and of itself. Looking at traffic is like looking at a school of metal fish that can honk at each other: weaving, stopping, honking. About halfway to the hotel from our cab our driver told us a bus had "already" flipped in front of us, so apparently that's a common thing...

We're at the Kenilworth now, and we're preparing for the big meet tomorrow!! We may have the option of leaving for home as soon as Thursday...please keep this in your prayers!

We can't wait to see you all again, and thanks again from the bottom of our hearts for praying for us and keeping us in your thoughts. Until tomorrow :)

Allie

India at last!!

Hey everyone!!

I've tried to compose a post two times already, and it keeps crashing--be patient, we'll try to post stuff ASAP.

We're here, we're alive, we're well. Thanks for all your support and prayers! :)

Details to come!
Allie