Max's Birthday

Namaste family and friends! Last week we celebrated Max’s first birthday. Check out the video! Wow, were did the time go? Since the big day fell on a Tuesday, we had a small celebration here with our family and our friend Jena and her son Kai. There were lots of presents and a blue cake with green M&Ms and Easter sprinkles. Here in India, you do what you can with minimal decorations. Max now has five teeth and chooses to walk rather than crawl. With the hard tile floors here, his knees are thankful for the time off. He’s also starting to solve problems on his own. Check out the picture where he is standing on the toy drum to reach the top shelf of the bookcase. For Max, nothing is unreachable now! We spent Republic Day, January 26th, with our friends Suresh and Preety from the Servant’s Heart ministry. We drove forever to a lovely picnic spot and had delicious barbeque chicken, dal, rice, and chapatti. A great time was had by all! Our group of friends from England is growing and we now participate in a weekly play group and sporadic weekend family activities. Anna has her first parent-teacher conferences this Friday. I’m sure the report will be glowing. There is a John Deere family day this Saturday which we know nothing about yet, but I’m sure it will be spectacular. Most excitingly, we have been counting the days until our first R&R trip, which is now only five days away. We all leave for Phoenix this Monday at 2:40am. We have a five hour layover in London and then fly directly to Phoenix. The kids and I will stay with Grammy and Gramps in a rental house for four weeks and Chris will stay for two, including five days of conference. He will spend one week in Moline before heading back to India. We are so excited to see everyone! I am not too excited about flying back with the kids by myself, but we’ll make it. Thanks again to those of you who keep in touch via email, snail mail, or telephone. All correspondence is cherished. Until next time, take care and we’ll see some of you very soon! Love to You!