Not Off the Face of the Earth

Friends and Loved Ones,

Some of you are probably thinking that we were at the top of the world and may have kept on going right off the face of the planet. Rest assured that hasn't happened. We have taken a week to get adjusted, get healthy, and for Maya to adjust to her new surroundings and to the 12 hour and 15 minute time difference. Let me just say that we are conquering the above slowly, but surely. Every day we seem to overcome a new feat, establish a bit more normalcy, and make some progress. Let me update you on some of the highlights. I do want you all to know that pictures are forthcoming. We can post as many as we want now that she is back in the country!

Last Friday we finally made it out of the hotel and to the airport after a morning of some opposition to that. I went to check out of the hotel and the debit card that we transferred the money to pay for the hotel into would not go through!! We are supposed to catch a shuttle to the airport in 15 minutes and no money to pay for the hotel. GREAT!!! I felt the anger rushing up inside of me like a volcano. This Khilawea was getting ready to go off on some body - yet there was no one around who deserved the eruption, though it may have made me feel better. Why so angry? Well, because we had gone IN PERSON to make these arrangements at our bank before we left and were assured there would be no issues. "What to do? What to do?" Two credit cards and a pile of US dollars later...plus some calculations of exchange rates and we were checked out only to notice the very shuttle that we were scheduled to be on pulling away from the hotel - WITHOUT US!! From volcano, back to civilized Marc, back to volcano again. "No need to panic here Marc.....we can take a taxi....and...uhmmmm two other taxi's for all of our luggage - I DON'T THINK SO. Plan C, or D, or whatever new plan we were on - talk to the lady that I had spoken with last night about the shuttle we just missed. We were there, and it left early, not our fault right?....RIGHT". A simple conversation and 15 minutes later and we had a private car ready to go - A PRIVATE CAR WITH NO DRIVER. Not to worry - they were asking around the hotel we were told. What does this mean, I wondered to myself? Asking what? If someone had a permit to drive, could drive a stick, knew how to get to the airport, what? What could be the problem? It isn't as if someone were volunteering for a mission impossible - at least I hope not! About that time here comes the lucky driver, and the guy who located this person with a proud grin from ear to ear. We loaded up and off we went. The first English words our driver said to us were, "ahh Maoists!" Sure enough we happened on some more of those "friendly" political demonstrations and had to go around. Finally we made it to the airport. Checking in and going through security is something that I am sure we couldn't experience anywhere else on the globe minus a time machine. It was primitive and yet we made it safely to our destination without issue. There we had about forty minutes to leave one area of the airport, go back through security into a different part of the airport and still make our plane. This had me worried, but without reason, because the airline we were flying, unlike domestic airlines, actually care about and take care of their passengers. They would have even kept the plane back to get our luggage on board! AWESOME! Maya was great through all of this. It was time for the long flight. After changing seats with some nice gentlemen, we were in a cozy corner of the plane, perfect for 15 hours to contain miss Maya. We continued this flight without issue. Maya was a perfect little angel who never cried or caused a single problem.

Back in LA! We know our way home from here. It doesn't matter what happens now, we are HOME FREE! We took a moment to celebrate as we took our time getting off the plane there. Onto immigration. It didn't take long before we realized we were back in the good ole US of A for better or for worse dealing with our wonderful government who wants to love and take care of us poor citizens in such blissful fashion. There were two men working in the area where we needed to be. I say they were working, but I know that I can accurately attest that they WERE in fact in the area. Two and a half hours later and we had our documentation to leave LAX. After our last experience at LAX, we knew that we didn't want to wait for the shuttle to pick us up and take us to the hotel. Yes, it was free....and.....need I say more? So, we went to the taxi stand. The cab drivers didn't want to take such a big pile of luggage so the taxi jockey called for a van! After a brief argument with the driver about where we were going and why we didn't take the shuttle, we were on our way to a drug store and then to the hotel. Hot showers, and Pizza Hut! We felt like prisoners who were being granted our last wishes!

I share all of these things with you because although at the time, I could find no humor in them, it is quite funny reflecting back on these things. I hope that you get a chuckle out of some of these events. But, the most important thing is that it made it so much sweeter to come home to all of you. The best part of our return home trip was seeing the large crowd of family and friends who were waiting for us just past the gates at the airport here in Springfield. What a wonderful homecoming welcome it was. We were so touched by everyone who was there. Thank you all so much for all of your love and support. Remember pictures coming soon. Have a wonderful day everyone.

Headin home today. Landing in Spfg at 6:30 tonight.

Breaking News!

This morning, we decided to tune into KTTS for a little bit of home! About the time that things got loaded up and we got a good strong signal, a familiar voice came on and said "breaking news". We leaned in as we thought something major was going on back home. They went on to say that there was problems at James River and 65. At this point we were listening intently....what was it, a dump truck turned over, a pile up, what? Then he said, that the train crossing bars were down, and the lights were flashing, but so far....no train, but they would keep us informed as the "situation" progressed. Staci and I just rolled laughing about that. And then, we both agreed that we long for that dossile environment. They came back on about a half an hour later and said that the problem still wasn't fixed but that local police and someone from the railroad were looking into the problem. He said that the problem was being further complicated by people trying to drive through the crossing and then cautioned that was probably "not a good idea". It kept us entertained for about 45 minutes with update break ins about every 10 minutes or so.
Here, the headlines lately have been about political activity. One of the political parties here blocked every road into and out of the Kathmandu Valley yesterday from 6am until 5pm. No one could get in or out of the valley. Since it was a "peacful" political demonstration, the authorities did nothing to stop it. Traffic jams here are a normal part of everyday life, but this made a collosal mess of things. The party is in line to increase the intensity of their "peaceful" demonstrations until the government pays attention to their demands. Part of the plans at one time included blockading any flights from leaving the airport here! So far, they have yet to act on that one, but hold it in their back pocket as a possibility. We will be glad to here from our embassy tomorrow morning, go pick up Maya's travel paperwork and then get out of here and head back home on Friday. We are ready to come home and sit in one of OUR traffic jams created by a "ghost train"! We welcome that kind of breaking news.

Hotel End of the Universe

Family and Friends,

We began our journey to see the famous Himalayan mountains with both curiosity and concern in our minds. We are supposedly in the best hotel in the entire country and though it has its fine points, it is not what we would consider a resort environment. We are certainly thankful for our surroundings being as good as what they are. It does leave to question what kind of environment we were heading for though. We got in the car and were surprised to see both our liaison, Mr. Trilok, and a driver. Normally Mr. Trilok just drives us to where we are going.

We set out from the hotel at about 2pm and wound through the city streets of Kathmandu. Trilok explained that Kathmandu was not really a city per say, but rather the name of the valley and that there were several "districts" that made up Kathmandu. He explained that we had been to two of the districts and would be traveling through the other two on the way to our destination. He said that our destination was 30 kilometers. I thought about this with some concern, because 30 kilometers won't even get you from Springfield to Branson. I began to worry, but didn't tell Staci. I could tell that she was worried too, but wasn't telling me! We crossed a bridge and just like that, the scenery changed as we changed districts. It got a little bit nicer and the architecture of the buildings changed. It must have been a lot like how the texture of the highways change back home when you cross a state line. Most of the time, the road becomes nice when entering a new state because that state wants to give you a good impression. And, when you are leaving a state, why should they care about the last 20 or so miles of road because.....hey, you are leaving the state anyway! Well, just as with the interstates back home, within about 10 miles, the truth begins to emerge. If you are going from Missouri to Oklahoma, give it about 10 miles and the road will change from that smooth first impression into some kind of violent beating stick! Like we were not going to notice if the changes were subtle enough, that our teeth were being jarred out of our faces!!! RIGHT!! They didn't think of everything there though. They should put the toll in the first ten miles where the road is still good and trying to impress. That way people won't realize how they are getting cheated when the toll booth comes up. Anyway, we can discuss all of this at home. Needless to say now, the buildings began to change back to the poverty that was in the other districts, maybe even more pronounced. Lots of the buildings were several stories and made from red brick, but were unfinished - they only had three walls built! The buildings had no fronts. You could see right into them - people, hanging clothes, furniture, whatever. Many places had piles of bricks outside as if they were going to build the fronts eventually, but you could tell that these buildings had been like this for years and were inhabited anyway. There was a lot of road construction going along the road we were on. Trilok explained that one of Japans Ministers came over here and was traveling to the same place that we were going and he got stuck in a 4 hour traffic jam. Through his frustration, he pulled the necessary strings and now Japan is paying for an 8 lane road in the place of the two to three lane road that is there now. In seeing the way that the road was being constructed, I have a confession to make. If you have ever driven through road construction (which all of you have) back home and wondered what on earth they were doing, thinking about all of the tax dollars that you spent for the mess and confusion that seems to exist, I can now assure you that what is going on is quite advanced and organized in comparison. Watching them work on the road was a sight to behold.

Soon, we were leaving all that behind and heading out of the city a little bit into another district, the agriculture district. They were growing wheat, vegetables, and rice. The wheat was being harvested in a manner that we have not used in the US for at least a hundred years. They were cutting it by hand and leaving it lay in rows. Someone else would come along and pick it up and stack it straight up into bundles every 30 feet or so.....however much they could get their arms around. The ground is not flat here, so they farm on a system of terraces to keep the land flat and farmable. They were making the grain and sifting it all by hand. No tractors, no machinery, not even any animals were helping. ALL BY HAND! It was neat to see.

By this time, I am aware that we had traveled at least 30 kilometers and began to worry where we were going to stay at! I still didn't let Staci know that I was concerned. I could see way off in the distance the mountains for the first time and just knew that was the best we were going to get and that we were going to be dropped off in one of these places and that having four walls was going to make it a good place to stay. BUT - we kept driving.....and kept driving until we were completely out of an urban environment and came to the base of the Rockies sized foothills. They were amazing and daunting. We began to climb and the road began to erode away to about the size of a driveway. We were climbing so high and so fast, my seat felt reclined and my ears began to feel the change in altitude. The valley itself is about 48oo feet, so we were going up up and away. The timber began to change to pine as we climbed steadily higher. The valley was becoming farther and farther away, and the terraced farmland looked like ripples in the soil below. Eventually we passed by a shack that was some kind of restaurant. It was open, but no one was there. I am not sure how they could be, as there was no where to park. I jokingly told Staci that was where our breakfast was going to be served. She wasn't ready to joke about it yet. Soon we reached a bus stop sized shack and there was a huge bamboo poll across the road. It was a toll, but for some reason we still felt a long way from Oklahoma. The similarities were few, other than the road continued to deteriorate until we were traveling on mostly rock and gravel. We kept climbing and I could start to tell a difference in the air when I took in deep breaths - we were getting higher, and the air was getting thinner. Much to my surprise, we began to see small school kids along the side of the roads, and climbing up goat trails on the sides of the mountains. These kids must have been in the 2nd through 5th grade range. There were also mountain goats on these trails on the sides of the mountains. In a few minutes, we were in the elevated village of NAGARKOT. There were few vehicles and most of the people seemed to live quite primitively here. There were a couple of dirt swaths that represented streets and some businesses and markets spread along. We passed the school that the children had come from and we kept driving right out of the village and continued upward. The road got really bad and I thought that we probably needed a 4x4 to continue safely. Trilok said that in a few weeks there would be snow all over the place here. The air was much cooler now, probably by 25 to 30 degrees. We passed a hotel, at least I think it was a hotel. There was a sign and a set of stairs that wound and went up probably 200 yards, but we didn't see the actual building. Around a couple of more switchbacks, we caught a glimpse of the mountain range and then had to catch our breath. There they were! Breathtaking! We continued to climb and they disappeared behind what was in front of us again. We had to be nearing the top I though to myself. My gosh!!! We were dragging the muffler, oil pan, or bumper now on every other bump or so. About that time, we came up on another hotel. The sign read: "Hotel End of the Universe"! There was no turning back now! We climbed for another several minutes before coming to the top of the mountain and to our hotel. It was going to be okay. Just like that, the hills opened up and we feasted on the grandeur that was the Himalayas! The 30 kilometers was once we hit the toll road! Tired from our 2 and a half hour journey, we got out of the car and walked into the hotel. We could see out the giant bay windows almost the entirety of the part of the range that was close. It was perfect. Words can not describe what we saw and pictures are not going to do it Justice. It was God's creation at the very utmost height of this tiny planet that He made. It was a moment that I will remember for the rest of time. There they were so big and so close that you feel as though you can reach out and touch the tops of them, though they still were miles and miles away. There we were, so small, and yet so very very blessed. Trilok and our driver left as we sat and had some tea, looking out over the expanse. They would be back tomorrow. Soon our room was ready. Here was the big test. Room 214. He said it was in the next building and the guard took us up to our room. 214, I'm thinking second floor - WRONG! We had the best room in the place. It was on the top floor as we climbed six flights of steep stairs to get to our hall, and it was at the end of the building. There was nothing to block our view of the range. There bay windows on both side of our room and a french door that opened onto our private balcony. Walking out onto the balcony, there was nothing below us, nothing above us, and it was if we were suspended there.......in heaven on earth. I aksed myself in my head, does beauty really get any better than this? (you must understand that I have a love and passion for the mountains and always have) Soon my question would be answered. Staci and I set up for the night in the lodge type setting, lots of wood trim and hand built cabinets and dressers. The vaulted ceiling was wood, yet the room was quite primitive. No heat, no air, no hot water - just a couple of lights, a bed and.....God's glory and splendor right out our windows! AND, it got better! Two more times in fact. The sun began to set behind us, casting a glow on the snowy slopes of the mountain range. The hues changed from goldens, to oranges, to reds, to pinks, to lavenders before the sun finally sank into darkness. Even in the darkness, you could still see the outline of the mountains. They were the space in which the flickers from lamps and candles of the valley subsided, and the vast expanse of the flickering stars began. They were outlined perfect black shadows and my mind could remember their shape in the light. It was a truly awe inspiring moment.

Looking across the flickers of lamps and lights that dotted the valley floor below and then seeing the stars above, one can honestly and really understand why the people inside the walls of the city of Jerusalem were so sad when all of the people left the area after being there for the Festival of Lights. The people came to Jerusalem from far and wide to participate in the three feasts, one being the Feast of the Tabernacles. It was said that at night for as far as the eye could see, the normally rugged and dark landscape, was dotted with flickering lights from the tents and camps of the people who came to the city at that time. It was so beautiful and warm, that the people loved it. It left a void when the lights were gone. I think that we got a glimpse of what that may have been like for them to see all of those lights. Only we were not sad to leave. We know that Jesus is the light of the world and is also our light and that we are, no matter how tiny we may seem, in the palm of his hand, and He is in our hearts and the light of our lives. What a blessing, what a promise, what a reality!

The sunrise the next morning was spectacular and it lit up the outline of Mt Everest in the distance. We were able to see it for a little while before the high lying clouds overtook its outline again. We got so many great pictures and can not wait to share with all of you our tales and trials in person. We hope to come home this Friday and be there on Saturday, but have still not heard from our Embassy here. Please pray that they will conclude their investigation and release us for travel back home on Friday. We love you and miss you all! Thank you for your prayers as you are in ours!

"LOVE"

The name Maya means "Love" here. Everyone who is a native hears her name and lets us know that. They are very approving. She has a new middle and last name now. Her old last name was O.NE. (not ONE, but O.NE.) The O stands for OCCED which is the acronym spelling of the orphanage where she was at and NE stands for NEPAL. Very simple. Her new full name is Maya Grace Baker. We all know what Grace means. It means "Grace"! Love - Grace......what a cool name. We didn't know that Maya stood for love here when we picked Grace as a middle name for her making it even better.

Well, miss Maya Grace had a full day yesterday. We went to an ancient Nepali palace in a district of Kathmandu that we had not been to yet. We want to get plenty of pictures of different places to share with Maya later on. This place was amazing. It was very well preserved and was the size of a village. There was a lot of hand carved wood and hand chiseled stone. There was even an old public bathing place there that was still in use! We got pictures and video of as much as we could as well as some souvenirs purchased from some of the street vendors. Maya doesn't understand the significance of these places now, but someday I hope that she will appreciate the pictures and knowing that we took interest in these things. She is however quite tolerant and mostly happy to be out in public places.

Yesterday she went out into the courtyard area with Staci and enjoyed her time out there for the first time. She had been out several times before crying and screaming and the like. This time she took in the pond, the flowers, and the grass - she loves the grass. She has never seen much grass and enjoyed the way it felt under her feet. When they came back in, Maya was quick to get my attention and point back outside. She wanted to go back out and for me to go with them, so we ventured out into the courtyard again. I found two vacant chairs on top of a knoll type hill leading up to the edge of a small brook laced with all kinds of flowers. I sat in one of the chairs and Staci and Maya sat in the grass. I picked a clover for Maya and started something. She began picking grass for me, for Staci, and for herself. She was perfect happy picking the grass until she found the flowers! Why settle for grass when you could have lovely textured, colorful, soft flowers in your hands. Of course we didn't let her pick the flowers. The ground was uneven where we were and I doubt that she had ever been on uneven ground before because she struggled to keep her balance and couldn't quite figure out why. This made Staci and nervous wreck because as you get closer to the flowers, there is about a 4 foot drop down to the little brook that runs through the courtyard and into the pond. The only thing to break her fall would have been the flowers. Miss Maya is ALL GIRL! How could she not be drawn to the beauty of the flowers? Staci looked away for a fraction of a second and Maya pounced on the opportunity. She came up with a fist full of yellow flowers full of pride and delight. Like a sweet sweet girl, she eagerly gave the flowers, one each, to Staci and me. We needed to find Maya a new short term interest, but she rarely wants to participate in something that WE came up with. However, if SHE comes up with the idea, it is off to the races. So, we kind of put the second chair, the empty chair into her immediate vision. Hook, line and sinker! She bit. She began climbing around on the chair with wreckless abandon. She is a climber and is fearless of the heights to which she climbs. These were not low chairs either. They were built tall so that people could put their feet on the resting bar built into the front legs of the chairs. They were built a lot like lifeguard chairs only much shorter. It was not long and she figured out how to climb up into the seat of the chair. Staci, nervous again with this newfound equally dangerous activity helped Maya out of the seat and tickled her when she got to the bottom. Maya liked this and considered it to be a kind of game. Maya was quickly back up into the seat part of the chair, but this time was standing, not sitting. Staci turned toward her and without warning, Maya bailed off of the chair kind of like an experienced bungee jumper might jump from their perch! Maya sailed through the air toward Staci and Staci caught her, WHEW! That jump had caught my attention too! That has to be the ALLSTATE GOOD HANDS PLAY OF THE DAY! Staci and I just looked at each other with.....that look - part shock, part horror, part thankfulness, and part disbelief. Good thing she is tough! I doubt that we can catch her every time. Maybe we will look for a baby bicycle helmet and some bubble wrap and duct tape. So, if you see her dressed like that, it isn't because daddy dressed her!

Since we are caught in he middle of a national holiday here in Nepal, we are going to take advantage of the empty streets (no traffic) and the docile environment and we are going to take a trip. We are going to see Everest! We will travel today, stay the night at a bed and breakfast there and then come back tomorrow. You can't see the mountains from where we are. They are not only mostly hidden by foothills the size of the Rockies, it is very very smoggy and polluted here. On some clear days, we can only see the very tops of the great Himalayas crowning the peaks of the foothills off in the distance. So, we are going up there to see them up close and personal. What if Maya asks what the top of the world is all about? What are we going to tell her - yes, we were there and we got to see it from the airplane as we were coming in! We won't be close enough to touch it, but we will be close enough to see its might, and far enough to escape the smog in the valley. We won't be high enough to not be able to breath, but will be high enough to need the one set of winter cloths each of us packed. We are packing now and will be gone about 24 hours total. I will write of our experience when we get back. Until then, you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Why didn't you tell me!!?

Why didn't someone tell me that ice cream is the way to a little girl's heart? Staci, Maya and I just got back from the famous local pizzeria here called "Fire and Ice". It has a website if you are curious. On the way back, we stopped to take a picture of something interesting here for Sarah Horton......not going to give away what the picture is of though. There just happened to be something vaguely familiar about a sign that I saw in front of a hut in the courtway where we were. It seemed to draw me in. I couldn't quite make it out, but I recognized the number 31. I got a little closer acting curious, but not too curious as Staci, Maya and I draw a LOT of attention when we are out in public. People, most people in fact, study our every move. They are curious about this giant white guy, his blond headed wife, and this little Nepali girl who is no longer crying by-the-way! More on that later. A familiar smell began to penetrate my nostrils. Was my nose playing a trick on me? It was the distinct and unquestionable scent of waffles......waffle cones to be precise. Like an oasis in the desert, I remained skeptical but was confident enough to call Staci over at this time. I took one more glance at the sign and inhaled the smell and then popped the question, "How would you like some BASKIN ROBINS ice cream?" Staci said, "you better not be kidding with me," and we headed toward the hut. We arrived to find ice cream, though a few flavors were missing. This hut had about 8 flavors and most of them were strange. One of the flavors was some kind of fig ice cream. Thanks, but no thanks. Then, there was a triple chocolate which Staci ordered playing it safe. I took a gamble for some reason. I guess the ice cream experience just wasn't as important to me seeing as though I just had some great pizza and a Mountain Dew in a glass bottle (SWEET NECTAR OF LIFE!) I got a flavor called honey nut something or other. I should have had more reservation as I tried some local honey at the hotel and the flowers, or the bees, or both are.......well, far from the flavor of honey one might expect coming from the US. I don't know if anyone has tried raw sugar cane before, but it was a lot like that with a wild strong flavor to it - not at all what I was looking for when I smothered a crescent roll with it at breakfast on our first morning here. None-the-less, the choices were made, Staci's in a cup (smartly because she was holding Maya) and mine in a cone (I couldn't help myself). The helpings were unusually small, like the people here (I guess that makes some sense right?) As I sat down, I got part of my ice cream on my shirt which is okay now because I can blame it on Maya. Only Staci knows the truth and she will never tell. Staci was already digging into hers......well, as much as one can dig into a scoop of ice cream with a sample spoon which is what was supplied to eat it with. Again, good call on the cone right? I tasted mine and it was good! The gamble had paid off. After I collected the drips around the edge, I held my cone across the table for Maya to try. She put it up her mouth and stuck her tongue out on it and she was hooked! She had quite a bit of my small cone. When I got it down to the point where it was a tiny cone, I gave the whole thing to her. She put it all in her mouth, broke it up, licked up the ice cream and then spit the rest of the cone out onto Staci. With Staci in chocolate Baskin Robins heaven, she didn't even mind much. That sweet little child loves ice cream. Please mark that down as a score for daddy! We will be going back to the odd ice cream hut to experience this again!......don't think that I will try the fig ice cream though.

Okay - an update on Maya. Yesterday afternoon, it was like someone threw a switch on, or off. One minute Maya was crying and having her usual problems, the next minute, she was off the bed, into the floor, and she was playing! She was playing with some very basic things and Staci was in the floor with her. We kept adding things like decks of cards, pencils, travel size board games, and magazine pages to shred to keep her stimulated. Within a half hour, she was a different girl! She was smiling, giggling, laughing and playing interactive games with Staci AND with me like hide n seek! Staci and I took a minute to say a thanksgiving prayer for this and said that we would enjoy it as long as it lasted. Well, we are still enjoying it even as I type this! She woke up this morning and only fussed a little bit. She hardly cried at all and went right to playing. She hid some of her toys and was eager to find out if they were still in their hidey holes. Much to her delight, they were! She has been all over this hotel room and into EVERYTHING! She is pretty smart. When it came time to go to dinner, she got Staci's purse and took it to her. When Staci didn't put it on right away, she began to cry in protest. When Staci still couldn't figure this out, she put the strap over her head. We STILL didn't get it, so she went and got her shoes, and then our shoes - DUHHHHH - she wanted to go out!....and that is exactly what we did. She ate a whole bowl of rice and a local gravy like substance called dahl. She ate bits of apple and we played throughout dinner. For now, Maya is doing better and is happy and interactive. Staci and I think that she might even be better than she was at the orphanage! She still has attachment issues which isn't such a short fix. We will deal with that as it progresses and plays out. As for now - we are one happy and thankful family. So, please, if you have prayed for us, please give thanksgiving and praise for God's obvious and immediate work in our lives to date! Good night to you here, good morning to you there!

You would cry to......

........if it happened to you!

Why? Why does Maya cry all the time? It is for reasons that probably no one reading this blog, nor Staci and I could fully understand. It is a perfect storm really and something that has been reinforced almost her whole life. Let me see if I can outline the situation for you from the beginning.

Lets put ourselves in the same situation. First, your life starts out in the womb. I think that we can all agree about that. However, in the womb, the parent may or may not even know that she was pregnant with you. There is a possibility that there was smoking, drinking, or even drugs pulsing through her body while she carried you. And, there is almost a certainty that the woman carrying you was substantially under nourished making it a high possibility that you too are under nourished. Yet you grow and continue to develop. You have a heartbeat and fingers and toes. Lets not look past the fact that God knows your name and everything about you.

It is finally time for you to be born. Maybe you are in some kind of prehistoric hospital, maybe you are in a room, maybe too cold, or too hot. Maybe you are outside under a shack, or in a riverside tent. Whatever your situation, it's not like being born in the USA! Let the storm continue. Your birther (no mother) doesn't want you, and doesn't love you. You don't get the love and bonding that you desperately need and seek as an infant. You have no skills, no tools to survive on your own, yet you desperately try to sooth yourself to no avail.

Within 12 days, you are abandon all together. You are left by your birther and any family that you may have had.......left at less than two weeks of age by a river to die. No food, no love, and no hope. Only God himself could have kept you alive. Maybe those were the best two days of your little 15 month old life. Can anyone imagine what it would be like to be a helpless infant held by God and comforted by the Holy Spirit?

The hope comes when you are found by the river, by God only knows who (this is not a figure of speech, it is the truth). You were taken to an orphanage for care. You are starving, sick, and you have never known the warm loving embrace of a mother. You don't think that made a lasting impact on your life? Don't think that you remember such things and that there is no trace of that left with you? I would ask anyone who is thinking this to kindly reconsider. Your abandonment is imprinted in your being.

Finally you are someplace warm, and have the nourishment you need. Someone to hold you and care for your needs. You still lack the love that you so desperately need and seek.

Lets shift gears for a moment. In this orphanage, you have your immediate physical needs met on a daily basis - shelter, food, and care. Everything is okay right? Well, consider the fact that your caretaker's main goal is to keep the peace with all of the children under her care. This is good for you in the short term. Each time you cry, she is prompted to do whatever it takes to get you to stop. However, over the long term, you learn that you can prompt appeasement by crying, and that you can manipulate your care taker and others through fit throwing. You fight for attention and food as you grow older. You learn how to get what you want and that you can get your way by crying or throwing fits. This is a temporary fix for what you really seek - love and ownership. It is no different than what every human seeks no matter what our age may be.

Appeasement becomes your substitute for love. You seek it everyday and everyday it becomes more and more reinforced as you cling to and attach to what you know - your caretaker and your environment. You don't want to become attached to the other children around you because they are your competition, but you become attached anyway. Then on some unsuspecting day, two people who look and sound different than anyone that you have ever known come into this world that you have made for yourself. They take an interest in you and give you attention, disrupting your system. You cling to your caretaker even more now. Eventually, they become part of your daily routine.....not so bad as long as your caretaker is nearby. After all, they leave after a few hours and bring you treats and toys when they come. What is not to like? You wake up the next morning and you are taken to a different place, away from your caretaker and with these two people. Remember, one of them is a rather beastly man and men are not something that you have ever been around much either. They take you to doctors and offices and then eventually to a strange hotel room with things that you have never seen - beds, a crib, and TV!
You are in shock.....no really, not clinical shock, but mental shock. Exhausted, you go to sleep that night. The next morning is when the terror starts. This was not a dream. You are in a strange land with strange people, and once again, you have been abandoned and left to your own devices. You don't know which emotion to express first: sadness, anger, frustration, fear, terror, you are overwhelmed by your situation and so you cry and cry and cry. There is nothing to console you, because there is no consolation in your mind. You are old enough that you know and are aware that you had, you loved, and now you have lost....and are lost......and have been abandoned. On top of that, you are sick, you have a fever and are congested....tummy is upset, ears ache, body aches. At only 15 mos old, you tell me how to get past this. These strangers try to help and you turn to them for your immediate needs, but there is no way for them to manage your sadness, grief and pain. A child might touch a hot flame once and get burned - they might touch it twice and get burned again, but that child isn't going to willingly and knowingly immediately go down the same path that caused them pain! Why would Maya latch onto us and trust that she was not going to just get burned again? The answer is she won't, and she isn't!

So, why does Maya cry? THAT is why she cries. That and a hundred other nightmares that we will never know. She has scars on her body, and there are probably scars on heart that we will never see or know. Yes, little miss Maya cries and sometimes we cry with her, but it is okay. There is a day on the horizon when her cries will cease and her heart will heal, and trust will make way for joy and happiness. It is a long road with bumps and setbacks. Staci and I are just so very thankful that we are traveling down this path with the love and support from all of you. God bless you all and thank you so much for your encouraging posts and most of all, your prayers.

Two Angels

Today was eventful - VERY eventful. It started out with our typical crying session starting around 5:10am and lasting until about 10:30am which is nap time. Don't worry, this isn't the eventful part, just the everyday musings of our new family. BUT- That is okay. Don't think that all of this isn't okay. It has to be right? What I keep trying to color for you is the marathon of crying and agony that our child is going through. Some of you may know about this from personal experience, probably less of you than you think though. Others of you have perfect children. I would say good for you, but I don't believe that. There is a reason that we are going through what we are going through, and those who have not gone through it won't have what we will have once we have "run this race".



Staci went down to breakfast this morning and I kept the crying one. We just sat and cried. I took a granola bar for breakfast and took a walk to take a break from the horror in our room. That is when I heard her from down in the courtyard. Poor thing! Everyone here has to think we are terrible parents. I have read several articles on bonding and attachment issues if for no other reason to remind us that we are not terrible parents, which by the way, we are not and I'll fight any man who might say otherwise. None of this process from the very beginning has been easy for our family, why should this stage in the journey be any different. As for me and my house - we are IN IT TO WIN IT!



On a brighter note, we did get to see the World Series game live this morning in our hotel room. It actually helped with the crying because we just (I just) pretended that it was one of those pretentious, uptight, Yankees fans who was crying because they were losing the ball game. No offense to any true Yankees fans that I know, but I don't think I know any - who would befriend a Yankees fan? Kidding again. Enough of that. What about the Angels? No, not the team the Yankees beat to get into the finals, but the Angels in the title of this post! Hold your horses, I am getting to that.



We made it down to the lobby to grab our usual grilled cheese sandwich and french fries from the bar area. This is the first time we have done it with Maya though - she was quite tolerant and seemed to enjoy the change in atmosphere. At 1:15pm, Trilok picked us up to take all of our paperwork to the US embassy to turn in. There, they review it and then call us to schedule a time to interview us so they can issue Maya's final travel Visa and ultimately, her citizenship upon touching down on US soil (even more technically when we enter US airspace).



When you check into the embassy, you go through rigorous security and have to leave your belts, watches, and bags behind - not a good system for bring babies into the place. We were seen almost immediately as for some reason American citizens are given precedence there. When I went to the window, and the lady looked at the 70 or 80 pages of our paperwork, there were things in there that were not correct, in spite of the fact that the entire paperwork packed had been checked over by more than one person at our adoption agency and then again by our liaison here. Go figure! Anyway, she was patient and gave me a second form to fill out. Our liaison had a template of the form already filled out "correctly" for me to look off of and copy onto our form, changing the information to match us of course. This template, from the adoption agency was - you guessed it again - WRONG! IN MORE THAN ONE SPOT!! I am less than pleased with that, but what do you do? She was very patient as I made corrections three separate times to the form. While all of this was going on, Staci was sitting out in the lobby area probably 60 feet away from where I was at. I heard her yell my name and say that she needed me immediately! It took me no time to spin away from the counter window where I was standing and move through Nepali's in the waiting area like an NFL lineman who had just intercepted the ball and was running for the game winning touchdown! In otherwords, there was some incidental body contact on my journey from the window to my daughter and bride. I got there and she had thrown up the most wonderful concoction of cheap Nestle formula, Heinz foreign blueberry and apple musil mix baby food, mango juice, and some miscellaneous cheerios and crackers. It was all over Staci's skirt, all over the carpeted floor, and all over Maya. I grabbed Maya and we headed for the bathroom. No paper towels!!! NO DIAPER BAG!!! Seeing what was going on, a guard officer left his post to bring us some paper towels to the restroom area. He knew there were none because it is a drug testing area. I was able to undress Maya and got her cleaned up as Staci cleaned herself up. Once clean, there was no way to mask the smell though. I don't think Yankee Candle Co will be contacting us for the rights to the scent. Oh, what we would have done for a yankee candle, or some yankee candle spray, or something....anything would have done. As Staci finished up, I went back to make my final corrections to the forms I was filling out. Staci sat back down and when she did, she ended up next to two American women who were familiar faces. We met them at the Nepal Ministry offices when we were there. They just happen to be here from an adoption agency scoping things out for the 10 families that they have waiting for 2010. They were VERY VERY nice to Staci and talked her through some of Maya's issues. They were knowlegable of her situation and was able to share with Staci some things to help in the process. These are the first people that we have talked to who understand what we are going through to the fullest. They were just what we needed. They asked Staci how things were going and she just broke down. They comforted her and gave us their card. Needless to say, we WILL be calling them and seeking their consultation in the rest of our process. They offered more help, experience, and advice in 5 minutes than we have received in our entire process. They were sympathetic to our situation and showed great sincerity which is something that I have longed for. Someone told me once that our organization was the very best at what they do, but they were "no hand holding organization". Out of all of the things in this world, what processes could a family need their hand held more than the one that we are in right now? All I will say is this. It felt really really good to have our hand held for a little while this afternoon by people who know AND care. They were our two angels for those of you hadn't guessed it yet. We left the embassy surprisingly refreshed, but that is only the beginning of our journey today.



We finally got to take Maya to the doctor! We have been asking now for three days to have her see a doctor. I am still not sure exactly what the delay was about, but that doesn't really matter now, just par for the course. We went to the hospital, rather than going to a clinic. Again, I am not sure exactly why, but at this point, I didn't really care. How to describe the hospital here....... Hmnnn........... Imagine if the "older wing" of the oldest hospital in the US that you can think of had survived a war being fought in that city. Now, imagine that someone pieced back together as many things as possible after it had been exposed to the elements for about a decade. That is a good start. Now imagine that all of the hospital beds and equipment were purchased from the original set of MASH the television program. Now you might have the imagery to fathom our environment, AND WE WERE GLAD TO BE THERE. Maya IS sick! As we went up some stairs and found our way to a rooftop, we went through an open door and there was the doctor. He saw her, listened and felt of her and then ordered an x-ray of her chest. The x-ray machine looked more like something that you would find at a local butcher shop, than at a hospital. No lead vest, nothing but holding Mayas arms down on the cold metal table as he took the picture. He developed it immediately, making other patients wait and gave us the print to take back up to the doctor. She has an infection in her lungs! DUHHHHHHH. We got some antibiotics and some liquid type Tylenol and a decongestant for her. The doctor gave us his room number and schedule and told us to bring her back if she didn't get better soon. The facilities were bad, but the doctors seemed very knowledgeable and helpful. What a blessing. Now to get the medicine. We went back down the stairs and crossed the dirt parking area/courtyard/holding area/blast zone/whatever to the shed that was the pharmacy. It looked like at one time it may have been one of those roadside firework stands on stilts. Keep in mind that at no time am I complaining about any of this, just trying to give you a good picture of where we were. They had two of the prescriptions, but sent us to another location to get the antibiotics. When we got there, Trilok let me out and gave me instructions to take in the medicines that we had along with the doctor's prescription hoping that the person in there would deduct what I needed. The person did, but didn't have it either! He told me I had to go to the company down the street. I must have had a defeated look on my face because he said "two minutes"....."you wait", and then he jumped over the counter and took off out the door. This man ran down the street, paid for the medicine with his own money and then came back and sold it to me. I thanked him profusely and then we were on our way back to the hotel where I sit now updating the blog. Poor Maya already has a medical record and an x-ray and we haven't even had her for three full days! Rest assured that we are taking care of her, with the help of some other wonderful Nepali people and two wonderful American Angels.



Please pray for little Maya, and our family. She is not well in mind, spirit, or body. We will write more when we can.

The trail of tears

Friends and Family,

We have internet problems here and can not call much, nor write much, but will try to do so whenever we can.

As our journey with Miss Maya continues, we have come to realize that she has SEVERE emotional and phsycological issues dealing with bonding and attachment - issues that were either previously unknown, or not disclosed to us. Maya cries unless she is sleeping, or eating, or in the car......and sometimes does not cry much when we are in public. On occasion, Staci can get her to stop crying for a few moments, but if she moves or breaths wrong, the crying starts up again. There is NOTHING that will console her. You can hear her cries from the far reaches of the hotel, and even out onto the courtyard pathway 3 floors below our room. I don't know what will come of all this, but Maya certainly has special needs and she needs some serious help.

We welcome your prayers, as they are much needed in this situation. We are supposed to go to the U.S. embassy today. They will take all of our paperwork and then conduct investigations into the adoption. Some of these processes go smoothly and some do not. Until tomorrow, may there be less tears and fears, and more stability. Only time will tell.

And then there were THREE!

Good morning everyone - well, it's our morning anyway,

Yesterday was a long day. Staci and I went to the local pizzaria "Fire and Ice" which is known in these parts and celebrated as some of the best pizza on the planet. An Italian woman opened it up almost 40 years ago and has been running it ever since. The topping choices are a little bit different, but what here isn't? It is pizza none-the-less. This is our second journey to this little Italian hole in the wall of heaven. We decided to venture out a little bit more and put some different toppings on our pizza. It was fine, but I think if we have the chance to go again we can make the perfect choice. Three's a charm right?

We had set out that morning to do some street shoping and end up at the pizza place and that is exactly what we did. We got some musical instruments from some street peddlers and did a fair job bargaining for them as well. Staci, YES STACI even joined in on the ritual of the street barter. With a little bit of help from our liaison who advised us to shoot for about half the asking prices anytime we bought something on the street, we were able to get some good deals.

Staci tends to be more drawn to the less pushy type seller. Once man walked up besider her on the street and pulled a wooden Elephant out of a duffle bag and asked her if she wanted it. She said no, but he was persistent. After a similar event a couple of nights before, Staci had the confidence to speak to him. I don't know what she said, I think it was something along the lines of "I don't like elephants, do you have a donkey?" Well, the man was taken back by this.......for a moment. Then he pulled out a horse with an eagerness to apeeze and a hope to sell something. Eventually we walked out of his territory and he went on his way yelling tomorrow...tomorrow then!

I was excited to get into the pizza place because I had discovered on our last journey that the sold mountain dew in the old school style glass bottles. I think I was looking more forward to that cool clean crisp citricy mountain dew than I was to the pizza! SWEET NECTAR OF LIFE!! I drank two of them.

When we got back to the hotel, there was a message at the front desk saying for us to call Trilok as soon as possible. We rushed up to the room to call him back. He said that he was on his way and that we were supposed to now be at the Ministry at the time we were originally supposed to leave the hotel!......and that he would be there in the next 15 minutes. This was dress up day, and we were NOT dressed up.....yet. We rushed to get ready and met him downstairs. We went to the orphanage to pick up Maya and a representative from the orphanage and headed to the ministry. We were late by about a half an hour. Trilok explained that was okay in Nepal. I explained that if we missed an appointment like this in the US that we might just be out of luck! This information would have been helpful when I was mad at our driver a few days ago for being an hour late to pik us up at the orphanage. Oh well.

Maya sat with Staci and was crying for about 2 minutes and then became enamored enough with her surroundings that she stopped crying. She didn't cry again until we were at the Ministry at which point she cried the whole time. She even cried in front of the final panel that approved to sign her over. This group of people were very gun shy about signing over a crying baby. Evidently, one of the other families from the US abandoned their child after signing such papers!! WOW!! Holt did not disclose this informatmion to us, but the Nepali government has no such reservations as they wanted to make sure that we would not act in a similar fashion. I still can not wrap my mind around it. That is crazy! I guess we passed the final test, because the next thing I know, we were being congratulated and ushered back into the original room where final paper work was signed. They took Staci's fingerprints and then gave us a copy of the final adoption decree. In an instant, two became three.

Maya continued to do well as we went to a market to purchase diapers, juice, formula, and a potty chair. They were out of the formula! Lactogen no.2 is popular I guess. It is a Nestle product and I do not prefer to purchase anything Nestle because of the scandle in the mid 90's where they disguised a money making scheme as a humanitarian effort in Africa and starved a bunch of children! You can google the information if you want more details about that event. It was not widely publicised, but caught enough ligitimate and real journalism that you can find out what happened should be curious now. A second market was also out of the Lactogen no.2 - plenty of no.1, but none of no.2.

We rushed from there to her doctors appointment at 4pm to get clearance for the embassy to issue her travel visa and citizenship paperwork. They took blood! Staci sat down with her and they pricked her finger. She only cried for about 15 seconds and then she was done! She did better than Staci does giving a blood sample!! We went back up to the doctor's office and he eventually saw her. At this point, our little girl was on our lap and again was fine. Trilok will go back for the paperwork as soon as they get the blood test results finished. Maya is very sick - running a fever and severely congested. We asked for the doctor there to see her for it, but he would not, he was only a person who could sign off on her, not a real doctor who could....or WOULD see her. Fine with us, but we needed some Tylenol to get her fever down. We ended up going to a hostpital to get it. having internet issues....will finish post later.

Today is the Day!

Remember to read the post right before this one as it is new as well. Two posts today, two different topics-

Dearest Friends and Family,

We are going to get dressed up in our Sunday duds today and go to the Ministry for the official "hand over" today from the Nepali government. We are leaving the Hotel at 1:30pm here which will be in the wee hours of the morning there. By the tim!e you wake up, we should have her!

It brings me comfort that going with us as our trusty liasion from the Holt organization just happens to be one the best and most prominate lawyers in the entire Country!

Pray for the handover event, but also pray for our trainsition time after the handover, and for our first night with Maya. She will probably still be sick and Staci and I both are fighting off whatever it is that the children have.

The next time I post, we will have our daughter!

The Act of Leaving

The act of leaving the orphanage was as tough as the forecast in our minds and hearts made it out to be. We spent some quality time with all of the kids. Maya is now sick with whatever ailment is going around. We thought she might escape it, but she had a fever yesterday and was not feeling well at all. It took one of the other children a couple of days to get over the sickness, so I imagine Maya will still be feeling bad today. With Maya not feeling well, it gave us more time to interact with the other children there. We played with and said our good byes to Lie-Lie, and to Rogeseri. It also allowed Maya's caretaker to spend some more time with Maya. She must have been feeling overwhelmed with bitter-sweet emotion knowing it was Mays's last day. I understood her telling Rogeseri that Maya was going to leave with us and that she would be riding in a plane and going a great distance. Rogeseri seemed to understand and stayed closer than usual to Maya for the rest of the time.

Right before we left, our liaison came into the orphanage and I asked him about taking the others with us too (I had to ask). He told me that was not possible and explained to me how the adoption selection process worked in the country. Not even the Ministry knows the placement process. It is all kept secret and is done in a sequence with 3 straight panels of selection members. Only after all three panels have seen and reviewed possible matches, does the final placement (Maya with Staci and I) go to the Ministry for final approval. He did say that expects to see us back there in 2011!!

Trilok was able to interpret for us, mainly Staci, as we talked to the caregiver and asked some final questions. We wanted to make certain that she understood our appreciation and respect that we had for her for taking care of those children, giving them her love, with no strings, knowing that she would be heartbroken to lose them time after time. She is a very special lady. As it was time to go her eyes filled with tears, undoubtedly tears of heatbreak and of happiness with no distinction between the two. The strangest thing happened with little Rogeseri. Once again, she knew what was going on. I don't know how, but I know for certain that she knew. We said our goodbyes and Rogeseri grabbed my hand, led us to the door, pointed outside to our shoes and pushed me out the door. She looked for a moment, and then turned, grabbed the hand of the caretaker, and led her back into the children's room. It was one of the sweetest things that I have every seen, or been a part of. I will miss that little child, but at least for now, she has her caretaker - and - her caretaker has her.

It was hard on Staci in the moments that followed, but I had already cried all my tears while writing the original blog. It seems that this is somewhat theraputic.....who would have guessed. I want to thank you all for reading these posts and for staying close to our family even as we are so far away from home. We appreciate and are encouraged by your comments and look forward to hearing from those of you who respond. We love you and we miss you.

2 years going on 16

Loved ones -

The blog entry is neither about Nepali culture, about our adventures in the streets, (though a blog is coming about that) nor is it about Maya. Today I want to tell you about a little two year old girl who is in the orphanage in the area that Maya is in. This little girl will pull on your heartstrings so hard that it will tear your heart right out of your chest.

Rojeseri (pronounced just as it is spelled here) is about 25 months old. Some of you who have seen pictures of Maya might recognize Rojeseri as one of the boys in the picture. They keep their hair cut short, but this kid is all girl! At two years of age, she is the oldest one in her section and has chosen her roll out of love, not necessity, though necessity is surely what has prompted her decision. She is not a typical two year old girl given to games and careless fun. She is a watchdog for the others, more than a big sister, yet not quite a mother. Rogeseri is the last to eat, to play, to drink, and to sleep. She does not talk much, but she understands the language and has the ability to assess a situation and create a functioning roll for herself in it. For example, in the beginning of our journeys to the orphanage, she realized quickly that her caretaker was trying to pursuade Maya to interact with us. This little girl would interact with Staci and I and then go over and get Maya, calling her by name and try to get her to mimick what was being done. When Maya would begin interaction, Rogeseri would quickly and selflessly move to the sidelines and observe. When we bring snacks for the children, Rogeseri may be the first to take a snack, but turns and feeds it to one of the other children. Once they all have some, she might take one for herself. One of the most obvious displays was when the caretaker told Maya in Nepali (we pick up on phrases etc) to go sit on Mamu's (moma's) lap. Rogeseri waited, observed Maya's reservation and then acted by tapping Maya on the shoulder, calling her by name and then going over and sitting on Staci's lap, then patting the other side motioning for Maya to come over. She knows where the cloth rags (diapers) are kept and how to fold them into diapers. She knows when the other children have to go to the bathroom and alerts as to that in order to help in the potty training process. She is amazing and it is not something that has been prompted or taught by her caregiver.

Make no mistake about it, this little girl wants the love and affection that she is giving up for the bennefit of the others. She is a lover. After the other children are finished and/or doing something else, she will come over and sit in our laps, let us hold her, and play with her. She smiles all the time and has an inner joy and peace about her that could only come from God. This little girl will probably never live a childhood, and may never know what a helper and influence that she is her situation. Staci and I will pray for her often and probably wonder how her life went, for the rest of ours. I just wish we could help her - I wish we could help them all. I don't want to leave her behind and know that it will break her heart when we take Maya with us, though something deep inside of me knows that she already knows that we are going to taker her which will be just another glad sacrafice - a deeper sacrafice - that she will make.

Today is the last day we will ever see her. We are getting Maya tomorrow - two days early. I want you to know that Maya is going to be okay. We are bringing her home with us and to all of you where she will be loved, and be "brought up the way she should go".

So today, this is my request for you - my earnest and honest plea. Do not pray for us. Do not pray for Maya. Please please direct your prayers for the little ones that we are leaving behind because I just don't know how we are going to walk away from there today.

A "splash" of progress

Greetings loved ones.

I will make this entry delightedly brief.

Yesterday, we went to see Maya at the orphanage. We were late because our driver didn't come to pick us up. I had a feeling this might happen because the day before, he called to the orphanage and said that he would be one hour late! I was not too happy about that because we had timed our progress with Maya based on an hour earlier. We saved our best till the end, and then figured out that we had 3 more innings yet to play!

We arrived at the orphanage almost two hours late, but still had plenty of time there. It was our best day there so far. We came and she was not displeased to see us. She was accepting when we offered her some wheat thin crakers that we brought with us. Of course we shared with the other children too. She seems to like things that are salty. We played ball, we played hide n go seek, and we looked at things on the wall. At one time, Staci even had her riding on my back as I was on all fours (only after one of the other children had done it and expressed great joy of course).

Our little Maya is an acrobat! We watched as she climbed inside of a small swining type crib and ballanced herself inside it. Then, she got on the rail of it balancing the whole time and THEN she turned around backward, facing out toward us and just swung back and forth and grinned. She even remained balanced as another little girl climbed up beside her on the rail and turned around too! There they were, the amazing toddling acrobats of Nepal..........I'm thinking maybe a branson show?? Just kidding.

All of this play and licking the salt of of all the wheat thins before handing them off to the other children has made Maya very thirsty. She discovers the water bottle in the side of my backpack and eagerly climbs in my lap to pursuade me that she should have some. So, I looked for approval from the caretaker and with a nod, I had the lid off and was pouring some into her mouth. Once again, sharing with others who wanted a drink. Maya was disatisfied with the technique she was using to drink and began to experiment with different ways to extract the water from the bottle. She decided on a full lips around the whole mouth of the bottle technique would be best for her. It was working out okay until she also decided that she should hold the bottle while inverting it in this way to drink. This is a similar technique to that which she uses with the sippy cups and bottles. All was well until she was finished with her drink and then pulled the bottle away from her lips. Well, the bottle was far from empty, and there was nothing to block it from spilling out all over her face and head. Before I could react, she had doused her entire face and head with water and was reeling from it! Staci and the caretaker were laughing so hard, they were not much help, so she had to turn to me. She was very taken back by this as you could imagine. She began to sputter and cough and rub her face in my chest. She frantically wiped at her face until she could see again. When she was finally able to catch her breath, she was very much finished with the water. She never cried once throughout the process. We took her wet clothes off and cleaned up the water. We discovered that she likes being shirtless and patted her belly with joy at her temporary freedom.

Can't wait to see what today has in store. As always. Thank you for the prayers - you are in ours. We love you!!

Marc and Staci

Nepali Culture, Food, and Living......an inside look

Greetings friends and family.

It is Thursday here and we are once again waiting to go and spend time at the orphanage. Yesterday we took miss Maya to get her passport picture taken. It was our first day without a guide or being with anyone who spoke English. We will spend the next four days in similar circumstances as our liaison is also a prominent lawyer here in Nepal. He is the lead person in a conference for......something and will be facilitating there today and tomorrow. People don't do much on Saturday and Sunday here, so we are on our own for a while. We will be going to the orphanage daily to see Maya. On Monday, we will be back in touch with our liaison and on Tuesday we will go to the Ministry here to have Maya "handed over" officially. Then she will come back with us. We are anxious to interact with her in an environment that is not so diminished and controlled. The orphanage is what it is and they have taken great care of Maya so far. We are very grateful to them for the work they do. The only sad thing will be leaving the other children behind. They are all wonderful and we would take them all if we could.

Shifting gears back to Tuesday night. We were the lucky recipients of a welcome meal from the Holt organization over here. It was a little bit awkward because we were the only family over here to be welcomed, and there is only one Holt worker over here - you guessed it, who just happens to also be the same person who is our liaison. It was just the three of us.

I could not have imagined there being anyone else, but the way he and Holt made it sound, it was going to be quite the ordeal. I am sure that it was when there were four other families here plus other Holt representatives from the US. We were neither let down, nor relieved when we found out it was just going to be the three of us. One good thing is that there would be less people there to judge my picky eating habits and Staci's queasy stomach. One bad thing is that they would become a whole lot more noticeable.

He came to pick us up at the Hotel at 7:00pm. Everything looks very different at night. The dangerous traffic situation becomes amplified as vision is decreased and limited to headlights, car horns, and human silhouettes passing by in the darkness. The restaurant where we ate was exclusively Nepali cuisine and was in a large building that was over 150 years old. We learned that the mansion we were in used to be one of the Kings' palace. Our Hotel is across from "the king's palace". It turns out that different Kings stayed in different locations as they wished.

As we came up the stairs, we took off our shoes and places them in a hallway with many other shoes, though none seemed quite as big as my size 14's. Some of the older children at the orphanage seemed to take notice of the size of my shoes as I looked out the door and saw two boys struggling to lift them over their heads in some sort of boyish feat of strength. I said in a calm and teasing voice - "Hey, those are my shoes." They dropped them and ran off. Back to the restaurant though. When we entered, we went through many rooms of people dining and were greeted by many people with the traditional praying hands short bow that they use as a greeting here. It is sometimes awkward to greet someone here, especially a man, as their custom is to do the bow. They do not touch in their greetings, yet when they see that I am American, they know that we shake hands and many of them welcome the chance to get to do so. I never know what to expect, so I have both mediums of greeting ready at all times.

I realize that I am tall - in some places taller than others, but when we walked into the restaurant, something was out of proportion, even for me. Everyone was sitting on the ground! IN CHAIRS!! It was as if someone took and cut the legs off of a traditional dining chair and left the seat and seat back there. The tables were also cut down to a height of no more than 12 inches. Being seated was a show in itself as people watched me coil my body down under this tiny table and tried to stabilize myself in this chair. I thought to myself in Jesus' time, they reclined to eat meals and in Nepal, they sat in partially constructed chairs and ate at half tables. No problem! (Deep Breath) In-the-meantime, our liaison and Holt welcome team (of one) excused himself to freshen up for dinner. We were exposed like an escaped convict caught in a spotlight. Two men rushed to our table and poured liquid into tiny silver cups that looked like candle stick holders (no more than a half of an ounce) from steaming silver teapots. Their pouring motion started close to the cup and then ended high, maybe 3 and a half feet, above the cup without spilling any of it. Very impressive! The drink itself was less than impressive however! It was some kind of boiling lemony 90% proof alcohol! The smell hit us like a ton of bricks bombarding our noses! IT was awful and unavoidably potent. Ammonia fumes have NOTHING on whatever this was. Trilock came back from the restroom and noticed the lemon fire bearers had been to our table. This lead to the most amazing opportunity - a God moment.

He asked us about what we wanted to drink besides this stuff. I told him that we didn't drink alcohol. He seemed floored by this. His eyebrows raised and his voice heightened as he continued to ask, "never"? I said no, that we never drink, drank, or will drink. He hesitantly continued and asked why. I was able to tell him that drinking was not a part of the Godly lifestyle that we were trying to live. He asked what religion, what God. I said "The God". He asked if our parents drank, and I proudly told him no. He shared with us that he did not drink either, and that he had never drank, and never would drink. He said that it was rare that he EVER ran across someone like this and instantly a bond was made and a mutual respect was formed. He said that he had studied religions in his schooling. It was something that he was very interested in. He went on to talk about the good that he tried to take from all of the religions that he had studied, but there were just some that there didn't seem to be any good in, though he did not name them by name. It was a great conversation. If any of you want to know the details, just ask and I will be happy to share them with you. Needless to say when we ordered drinks, he ordered a Nepali type soft lemon drink and Staci and I both ordered SPRITE. YES good ole American Sprite! The perfect anictdote to wash down any foreboding flavor!

I was crossing my fingers as the first dishes came out. They were to serve every Nepali traditional food in several courses in sequences that they called "sets". The first dish was popcorn. A handful of popcorn on a small silver plate the size of an ash tray. I told him Americans ate this with butter and salt when they went to see movies, or sporting events like baseball. The concept alluded our host so we moved on. The second dish consisted of some potatoes. They looked like normal peeled, cut, boiled then broiled potatoes. I was excited as I took a bit. Then the cumin, curry, and ??? other native unidentifiable flavors hit me. I ate one more and looked forward to the next dish. It was some kind of bean soup. I was very worried when I thought that I heard Trilock (our host) say that it was "fish eyes" - LOOK OUT! WE JUST ENTERED SOME KIND OF INDIANA JONES MOVIE NIGHTMARE!!! Staci and I eventually decided that he was trying to say pea size, not fish eyes, as the items in the bowl were not peas or fish. They were very small and assorted beans, though the fish eyes mishap was a curve ball that added an extra caution to the rest of the meal.

The courses of the meals were accompanied by traditional Nepali dances. A group of musicians came in playing native instruments - flute, box organ (accordion like) bells, tambourine, drums, cymbals, and voices. Each dance had one male and one female dancer who were dressed in tradition to the hilt. In the two hours we were there, we saw four traditional dances. Each had different music, different beats, and different dress. It was nice to be able to sit there and soak up some of their culture. These are the things that we will be able to share with Maya someday.

We finished up the meal with main courses of rice, something they called chicken, and other assorted meats and vegetables including small pieces of fried fishes, and a spinach type concoction. The chicken was foreign and the reason is - I think that it was goose meat as I saw many dead featherless gooses hanging from shop windows on the streets! Oh well, I was able to try many of the things and Staci ate some other things. All in all, we survived the native cuisine and had a good time, even if it was just the three of us. Pastor Josh - Staci and I ask that you consider that our "lifegroup" meeting for the month!

Once we venture out into the city on foot in the next couple of days, I am sure that we will have more to write about the culture and daily lifestyle. Until then, we wish you well, and our prayers are with you!

Dodging Darts BUT! Settling in.

Staci and I woke up this morning feeling more settled and prepared to conquer the day. It is currently 9:45 am here in Nepal. I will try to give a good update from the last blog.

Our flight into Kathmandu was lovely. May I just say that the airline that we were on is the complete opposite of the airlines that operate domestic flights back home in the US - and I mean that in a good way! The service is wonderful and airline staff treat people with respect and kindness. That was a welcome change from the airport a LAX.

The mountains were spectacular. I have never seen anything like it, and the pictures don't do them justice. As we were flying in, we could see the cloud floor below us, and out in front of us AND ABOVE US, ABOVE THE CLOUDS, we could see the mountains. We could not see the ground, and we could not see the bottom of the mountains. For those of you who have been to the Rockies, it would be like if you took the mountain range and elevated the base of the mountains to cloud level. We are truly and quite literally on top of the world.

Time moved backward by decades the moment we landed at the airport here. There was one airstrip. Entering the terminal was like something that seemed more 195's train station, than international airport. The ammenities were something that you might find in a busy post office in the late 50's! No more computers, no more technology, only hand written forms picked up from old round wooden and glass tables. Fill the form out, stand in the line, and get our travel VISA. That easy, that quick. We were in and out in 15 minutes or less. There were two monitor screens in the whole airport with flight information. They looked like a small television set that one might pick up at a garage sale in the late 80's. All of this, and yet things functioned handily - hmmmmnn - imagine that.

After our luggage was lost in LA, we were worried about it, but it all came out the pike, and on the conveyer. We walked outside the airport and were told to look for someone holding a sign with the name of our hotel on it. There he was, good as clockwork, with the sign across a busy street. I made eye contact with him and that was all it took. He began yelling and a small man made a mad dash across the street and took over our cart of baggage. From there is was like frogger crossing our way over. I was worried about the man as he couldn't see over the top of the cart piled high with 8 bags! He managed not to get hit, but soon faced a second challenge. The rout to our van was down a steep decline and he got going to fast to stop the cart. As he was hurling down the hill, right past our van, skiing behind the cart, two more men helped him stop and steer the cart back to the van. I tipped him and he went running away to do it all over again with someone else.

To get to the hotel, we traveled through the heart of Kathmandu. My heart sank as the poverty was overwhelming. The mission trip in 08 to El Salvador didn't even hold a candle to what we saw. We have yet to journey out from our hotel, but that is on our list of things to do this week. When we got to the hotel, people were there ready for us. They finished getting our room ready and we went up to put our things away. The people here are very friendly and very helpful. In no time they had a baby bed brought into the room and set up for us. The room was different than wha either of us had expected, but you know how it is when you imagine something in your mind, it is most always different. It was very hot in our room, so they brought in a repair person to look at the AC. He said it was fine and left, but the heat kept rising - we would not complain, but it must have been about 85 degrees in there with no air movement. I got to know that mainanance man because I blew a breaker, a big breaker, trying to plug this computer into the wall so, he was back again to fix that. We ended up switching rooms to a cooler room the next morning, and I blew the breaker in that room too!! He smiled as he came through the door, I am sure wondering how many different rooms we were going to be destroying the electrical system in. Needless to say, as I am writing this, we obviously got the problem figured out.

The biggest shocker came the afternoon of our first day. Our liaison here called us in our room and said that we were going to go see Maya and that he would be in the lobby in 10 minutes to take us. TEN MINUTES!!! WE JUST GOT FINISHED WITH A MARATHON 26 HOUR TWO PLANE FLIGHT......AND WE WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO ANYTHING UNTIL TOMORROW MORNING. Of course we scrambled to change and get ready and met him in the lobby. He is a very nice and personable man who speaks moderate English. He took us to the orphanage. Hearts in our throats, we met the staff there and waited to see Maya. When they brought her in......words can't describe. Being emotionally mentally and phisically drained, there is nothing but raw experience and feeling left. I am not sure which "tank" we were operating off of at that time, but none that I had ever delved into before. Maya was less thrilled to see us than we were to see her. We were strange and different. Aliens to her I am sure. I don't think that she has seen many strangers, and may have not traveled outside of the orphanage. She is used to a couple of care takers and that is it - that is all that she has ever known. She sobbed as Staci held her which was tramatic for all of us. Then, we went upstairs to where she lives, to a place more familiar to her. We saw many children and met the children that she lives with on a daily basis. She stayed very close to her caretakers and was skiddish. By the end of the time there, we had made some slow progress and I got to hold her without her crying as she was elevated to a height in the room that she had never been before and was curious about touching the things that she had always looked at on the wall. We got a few smiles and she reached out for us as we left.

The next day we spent more time at the orphanage. When we arrived, she was sleeping. When she came into the room where we were from her nap, she was less than pleased to see us....again. "what were these people doing back here - two days in a row!" Progress was slow and there were more tears. It actually made us feel better to see some others from the orphanage try to touch her and pick her up. She didn't want them either - only her caretaker. We made some progress by working and playing with some of the other kids. One girl is two years old and knows and loves Maya and calls out her name. She was eager to meet and interact with us. Through interacting with her, and some food Maya likes, we were able to sit down and get closer to Maya, feeding her with our fingers. Eventually she found her way to Staci's lap with smiles and joy. The trust is starting! Staci was plenty happy about this, and I got some pictures with Maya in Staci's lap. We will try to post later tonight. We are getting ready to go to the orphanage again. This time for five hours.

We will see what the day holds. We will update again soon and tell you more about Nepali culture and our experience with it last night. Please feel free to skype us if you have skype at marcandstaci. We can call, or video call from there. You can leave voice messages there as well.

Until then......thank you for your prayers as you are in ours.

Marc and Staci.

It is Monday morning in Bankock and we are waiting on our connecting flight into Kathmandu Nepal. I have been a few places, but I have never been this far away from home before. Outside from outer space, I am not sure one can get any further from home than we are now. Home - that word takes on new meaning for us now. Some people say home is where the heart is. In that case, we are torn in two. Home is back with all of you, but it is also with Maya. Actualy, is isn't quite that complicated. Staci and I said from day one that home is, and always would/ will be ANYWHERE that we were together as long as we were in God's perfect will. That is the end of it - who could argue with that. I guess when Staci comes back from the restroom that we will be "home" again by that definition.

We will write more later. Until then - God Bless and keep you all....and thank you for the prayers.

Leavin' On A Jet Plan

Greetings from LA! We made it in last night after a rocky start to our trip. God has been very gracious to us though. Our flight was delayed leaving Springfield, so we had 25 minutes from the time the plane landed in Denver to get across the airport and board our connecting flight to LA. We made it but our luggage didn't. We were able to get our luggage today at LAX and everything is in tact, so like we said - God has richly blessed us.

Please continue to pray for our health, our luggage, our remaining flights, and of course Miss Maya and her transition time. We fly out of LA tonight to Thailand, then take a connecting flight to Kathmandu.

We would like to thank everyone for the calls, well wishes, coming to airport to see us off, and most importantly for your prayers. We are so truly blessed.

When we post again, we'll be in Kathmandu! :)

We finally have a blog!

Hello! Thank you all for being patient; we finally have a blog. We are so excited that you are able to follow our trip as we get Maya and bring her home. We leave in two short weeks and there is still so much to do.

If you wouldn't mind, please reply with a "Hi!" so that we can work out the kinks here in the States.

Thanks!

Marc and Staci