My hair loss reality

This is the amount of hair i lose every morning and every night when i comb my hair. The hair loss is startingto get disturbing. My thick hair has turned into thin hair. think i might be getting a really short haircut for the first time ever in my life if this does not stop. On the flip side i am having sympathy for men with comb overs since i might have to do that soon!!

Me and Maya chillin on the veranda

Maya in her jean pants!!

Pigeons, rats and cockroaches oh my!!

Well if it not one form of wild life in our house it is another. We have been living peacefully with a rat for almost a year. he doesn't bother us, we do not bother him. well now he is breaking the rules the last couple of days and breaking into all our food, getting into the cupboards and making a mess. today we discovered his nest because a whole loaf of bread was missing...yes the entire loaf plus packaging (he is that big!)...and we discovered it behind the fridge along with a grocery bag of other items...i now understand the term pack rat after seeing our friend turned enemys little home. so now the war is on...we, well i have been resistant to poisoning the little guy from the begining cuz i do not want to deal with the carcass but today after cleaning up that nest i am ready for a little rodent homicide.

Beauty of it all

It was an amazing two days in bakkali. I have so many thoughts...we really celebrated our lives together over the last year and the one year of freedom that we are marking for the first three ladies who came to sari bari a year ago on february 20th. we ate, slept, swam, worshipped, prayed, hugged and laughed. it was a beautiful celebration of the hope that we share...lots more to share but it is late and my bed looks too good to pass up so more tomorrow....

Sari Bari Picnic in Bakkali

Yes, you can not see any bodies faces except us americans but i did that on purpose, wanted to give an idea of where we were .... There is another photo collage on the sari bari blog with slightly different pics...check it out at www.saribari.blogspot.com.

KFC by candlelight

Okay so want to wish you all HVD as my mom just wrote me! kristin, beth and i went out for HVD to KFC and it was busy and decorated for HVD so kinda normal but then they dimmed the lights and brought out the candles and seriously it was cool in a weird only in india sort of way. so we had a candle light dinner at KFC on HVD and ate chicken and hot fudge sundaes and told each all the ways we think each other is cool and lovable and amazing. it was good. surely, i will not forget KFC by candlelight on valentines day anytime soon. hope you HVD is a as unique as mine.

small inconviences that bear good fruit

Well we have been without electricty and water for the last 2.5 days. this is the second time in a week. i feel like it has not been that hard really...i keep trying to think of it as a way to identify with our friends who regularly lose these somewhat basic things. it makes life hard but wow it really slow you down too...for me this is a good thing. i had a whole list of things to do yesterday on my computer but i couldn't because the battery on my computer was dead...so instead i reorganized, filed, spent time with jesus, rested and listened to music...i did have batteries on the ipod :) !! it was a really good day and it left me refreshed to my time in the gach yesterday evening. we had a really time with the girls we spent time...we drew pictures with our friend chobi who desperate needs attention and affirmation and had lots of chai with several other friends. we prayed before hand that we would be an encouragement and it was really cool to talk to a few girls on the street who look like death warmed over and have them smile and be happy to see us. it was a good day.

we head out for bakkali tomorrow to our Sari Bari retreat...it should be a blast! we are just taking the three ladies who have been with us from the begining and our staff and their families. we are hopeful that it will be restful and a good community building time.

Go Colts!!

Love that the colts won the super bowl. love that i am not to old to drag my rear out of bed at 545am to go watch the super bowl at a friends house. i love that my friends are kiwi's and think american football is for wussies but watched the game with us anyway at 6am. i love that i got to talk to my brother and share in his joy that his team won....he is a serious serious fan. i am only a fan because he is...i would have had to be loyal to the bears if they had not been playing the colts. since i am pretty sure the last super bowl i watched was superbowl 20...when the bears won. i love my brother and my sister in law and their crazy allegiance to the colts...i mean look at what they are wearing :)

Rocky Balboa

what an amazing movie...i have not enjoyed or been inspired by a movie like this for a long time...i was clapping and jumping out of my seat. thankfully i am in india and this is normal behavior in movies. i mean i enjoyed rocky the original but kind of thought the rest lost something but this last one is great...i heard even the critics liked it. really great movie..everyone should see it.

when the internet actually works...

we have been without internet for the last 4 days. and it might not last today...who knows why it is not working but it is fairly frustrating when we have had the people here twice...anyway that is dumb news....

here is some really great news. we have 7 new ladies at sari bari for training. it is really exciting. yesterday was so great. we played the knot game and basially tied ourselves in a human knot and had to get out of it with team work. i told that i can not make my life go along its proper course if i try to do everything on my own...i have to jesus and some good friends to make the road easier and the burden lighter. it ended up being a great object lesson because the knot tooks us at least 20 minutes to unravel from...there were lots of missteps and hard parts but together with a little outside direction from upendra we got untied and gave ourselves a standing ovation at the end. all the ladies started on their own mini blankets and we right now working on making straight lines and small stictches as we move forward we get into measuring etc. we ended the day with a birthday party--for a freedom/new life party for all the new ladies. we had cake and coke and a good time. the original sari bari ladies shared with the new ladies about what the birthday party meant and what a huge party we are going to have on the 20th which is their one year freedom anniversary and the 1 year birthday of sari bari!! it was a amazing, so good, terrific day.

today, after all that goodness, i felt a little of what it must feel to god and constantly pursuing a fickle and easier distracted children. one of the ladies seems to be having some troubles and said she was going to quit so i changed my whole plan for the day after having a good cry with kristin cuz i just felt overwhelmed at the thought of just one more time pursing this woman...until i realized that this is exactly what jesus does for me...and there will never come a day when he stops and so there probably never be a day when i stop.

it has been a good, hard, tiring week and i love being here...appreciate your prayers as we walk in this desert with our friends to freedom.

beautiful as my blog

yes, i am now be heralded to be as beautiful as my blog. i am think i am happy about this...see the comments on the previous blog entry.

anyway, i just had a beautiful time with two of the ladies who work at our sari bari partnering unit. it is amazing how when they come out their context, that the simplest thing will open them up to sharing their stories. and i am always floored by the stories they tell...they are such sad, sad stories..stories of being sold or almost sold for about 250.00 dollars, of being married at the age of 12 to an old man who very tall and of hiding under the bed because she did not know what was going on and she was afraid. all this over tea and fried eggplant. they said they will come back to our home...it was fun to host them because they always host us...probably 20 cups of tea to our one cup today.

we have been talking about how to make the women more central in our community...i mean in a sense they the focus of what we do, but we want to see them be a more casual part of everything we do and hope for them to drop in, be friends, have community with them. this is my hearts prayer.

Momata's Birthday Party

last week

The last week has been full of good things. On monday the 22nd we had a big meeting at Sari Bari for all the new ladies who will start work on the first on february. it was beautiful watch them trail in...some greeting us like old friends, some unsure. but we they sat down together oh what a beautiful image it was...9 women seated in a circle on the verge of something new. you could see the anxious hope in their faces. i was the one who got to share the vision... the hope we have for their freedom and the belief that we have they can do it...they can reach out with their own hands and take back what has been taken from them. They can learn to read and write, they can know God's love, they can have healing in the mind and their bodies, they can try something new and do well at it. I told them it was would not be easy but that we would help them. i felt something the God's pleasure sitting before those women...something of what it must be like for God to sit on the throne and welcome someone new into the kingdom. i just saw beauty and light and hope...the pain they have suffered, the hard rough they walked did not show on their faces for those few moments...only HOPE. i feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be apart of this freedom road, this exodus with these women.

after last monday everything else was bonus....beth is here so we did a little shopping for her room on tuesday and wednesday i spent time at sari bari finishing up 2006 financials--yes that was really fun! and we had staff prayer and devotion that morning and that is always good. it was hard week for staff as we tighten up a bit and make sure everything is ready for the new trainees...there are so many hard cultural differences in work ethic...i am want to empower and had off responsiblity but culturally the one seen as in charge gets asked about the tiniest things and no one wants to make decisions for themselves....i am seeing this as struggle but one that is more my issue...i just need to remember to be teacher and walk with them on their exodus of a different kind...the poor are disempowered no matter where they come from and sari bari will not only empower women to freedom from the sex trade but other bengali's to help them walk that road by handling the details with confidence.

okay so then on friday, on my goodness, i went to a picnic with my long time friend maya with her work. she is apart of the housecleaning department of a bank here. so it turns out that we went to someone's ones house---and it ended up being really ackward for me....maya ended be responsible to do all the cooking, so the whole point of it which was to spend time with her was lost a little, i had three guys from the bank hitting on me--one was young, one my age, and yes one my dad's age--nice to know i have appeal all on these levels but frustrating to have to deal with inapproriate advances on a picninc i was told would be all women. the best part---the part that has to be blogged is that at one point everyone sat around and SANG...yes they sang...they played game boys against girls where you sang part of a song and then someone had to start signing a new song based on the first letter of the last word...they did this for an hour and a half. i wish i had video...before the girls where all very traditional and the boys where all like sharuk khan dancing while they sang.

i did take the local train home by myself and them walked to my house from howrah which was really cool...it was relatively empty and peaceful (relative being that you are never alone in kolkata). i love walking along the river by our house...so much life and craziness goes on there.

so i guess that is all for now... more one this week as it happens....

sharing a meal

i just got back from having lunch with some of the ladies in songacchi who work in sari bari. it was an amazing meal...each one of the ladies contributed something different. one pudding, one rice, dahl and chicken and one fish. i brought thumbs up (soda that tastes like coke with cough syrup). and the thumbs up was shared around with everyone who lives on the roof about 15 people--a 2 liter bottle. i am always awed by the hospitality and poor's ability to share with one another. they put my attempts to shame really. they have little and they give everything. it was good just to sit and talk and be friends...hear their worries and their hopes for the week...their excitement about the picnic on tuesday with our SB partner. it was good to share their life and let them be my teachers in everything from bengali to how to make a little go a long way.

barefoot bowling in k-town

of all the things you can do in kolkata...bowling just might be the weirdest. today we went bowling with almost all the foreigners we know and we had fun for a couple of bucks. however, we did end bowling barefoot because the shoes were either too gross or too small. it was strange to bowl barefoot...i do not think they would let you bowl barefoot in the states...it would be like an OSHA issue or something.

this week has been good...normal and busy and happy. we are making a promo video for sari Bari which is cool. i just finished doing the voice over with john..we hung thick quilts over the window to block the noise from the street. i am really surprised how that worked...should keep em there all the time. i am sure i would sleep better. that's pretty tough work...voice overs...you have to sound normal and excited and like you are not reading from a script. i hope it turned out okay.

i got CSI for Christmas and sadly it seem disk 3 is not going to work for me and there is absolutely nothing i can do about it cuz i live in india.

so here are some amazing thoughts from this week...you can get ants off your sweet biscuit simply by blowing them off, big sari blankets might be more cool that small ones, the george's (we have one form the the UK and one who is Dutch) make me smile because they are so unique and yet so the same, freedom is going to happen for rekha AND HER HUSBAND at freeset and freedom is going to happen for at least 7 more ladies at sari bari, my bengali can and will get better and when i fast i feel like i can't pray but when the fast is over i miss the closeness i feel to the jesus.

beautiful words

We dare to dance justice
in the face of oppression, reverence in the face
of exploitation,
beauty in the face of brokenness,
tenderness in the face
of violence.
And in the face of doubt
and death,
we dance our belief
in the living God.

Music i am loving right now...

and the winners are

1. Jason Morant
2. Anthony Skinner
3. Leeland
4. Patty Griffin (old school)
5. Matt Redman's new one
6. Corrine Bailey Rae
7. Ray LaMontange
8. Amy Cole

open your itunes and add these now!!

getting my own life

I struggle here in calcutta with many things...and one of them I think is how to live independantly of my community...that might sound bad but read on for a better explanation. everything is so intertwined that it makes it hard to get out and hard to stay in on many different levels. many of you are my friends and so might know something that my mom pointed out to me when i was home, which is that i can be a little relationally intense. meaning i love being with people but more than that knowing them fully and initimately, in a real way and this can be scary for some people i guess. the other side of this is that i generally do not feel safe unless there is vulnerability, truth telling and forgiveness...all of which lead to intimacy and or "real" friendship. i also love being known fully...i think that was what the prayer time omaha was all about for me...it was God letting me know that he fully knows me and he is cool with it!! but i also long to be fully known by others...there are people who really know me like Kim H and these are the people i long for in deserts like this...

so my struggle of the week and maybe the struggle of my life is being played out right now as i try to learn how to be present but not pushy. how to vulnerable without expecting it in return...how to give space and how at the same to make sure i am taken care of...my relational resources are limited here. we are kind of in a closed context where friends tend to be shared and sometimes sharing is hard.

so my unofficial goal for the next week is to get my own life...meaning i want to start taking better care of myself and not allow the stupid little things people do bother me--in other words not take responsiblity to fix others problems. so i am go out finally to get my easel and start painting and i am going to ask for what i need when i need it and keep my own counsel in the presense of the master otherwise.

i guess i might sound angry or hurt...i am hurt but that is just part of life right? not angry anymore just want to be happy to me in my own space, loved for who i am, and a good lover of people no matter where they are in life.

so i am thankful for my time in the gach today and the ways that God is teaching me to be silent with him. i am thankful for a little bit of creative energy--i made 4 bags this week out of sari blankets--they are wicked cool!! I thankful that i come from good people and for most of my life i have had a treasure trove of friends and i am thankful for this time in the desert so that i can worship god in desert or the promised land with equal excitement. thankful for my sari bari friends and all the cool people i know from the UK!!!

here's hoping for a another good weekend....

the lonliness birds

sometimes i feel like whenever there is something really good there always follows something bad. i did have a good day but i am weary in doing it...doesn't the bible say something like you should not grow weary of doing good...i am not weary of doing it just from it, if that makes sense.

and it seems that today after my sweet weekend that the lonliness birds are chasing me and my weariness makes so that i am not sure i want to run the other way. it is lonely to lead, to be in the crowd stared at but not recongnized, present and moving forward but dragging the weight of a thousand worlds on your shoulders. i think i am in BFF withdrawl...missing the julie's, the daphne's and the mom...or something! who knows!! definitely need to abandon this line of thinking and stop being responsible for things that are not mine!

here's hoping to waking up tomorrow , a new day, with a fresh perspective!! Cheers!!

A great weekend

wow...what a great weekend i just had....sari bari is now open monday through friday and having 2 days off in a row is making all the difference. i slept in on saturday a bit and then we went to the gach to see if our friend rehka wanted to go to freeset...she was not there though we had an appointment...definitely pray for her...she is so close yet so far from freedom. And then we went shopping for a desk and some shelves for sari bari...it was amazing...I everything i wanted and needed on the first trip and all within a couple of hours. this never happens.

i am really excited about the desk...means i can actually do lessons plans somewhere other than the floor for sari bari training.

then we went back to rekha's but we still could not convince her...there are so many excuses. but we ended up with our sari bari friends in songacchi sitting on their roof in the sun and the breeze talking, drinking tea and being...it was soooo relaxing. it may sound like these thing were work but it really was restful...even the shopping part.

then we went to freeset and i helped them move some rooms around including about 8 industrial sewing machines...i am wicked sore today--two days later!! i did not even do the really heavy lifting i was one of two people one end of the sewing machine!! hung out a bit with annie and the kids and then came home for an evening of CSI (thanks to justin and laurel).

sunday was amazing. went to church which was good...discussed reconciliation...there are just so many contexts where that applies and can be applied to life. we then went to kfc picked up some chicken and had a great day at the bontanical gardens lazing in the sun.

then we all went out for a beer and just talked. it was like a real weekend. i even broke from usual routine of being the first one to go home and went out with charlotte and julian to the movies and then coffee.

thankful a great weekend and i am looking forward to a great week!!

The staff

Me and Shopna at the SB Christmas Party

Kolkata's first sunset of 2007

New Years Party

I'm here again

I am back in k-town and so happy to be here. my time at home was amazing and restful and really full. full of so many good things. i feel like i am returning to kolkata full to the top and maybe even a little overflowing. thanks to all of you who made my time at home so special.

i thankful for color and the smells of life. i am thankful for noise (this might wear off in a day or two), i am thankful i get to see the sari bari ladies in a bit, i am thankful for the good life i get to live in this crazy amazing place.

The Family on Christmas Day

yes we are tired

Pretty sis with pretty neice

t

weird dreams

i have had very weird but similar dreams the last several nights. in every dream i step on what should be solid ground and i end up sinking to my waist or chest in mud. and once I stepped right through a natural bridge of some kind and almost fell all the way through but someone familiar was there to help me once i screamed for a awhile. they did not know i needed help at first and seemed to think i was over reacting. it is weird...not sure what i means...i always seem pull myself out of the mud but i end up feeling embarrassed and foolish...

must be having pre return to calcutta anxiety....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Merry Christmas to all...

so today is the eve of Christmas...the day of anticipation before the Big day. the day when we await presents, family and hopefully the begining of hope for the world. church was really good and what it was really about was the fact that we all need to be transformed and we can celebrate christmas as the begining of transformation...when light enters a dark room the darkness is dispelled at least in some measure. darkness can not exist fully where there is light. we are all messy people with many and few messes that we have created through out our lives but we do not have to live with the mess or in dark...thanks to the coming of the light bringer. a light bringer born into a messy manger, under messy circumstances . so we can be comforted that the mess in our lives does not scare jesus...he just wants to transform it for our sake and make it new!!

so merry christmas my friends and may this year of our lives be less messy than the last because of transforming power of jesus in your life.

hoping for the world today in the only hope that makes any sense...the word made flesh as a messy baby, in messy circumstances for the salvation of the messy world.

my new motto

I think maybe i am reverting but a few weeks in the states has me back to feeling like myself...i am happy and funny and even silly. We went to walmart today and found this really cute veggie tales fleece...and i think i am going to adopt the veggie tales motto for the rest of my life...they seem to have it covered in a "everything i need to know i learned in kindergarten" kind of way...

So here it is the things i am going to live by...

Honesty
Helping
Sharing
Kindness
Forgiveness
Silliness

Hopefully my new motto will keep me sane, happy, kind and silly!!

My mom is a super hero

today sitting at my grandmothers talking with my mom...i saw in my mom a super hero. she is all the things of 1 cor 13...she is patient, she is kind, she is not easily provoked...she is love that endures all things. she is a super hero!! she has been taking care of my baba (not her mom but my dads) and it has been cool to see how well she loves my baba with her actions. she can't leap talk buildings in a single bound but she can love and serve people in a way that not many can...she has the power of patience, the power of kindness and the power of serrvanthood...what a mom...she is definitely my HERO!!

Fun Photos from Omaha

americans are tacky too

yep..after a couple of weeks back in the country i know that the holidays bring out the tacky in everyone! there are crazy lights, blow up snow men, santa and his reindeer alongside the baby j and his mom. i always thought maybe india had the market cornered on tacky for their holidays--they too have lots of lights and gaudy decorations, over the top fireworks. i think from now i will just think of puja like christmas except the US is much quiet at least at christmas--in india they bring out their private fireworks arsenals and the baddest most offbeat drumming bands they can find.

i think am comforted by the tacky...maybe it signifies what it means to celebrate in all cultures. the time of celebration is good. but as my sister keeps reminding my 2.5 year old neice, christmas is jesus birthday. and as my neice has reminded my sister that means CAKE and a celebration of the hope of transformation for us all.

parting thought, if you have google mail and my email address can you send me an invitation. i am in spam torment and need to make a change.

New Hair cut and color

Hey here is my new hair cut and color..the color is dark chocolate but there is also some light highlights that you can not see...a little bit of layering and about 3 inches off the bottom. fun to have sorta cool hair at least for the next couple of weeks before i go back to frizzy land!!

Excerpt from my Beggars Society talk last night

As I have begun to live life with the women of sari bari I have become aware of this very human conception that God will always take us straight out of slavery and into the promised land or what we can calcutta call freedom. But it seems more often than not God First takes through a process. A process of exodus and he has it planned from the beginning…

Exodus 7:16

16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened

he did not say so that they may worship me in the promised land or the land that I am going to them he said the desert.

Why would moses take them to the promised land before first introducing them to the promiser—the desire of the ages. If he first brough them to the promised land they would end up loving the promises more than the promiser. God’s main purpose in delivering israel was so that they could know and love him…bevere

We must recongize that from Adam to now that God has been interested in the transformation of his people. Jesus is not just interested in the destination because the destination in his own mind is secure. He is interested in the process of transformation…that is why after more than 400 years of slavery God does not take his people straight to the promised land he takes them into the desert.

He is not just interested in giving us what we want or what we think we deserve…he wants to be apart of the process that takes us there. So that we can receive freedom as gift instead of a right. A gift that only we can give..so we fall in love with him and not just the things he can and wants to do for us. He is interested in knowing and being known by us.

Exodus requires obedience, struggle and a willingness to be transformed. That is what Sari bari is about…the restoration of women from the sex trade. Sari bari is about transfomation, redemption and exodus.

The road to freedom is never easy. For the women coming out of the trade it means a completely different lifestyle. I means getting up early, making food and making food in india is no short or easy pop it in the microwave task. I means a 40 hour work week, it means structure and accountablity. I mean budgeting and planning ahead. I mean learning something new when all your life you have told that you are nothing, worthless, trash who can not to anything but lay down and take it.

But the flip side to this freedom we have on offer to the women, is a new life, new confidence, restoration of hope, self confidence and diginity. It means the hope of life in Jesus.

THINGS THAT FEED MY SOUL

Friendship feeds my soul. it has been an amazing refreshing week as i have spent time with my omaha family. really my friends here feed my soul. I have shared wonderful meals and real and deep conversations with the gray's, the smith's, the harrells and beautiful daphne. An arty lunch at the jocelyn with kathy--that made me feel known and loved. i had a really good time eating at the leavenworth cafe with brent and then this afternoon checking out the newest coolest mexican food with jara and brent. I had two amazing but too short days in fargo with jared and julie...they blessed me and encouraged me on every level. I love julie landreth so much. I am almost speechless with thankfulness for this week of soul food. the last year in many ways have been like a friendship desert...i have good amazing community in kolkata but there is something really beautiful and amazing about these long term jesus reflecting soul reviving relationships. and the beautiful thing is that i get another week in california with more amazing friends...it will be like dessert for my soul.

feel thankful and blessed! i am speaking at the beggar's society meeting tonight in omaha...should be good...i feel good any way.... you can decide for yourself if it is any good. i think you can download and listen from the website in the next week or so.

sweet note that brought tears to my eyes!!

A year ago I had decided to raise money for an organization like say Samaritans Purse. I was looking through a catalog and saw that you could give money to save a girl's life by giving her money so she didn't have to sell herself.

Awhile after that, my grandma told me about WMF Kolkata and I decided to put the money towards that. Most of the money I used was birthday and Christmas money. My sister and cousin also gave some

- Hannah Scott, 13

culture shock in southern illinois

okay yesterday on our road trip to st louis we went though some really small towns and it weird to realize that i felt as much an outsider there as i sometimes feel in kolkata. we stopped in one place and they had built in ashtray right above the toliet paper holder...who sits on the toilet and smokes...i think i am missing something. also we went past this little resturant called LU-BOB's....i just pictured some good old boys hanging out for a drink in a movie like Fargo. anyway, weird to be back in my own country and feel like an outsider in small town america...definitely a city girl.

i am thankful for...

the ability to make and eat pumpkin pie and be with my family. i am thankful for my brother and my sister in law. i am thankful for gracie , landon and elisabth. I am thankful for kristin keen and hard roads that lead to new life. i am thankful for upendra, gita and kiran. i am thankful for aroti, champa and basanti. i am thankful for all the ladies working for sari bari at deepika esp thumpa, aduri and sikina who are so close to having freedom. i am thankful for new life in dying places. i am thankful for pilates and yoga and no lower back pain. i am thankful for my education and the life i get to lead. i am thankful for jesus and the new things i learn every day. i am thankful to have so many friends who i love so much....kim, amy, daphne, minde, sonya, julie m and julie l to name a few.

thankful to be here.

the journey begins....

so i have been back in the states for 2 days...resting mostly. enjoying some chips and salsa and as much diet soda as i can drink. went to old navy and gap but did not buy anything....nothing original or really cool....no offense to anyone....it just that my slightly hippy edge seems to have been pushed out this season.

I am heading for st louis today to spend time with my sister and her family and hopeful get in some coffee or something with ange and court (previous wmf kolakta peeps). I am loaded down with sari blankets for gifts and for selling in omaha....be happy omaha people there are some good ones. after st. louis i will be in omaha for a week and then with jared and julie in the fearfully cold fargo....i am happy to stopping in INDY today to see my brother and get my warm warm winter coat. and after that speaking at the beggars society on the 10th before heading to what i hope will be sunny CA on the 11th for a week. i am hopeful that my luggage will get lighter and lighter at each stop.

time in kolkata ended at a high point...things really came together on so many levels before we left. kristin and i are in a really good place relationally and sari bari is doing so well...upendra is in charge and has already sent me 2 emails telling how things are going...i taught him how to do email last week before i left and i think he is having fun emailing....just wait until he has to email 25 people back then we will see how he feels :)

i am so happy to be with and see my family. i love free refills and long sleeve t shirts. i love that i am going on a little road trip with my mom and dad today. i love that i will have a whole week with my neice and my sister. i love that i get to have thanksgiving with my family. i love that i am eating at bahama breeze today. i love that kristin, bethie, melinda and i will have time together in omaha. i love that i can be confident to leave sari bari in upendra's hands so that i am free to be present here.

Kristin lookin good in thailand

 

What a cute little lady...

 

Finally at home with Mom!!

 

Love this one...

 

Some of Diwali in Kolkata

 

Just got these back....more thailand

 

the amazing life i get to lead

so things here crazy busy in an amazing in and miraculous way. last week we signed the contract for a new place for sari bari--we will now have our own place and room enough for up to 15 women....so we will start with 5 new ladies in january when we return from the states.

a week ago friday we dressed up in sari's and went to the gach...it was so cool. gave out jolly ranchers which everyone seemed to love...we spent most our time in the brothel of the women who are working for sari bari on subcontracting partnership with an orgazniation called deepika. it was really an amazing and encouraging night to be with the ladies and to have silas--our regional coordinator visting us.

kristin and i have been continuing to work out the kinks in our relationship....in way i think we are both being slam dunked and we going to come out cleaner, purer and better on the other side....pray for that! god is working good things in both out hearts and teaching us much through each other.

i cried on friday as i realized that i am leaving for the states in a week and have been so busy and sick that i have not had the time with the ladies at sari bari that i would like...i have been in songacchi doing brothel visits three days a week and my time at sari bari has been very task driven....i just realized how much i love the ladies and i really miss them when i do not have regular time to invest in their lives and honestly i miss the challenge and investment that they bring in mine.

this week in gonna be crazy but we make out move into the new place tomorrow and then have fun day planned on tuesday with the ladies--making an outing to the movies and having lunch....we also have lots of visitors so that will make it even more interesting....

i will try to do better...i know that there has been a huge hole in my blog world and i have not been filling it!!